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'Supercross' gets more than just the racing right

"Supercross" is everything you expect from a California motorcycle racing movie. Thankfully, it's also a little more.

Clearly, no one told the filmmakers that actors in a motocross movie are inconsequential. Characters are typically nothing but window dressing — sweaty, scantily clad, hardbody intermissions between motorcycle jumps. Because it's all about the bike, the people aren't supposed to matter.

Twentieth Century Fox 'Supercross' B The verdict: All the action scenes you expect along with characters who'll grow on you. Director: Steve Boyum Starring: Steve Howey, Mike Vogel, Sophia Bush, Cameron Richardson, Aaron Carter Run time: 92 minutes Release date: August 17, 2005 Rating: PG-13 for language and some sexuality. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime [an error occurred while processing this directive]

But against all odds, they do. And that elevates "Supercross" above mediocrity.

That, and the dazzling race scenes that you expect.

The latter are a credit to the quarter century that director Steve Boyum spent performing and coordinating movie stunts. A motocross racer himself, the LA native broke into film directing only a few years ago, inauspiciously, with the Disney dud "Meet the Deedles," which drew on Boyum's surfing credentials. (Dude, he is from LA.)

Boyum doesn't skimp on the action. You don't have to be a motocross fan to appreciate the stunts in this movie — or to wonder how on earth the cinematogapher managed to get some of these shots without sporting tread marks. The race sequences do credit to the genre.

And they move along an otherwise ordinary plot:

Brothers KC and Trip (Steve Howey, Mike Vogel) support their racing habit by cleaning pools until older brother KC is tapped to ride with a motorcycle manufacturer's team. This leaves the impetuous younger brother to accept an offer from the father of his feisty, cute, blonde girlfriend (Cameron Richardson) to race as a "privateer" and challenge the big company teams. When a nasty crash — instigated by one of the circuit's bad boys — ends Trip's career, big brother must race in his place in the "Supercross" championship against his former company team.

Guess who wins.

OK, so there's not much in the way of plot here. The dialogue isn't classic literature, either. ("Yeah, right.") And none of the cast is going to earn an Academy Award nomination on this one.

So why, as the movie moves to its inevitable conclusion, do we still care about these characters? Maybe its because they seem so comfortable with their roles that they give the story, such as it is, an air of believability. The cast seems to know what this movie is: It's California, Gen-X, X-Games to the max, man.

The motorcycle races are this film's raison d'être. Rather than competing with them, the cast rides along, making "Supercross" a solid summer action flick.