Susan Granger’s review of “Supercross” (20th Century-Fox)
Unless you’re obsessed with danger-laden dirt biking, what an idiotic waste of time this is! Essentially, it’s a 93-minute commercial for the testosterone-driven sport of Supercross, which is explained ad nauseam so you don’t confuse it with Motocross. In this extreme exercise, motorcycle racers compete, primarily indoors, on dirt tracks laden with perilously high jumps. So there are these Carlyle brothers, K.C. (Steve Howey) and Trip (Mike Vogel), who clean pools to earn enough money to make their way to the Supercross circuit. K.C.’s more cautious and dependable, while Trip’s a foul-tempered risk-taker. Guess who gets the Japanese corporate sponsorship, even if it is as backup to Rowdy Sparks (Channing Tatum)? And what happens when one gets hurt and everything depends on the other? Meanwhile, back in the grandstands, K.C.’s got Zoe (Sophia Bush), an aspiring attorney, while Trip’s involved with Piper (Cameron Richardson), a sexy, blonde babe who also competes on the racing circuit. Her dad (Robert Patrick from “Terminator 2”) even helps the daredevil guys out when the chips are down – or their rubber is peeled, so to speak. Then there’s the nasty, greedy racing promoter (Robert Carradine). They form the competing father-figures. Displaying not a single shred of original insight on the topic of sibling rivalry, Ken Solarz, Bart Baker and Keith Alan Bernstein scribbled the flimsy, predictable retread, directed by former stuntman/Motocross racer Steve Boyum, who concentrates on the obtaining maximum celluloid footage of the dirt bikes soaring through the air before slamming into the mud. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Supercross” sputters in with an abysmal 1, spinning its wheels.
