“Free Style” is a bet that Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens aren’t the only stars from the “High School Musical” phenomenon who can carry their own projects.
The top-liner here is Corbin Bleu, the second-banana guy from “HSM,” playing a kid in a small Washington town who dreams only of snagging a spot on the national motocross racing team.
There is something unusual about this small Washington town … and no, not just because it was filmed in British Columbia. The really odd coincidence is that three of the country’s top motocross riders are all here, contending for that one remaining slot on the national team.
A screenwriter’s convenience? How cynical we’ve become. One of the riders is Cale Bryant (Bleu), and with a name like Cale Bryant, it sounds like the motocross thing is just a stepping-stone to career in NASCAR.
The other two are Cale’s best bud and his worst enemy, as luck would have it. But the motocross shot is far from Cale’s only worry: His mother is struggling, his girlfriend is losing interest and he’s about to summon up the nerve to go visit the father who walked out on the family years earlier.
Cale’s mother is played by Penelope Ann Miller, which seems impossible, since it was only yesterday Miller was doing ingenue roles. (Huh? “Carlito’s Way” was 1993, you say? Good grief.)
There’s even more going on, when Cale begins seeing a waitress (Sandra Echeverria) whose father owns the local Mexican restaurant. In fact, there’s so much plot in this slim movie, there isn’t much room to relax.
Director William Dear is a specialist in nice-guy fare like “Harry and the Hendersons,” and he makes this cliched material more bearable than it probably deserves to be. At least the drizzly, muddy locations are a change from the usual Southern California setting, and the racetrack jumps and skids are all right.
Bleu projects the likable energy that explains his “High School Musical” appeal, while still seeming sort of weightless, like a kid in a TV commercial who only needs to make an immediate impression in 30 seconds. “Free Style” lasts 90 minutes, of course, which presents something of a problem for actor and audience alike.
“Free Style” 1/2
“High School Musical” second banana Corbin Bleu stars in this dippy tale of a young Washington state lad who dreams only of joining the national motocross racing team. Many boring complications get in the way, interrupted occasionally by rounds of muddy racing.
Rated: PG for subject matter
Showing: Alderwood Mall, Everett, Meridian, Thornton Place
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