OxfordPress.com

By CHRISTY LEMIRE
The Associated Press

But really, it's "Star Wars" set in the world of motorcycle racing, with a young upstart battling the established veteran for supremacy. It's not a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away; it's now, in Los Angeles. And instead of dueling with light sabers, these guys just beat each other bloody on the pavement — when revving their engines at 170 mph fails to satisfy their primal urges.

But there's a "Star Wars"-style paternity twist that comes about halfway through, which you can anticipate from the opening credits. You half-expect an episode of "The Jerry Springer Show" to break out.

Derek Luke stars in the Luke Skywalker role as Kid, a teenager who's itching to race but must bide his time as a "prospect" in the Black Knights motorcycle club.

His father (Eriq La Salle), a respected motorcycle mechanic who functions as an Obi-Wan Kenobi figure, dies early in the film during a stunningly graphic racing accident.

Six months later, Kid (who's as sullen and cocky as the character Luke plays in "Antwone Fisher") returns to take on Smoke (Laurence Fishburne), our Darth Vader, who's the leader of the Black Knights. Kid's dad worked for Smoke, and he always resented seeing him follow Smoke around — that's Kid's alleged motivation.

Director and co-writer Reggie Rock Bythewood, in his first studio feature, doesn't have a whole lot of time for finesse, although with a running time nearing two hours, "Biker Boyz" is too long for a mindless racing flick.

Remarkably, for a movie that's about racing, Biker Boyz is neither fast nor furious. It meanders through a series of minor brawls and races, leading up to The Big Race, in which Kid challenges Smoke's title as "The King of Cali."

Between training for the showdown and forming his own gang, the Biker Boyz — a multicultural crew consisting of Stuntman (Brendan Fehr) and Primo (Rick Gonzalez) — Kid finds time to woo the tantalizing tattoo artist Tina (Meagan Good), who's lovely, but with whom he has all the sparks of an engine backfiring.

His scenes with his mother, Anita (Vanessa Bell Calloway of "The Brothers"), are far more engaging. She's tough, sexy and funny, and she's the only one who can put Kid in his place.

Kid Rock shows up in a few scenes as the leader of the rival Stray Dogs club, and Lisa Bonet pops up even less frequently as a biker chick and Smoke's sporadic love interest.

But "Biker Boyz" is more about stunt riding than stunt casting, and the tricks get repetitive — you see one wheelie, you've seen them all. Bythewood's propensity for lowering the camera to the ground and spinning it 360 degrees isn't just annoying, it's almost nauseating.

And his often laugh-out-loud dialogue, which he co-wrote with Craig Fernandez, consists of lines like, "Burn rubber, not your soul."

That must be the bikers' version of "May the Force be with you."