Sooner or later, actresses of every ability have to face an awful truth: somewhere in their future resume is a coming of age sports movie that needs a mom. This fact is as inevitable as shifting interest rates and that dirty feeling a new Steve Martin movie gives you.
Penelope Ann Miller has been smacked in the chops by that redefining moment. The new film: motocross action/drama Free Style, once called Metal Birding (an infinitely more suggestive title, at least) and once directed by Jeff Woolnough. Angels in the Outfield helmer William Dear is now calling the shots, which include telling Miller to be a little less convincing as the single mom of a motocross racer.
Also in the flick is High School Musical alum and best thing in the cafeteria line ‘Chicken’ Corbin Bleu, actual motorcross racer Grant Langston and sultry Sandra Echeverria, playing girlfriend to the entrée. This movie was always in Bleu’s future — he does look like a casting agent’s version of Tony Alva — but it doesn’t have to be in yours.