Free Style (film)
Free Style is a 2008 coming-of-age film about an 18-year-old young man (Corbin Bleu), who is devoted to his family, and finds love and himself in his quest to win the Amateur National Motocross Championship.[2] Mike Hale of The New York Times noted that the film initially sets itself up as being "jumpy, noisy, cheerful, a sort of "High School X-Games Musical."[3] S. Jhoanna Robledo of Common Sense Media said that despite Bleu's efforts with the movie's "heavier themes" and having "poignant" scenes with Pettis, she felt the plot was "better suited for an after-school special than a big-screen treatment."[4] Elizabeth Weitzman of the New York Daily News wrote that: "Though the film deserves credit for its depiction of economic hardship, almost everything else is handled clumsily."[7] Entertainment Weekly writer Adam Markovitz gave the film a "D+" grade, criticizing Bleu's performance for being "bland and painfully earnest" and felt the formulaic plot "unfolds just the way you think it will…until the climax turns out to be even cheesier than you feared.