When we meet Taylor Lautner’s bike messenger character, Cam, he’s barreling through Midtown in a way that’ll strike fear — or at least serious annoyance — into every New Yorker who’s almost been mowed down by one of them. But director Daniel Benmayor finds a kinetic joy in Cam’s sprint — until his collision with the comely Nikki (Marie Avgeropoulos), who’s leaping through the streets like a webless Spider-Man.
Nikki becomes the cash-strapped Cam’s entry into the subculture of parkour — which involves ricocheting your body off any available surface — and a gang using it for criminal ends. Riffing on the “Point Break” formula, Benmayor has Cam getting in too deep with the gymnastic thieves and their guru, Miller (Adam Rayner), who’s fond of sayings like, “The obstacles are not out there, they’re in your head.”
Like Cam, “Tracers” is fun to look at, if not too bright, and even includes a line I can only assume is a winking reference to Lautner’s claim to fame: “There can only be one alpha in every pack.”