DIRECTOR: Scott Waugh; LEAD CAST: Aaron Paul, Dominic Cooper, Imogen Poots, Ramon Rodriguez, Michael Keaton SCREENWRITER: George Gatins PRODUCER: John Gatins, Patrick O’Brien, Mark Sourian EDITOR: Paul Rubell, Scott Waugh MUSICAL DIRECTOR: Nathan Furst CINEMATOGRAPHER: Shane Hurlbut; GENRE: Action and Adventure; DISTRIBUTOR: Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture; Running Time: 130 mins
Technical Assessment: 2
Moral Assessment: 2.5
CINEMA Rating: V18
Tobey Marshall (Aaron Paul) is a mechanic by day and an underground
street racer by night. The basic plot has Marshall traveling cross country from
New York to California to take part in an underground race set up by a guy
named Monarch (Michael Keaton). Marshall
has forty-something hours to get to California in order to participate in the
race. He manages Marshall Motors Garage, a sinking business his father put up. One day, Dino, (Dominic Cooper) an old
acquaintance, asks Tobey to assemble an unfinished Ford Mustang originally
designed by legendary car customizer Carroll Shelby and offers him 25% of the
selling price. Being deep in debts, Tobey agrees despite his crew’s hesitation.
However during the post-auction
race, Dino runs Tobey’s best friend, Little Pete (Gilberston) off the road to
his death and frames Tobey for the crime. After serving two years in prison for a crime he did not
commit, Tobey decides to avenge his fate and his friend’s death through an
underground winner take all race wherein only selected drivers are invited.
Tobey gets together his old Marshall Motors crew and Julia (Poots) to condition
another Mustang and give Dino a taste of his own medicine. Their cross-country adventure from New
York to California and their actual participation takes up most of the running
time of the movie.
Let’s talk about the more tolerable part of the film first. The
performances are blandly boring and there is just no chemistry between the male
and female romantic leads. While Cooper’s Dino delivers some texture, it does
so in a clichéd villainy fashion. As an action film it does deliver enough to
reach the classification but barely keeps the audience awake and sane with its
ever so slow pacing and ridiculous stunts. Cinematography, and car race sequence
choreography, despite being on point fails to bring home a maximum impact
because of the very thin storyline. Now for the killer: Need for Speed made lame attempts to anchor characters and scenes
from other successful movies (e.i Smokey
and the Bandit, Speed Racer, Fast and the Furious) but nowhere did it come
close in chemistry, wisdom or sensuality to sell the plot. The story is poorly
constructed and the script even more pathetic. For a franchise off a popular
high-adrenalin video game with a sure following, Need for Speed is a very big disappointment.
How many people have met their untimely demise because of irresponsible
egoistic drivers who care not for anyone’s safety? Other race movies try to
justify its existence with a good soul of a hero who is just so talented at
racing and may have been forced to ignore safety rules for the greater good.
But Need for Speed, perhaps because
it is based on a video game with no responsibility to deliver a rational
storyline, neglects every rule of story telling and just throws in an
identifiable hero, a lot of expensive cars and even more crashes and speed. It
is simply offensive to see how it puts bystanders at risk—and such carelessness
is glorified. More disturbing is the fact that the offenders were merely given
a slap on the wrist by the police when they were arrested. Impressionable
teenagers, who are more likely also supporters of the video game, will get the
wrong message about safety, concern for others and getting away with it.
