Film Review: Need for Speed

I was conflicted about seeing this movie

I still think it's way to soon for any car racing movie to be made (RIP Paul Walker, the hottest, bad actor ever), but if Jessie Pinkman I mean Aaron Paul is in a movie and I get to hear him talk for 90+ minutes, I could be persuaded. Especially with free tickets and a free ice cream and a free coke.

Need for Speed is an adaptation of the Need for Speed video games series, starring Aaron Paul, Dominic Cooper, Imogen Poots and Michael Keaton. Paul stars as Tobey Marshall, a former race car driver who owns an upstate New York garage, where he and his friends tune performance cars.

After Tobey races his rival Dino (Cooper) where his friend Little Pete is killed, Tobey is charged with manslaughter and Dino escapes involvement, even though the crash that killed Pete was his fault.

Tobey spends some time in lockup, and upon his release he gathers the old crew to race Dino at some secret race avenge Little Pete's death.

Fill that story line with fast cars, some hot girl, one liners and a voice over by Michael Keaton, you've got Need for Speed the movie.

I know nothing about how cars work so I'm not going to go into how realistic or not the racing scenes are (absolutely ridiculous if my friend was anything to go by, but he didn't like Fast and Furious either so what does he know).

The only thing that really bothered me (as it does in many films) is how cops and other civil servants are just collateral damage. They'll race, get all upset when one of their mates die, yet when they flip a police car or crash into a policeman, they just keep driving! Like the cops are just in the way of their, you know, illegal street racing?!?

The acting isn't so great, I have to say. Aaron Paul is just not action movie leading man material in my opinion, and, the reason being, is because he's too short. And he's too baby face to pull off that strong silent menace type that his character was supposed to be. And he wore skate shoes. Wtf.

The rest of the characters were written like they were pulled from stock. I can't even remember any of their names.

There was the funny one, the crazy one liner black guy who just happened to have access to a military helicopter, the staunch muscly one, and the hot girl just happens to know everything about car engines but needs to be rescued by the protagonist. Oh, and the villain who is just pure evil. Yeah ok.

The plot is absolutely preposterous. These poor guys who run a car shop in some middle of nowhere town just happen to be the best at what they do, yet stay in the crappy car shop in some middle of nowhere town because… not sure.

Then they all happen to have no regard for the law at all, all the policemen are hopeless and can't catch them as they drive across the country, the car dives into banks and off cliffs and gets shot at yet it doesn't fall apart and no one gets hurt, and of course the main guy wins the big race at the end because bad guys never win in movies.

So if you're looking for authenticity and a fresh new storyline, look elsewhere. Go watch Fast and Furious and get involved in that cult following.

If you're looking for what I believe is like a bad therefore awesome action movie with cars, give it a go. Give it a go anyway because there is absolutely nothing good out at the moment anyway.

Rating: 2.5/5