Need for Speed - Review

Director: Scott Waugh Writer: George Gatins Studios: DreamWorks Pictures, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, Reliance Entertainment, Electronic Arts, Bandito Brothers Cast: Aaron Paul, Imogen Poots, Scott Mescudi, Dominic Cooper, Ramon Rodriguez, Michael Keaton Release Date (UK): March 12, 2014 Certificate: 12A Runtime: 130 min

And here I thought we’d finally got a good movie based on a video game; turns out “Need for Speed” can’t even top the two best entries in video game-to-movie history, the equally lousy “Prince of Persia” and “Silent Hill” — hardly towering hurdles to leap over, but like a drunk driver trying to avoid a parked car, “Need for Speed” crashes straight into them. Taking its name from the massively popular EA street racing series, Scott Waugh’s action-thriller arrives with promises that it’s a proper old-school actioner with proper old-school stunts and proper old-school action throwbacks; indeed, all of the high-speed mayhem appears to be practically filmed and indeed, early on in the film, the classic ‘60s thriller “Bullitt” is seen playing at a drive-in movie theatre. But although its stunts sure are impressive, this frankly feels like a cheap “Fast and Furious” wannabe. Any gamer going into “Need for Speed” expecting the full-throttle exhilaration of the video game racing series will instead be treated with a film that’s merely diverting in fits and starts.

The problem isn’t Aaron Paul — though this is certainly a step down from his iconic role as Jesse Pinkman in “Breaking Bad,” he has the brooding charm down pat — nor is it the action; in a genre dominated by computer-generated imagery, it’s refreshing seeing an action blockbuster which keeps things wholly practical. The problem is the script, whose characters are so thinly drawn that Scott Mescudi’s character may as well be called “laughing black man in helicopter” and Rami Malek’s character “man who walks around naked for no discernible reason.” Also, the pacing: the story, a rather inert tale of revenge, takes far too long to kick into gear and when it finally does the film moves along at an awfully languid pace. Surprising, considering the title, which after viewing becomes riddled with irony: what should be a fast and furious b-movie has a serious need for speed, plodding along for over two hours, with only some neato driving stunts to hold our attention. This begs the question, will there ever be a good movie based on a video game or will the curse prevail forever? Duncan Jones’ “Warcraft,” you must lift this curse once and for all.

Rating: 5/10