Need For Speed

Electronic Arts couldn't start their film career off right

Our story follows Tobey Marshall (Aaron Paul), a street racer that never got the opportunity to go to the professional circuit and spends his days street racing or fixing cars. Following the death of his father he is given an opportunity to make a large amount of money when an old acquaintance shows back up, another racer that actually went professional by the name of Dino Brewster (Dominic Cooper).  After the deal between them is complete Tobey manages to ruffle Dino's feathers and ends up being challenged to a race; unfortunately, a young and plucky friend of Tobey's is also dragged into the race and gets killed by Dino. Tobey is sent away as the suspected murderer and spends his time in jail awaiting his chance for revenge. Of course, (since this is a racing movie) the only option for revenge is to beat the real killer in a race.

Okay, so this movie is a ridiculous piece of garbage. Let's start my reasoning (how we usually do) with the story line. The story line is probably the biggest component that drives this movie down a dark path (racing pun). I don't think the writers actually get how police work is supposed to go. There are a lot of plot holes in the logic that these police officers were presenting. I won't spoil anything for you (in case you are some sort of sadist and feel the need to see this movie in theaters), but let's just say there will be a lot of moments where you are asking yourself "seriously, what the hell?" I didn't like how this guy was supposed to have spent two years in jail for murder (that's right ladies and gentleman, two years in jail for killing someone), and looks EXACTLY the way he did before he went in. No beard growth or cutting, no extra muscles, no long or shaved hair. Just comes out of jail saying "man, what a long sentence!" I also have a problem with something that was stated in the preview "in my world we always go back." Meaning that if someone crashes, you always go back for them. Not pointing out the obvious lack of logic there, but in the movie there are tons of racers that crash. No one stops for them, except when Tobey wants to punch one of them while saving his life. There are dozens of things that go wrong in this movie; the comedic relief are horrible at their jobs, the women are set pieces and are also proven as inferior to the men/real racers behind the wheel (sometimes embarrassingly so). The only positive thing I can even muster to say about this is that I am so glad I wasn't beaten over the head with little cars suped up with NOS. When my only positive point is your racing movie is not being like "The Fast and The Furious" we have a problem. There are also a couple of seeming story arcs that just don't lead anywhere. There are two love interests in the story, but he goes off with one of them and completely does away with the other. This doesn't make since when the love interest he writes off was the first one we were introduced to and led to believe as the main love interest of the film. There was also this moment where they tell the audience that there is problem with the car, which doesn't lead anywhere. I was constantly asking myself, "okay, so when are they going to fix the problem with the car?" (It was very distracting)

Let's talk about the dialogue here. It is like the writers threw a bunch of words into the air and started forming sentences that might make sense to your resident crazy hobo. Most of these lines are said by Micheal Keaton, but there are still some eyebrow raising lines said by the rest of the support cast. It will leave you confused and frustrated trying to find the code breaker to understand what some of these people are saying. When you do figure out what they are saying, you will feel ashamed for having spent time watching this movie and effort trying to understand it. The only way these lines would work is if this movie was in the guise of a racing themed "spoof" (admittedly it does feel like a spoof sometimes, but I don't think that is what the writers were going for). Of course, there was also a "Top Gun" reference, with a title like "Need for Speed."

I don't understand how most of these actors were actually paid for their performances. It is like the people paying them were just giving them money to ride on the back of Aaron Paul. No, I am not just saying Aaron Paul did well in this because of "Breaking Bad," I am just saying he legitimately put forth a good performance. If anyone cared enough about this movie or Aaron Paul to wonder if his talent would carry over, be assured that it does. That does not excuse the rest of this cast for being so blatantly bad at what they are doing. The only other thing that might save some of the performances in this is Micheal Keaton looking like he is having an absolutely blast with his role. It is like he knows the words coming out of his mouth mean next to nothing, but runs with it, and it is hilarious.

There is one positive I can point out in this movie, it has the best audio of any racing movie I have seen to date. I am confidant that any actual car enthusiasts will love hearing these impressive machines (which are most likely their dream cars) come to life. I can at least speculate that they would, since I know very little about cars; but, the only time I was actually interested in the movie is when I heard the sounds of the engine.

Final Verdict: Don't do it As good as the audio was, and as good as Aaron Paul was, I cannot justify sending anyway to watch this. Just forget this movie existed. It isn't "so bad it was good," and my view on Aaron Paul might have been clouded by everyone else in the movie being so much worse that he looked better in comparison. Like a mildly attractive person surrounding themselves with less attractive people.