Movie Review: Need For Speed

Need For Speed (2014): In Aaron Paul's first movie since Breaking Bad, he stars as Tobey, a man recently released from jail and out for REVENGE on his former partner (wait they had a history?) Dino. How's he gonna do it? In a race obviously.

Ok so uh....what? Here, let's talk about what this movie does right. What little it gets right. It really gets the racing scenes down. Nails them. They are fun to watch, and very well choreographed and captured cinematography speaking. There was an easier way to say that but I don't care. Anyway, ya. Great racing scenes. And since that's the calling card of this movie anyway, who cares about everything else right? We don't need no stinkin' plot if the race scenes are well done. The cars are mighty sexy, and they do a damn good job showing them off. Even though it's going to take a lot of convincing to make me believe that a Ford Mustang can go 240 MPH but whatever! Moving on. So if that's what you go to see this movie for, you will not be disappointed. However to everyone else who wants more than what you can get in every Fast and Furious movie, well......just don't.

So, everything else. When this movie was not in a car and said car was not racing, this movie SUCKED. The story was the definition of paper thin, the love story was one of the dumbest things I have ever seen, the acting was subpar at best, and the soundtrack, editing, well....everything sucked. Oh ya, why did they have these really weird covers of classic songs? There was this country cover of a Beatles song at one point and I was like, wait what? Just use a country song. I get that you're trying to remind us that they are in the south but you don't have to do that by using a country cover of the Beatles. Whatever. As for the story, the character motivations weren't explained, the love story was horrible, and all of the main plot points were, well....stupid. The only person I cared about was Aaron Paul, and it was because all I saw was Jesse. Oh ya, Aaron Paul needs a movie to break the mold surrounding his persona as Jesse, and this movie is not that. Oh boy is this movie not that. He is honestly not very good at all in this movie, doing a good job to simply play Jesse up again, thus creating the theory that his character in Need For Speed is in fact Jesse from Breaking Bad. He even says Yo when he answers the phone. I couldn't help but chuckle to myself. Everyone else in this movie is forgettable as can be, even Michael Keaton! Oh ya, Michael Keaton is in this. It's just a cash-grab, as I'm sure they paid him a million dollars to just sit in a room and yell about a race that he was somehow able to follow. With magic. I guess. Seriously, anyone care to explain to me how Keaton's character (and the rest of the world for that matter) was able to follow the big race? It was an underground race but still. Whatever. Magic sounds pretty good. Or science. 

Ultimately, this movie is really only about the races, and everything else is just kind of cast aside. And forgotten about. Really the only reason you should see this movie is if you want to watch a racing movie. Or loved the Need for Speed video game. Because this movie does actually stay surprisingly loyal to the games. I played several of them on the PS2 and I definitely noticed similarities between the racetracks in the movie and in the game. Not a coincidence. If you are looking for the Aaron Paul catalyst movie, do NOT go see this. It will only make you sad. Well, there you have it. I'm going to go watch Rush again now. At least that was a good racing movie that had an equally as good plot. You should too before you see this. Just saying.

The Critique: Fun racing scenes cannot save this movie from it's sheer incompetence on nearly every other front. 

The Recommendation: For fans of racing movies only. And even those....throw some alcohol in you before you watch this.

Rewatchability: Low

The Verdict: 3/10 Bad

Photo Credit
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