Directed by:
Scott WaughCinematography:
Shane HurlbutComposer:
Nathan FurstCast:
Aaron Paul, Imogen Poots, Dominic Cooper, Rami Malek, Kid Cudi, Ramon Rodriguez, Dakota Johnson, Michael Keaton, Harrison Gilbertson, Nick Chinlund, Han Soto (more)VOD (1)
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"Need for Speed" marks an exciting return to the great car culture films of the 1960s and '70s, tapping into what makes the American myth of the open road so appealing. The story chronicles a near-impossible cross-country journey for our heroes—one that begins as a mission for revenge, but proves to be one of redemption. (official distributor synopsis)
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Why aren't there more movies based on computer games? Oh, right. And thanks, Need for Speed, for reminding me. Because they always turn out to be a disappointment. I really like the NFS franchise, and although in recent years (actually since “Most Wanted”) the whole series has been going downhill, there’s no other racing game I enjoy playing more. But what I got in those unbelievably long 131 minutes (!) was totally worthless. Even when reading what it was supposed to be about, it was clear to me that no brain activity would be necessary. Let's start with the positives: 1 star for EA’s courage to even film this, 1 star for the two leads. And that’s about it. The rest is truly horrendous. The actors in the supporting roles were selected based on their looks, but they can’t act their way out of a paper bag. The soundtrack, one of the best and most awesome aspects of the game series which had never failed, managed to do so in the movie, being one of its worst parts. The dialogues are strikingly unnatural. Pretty much everything about this movie is wrong. The concept itself of racing across the US within a certain time limit inspired by one of the worst installments, “Need for Speed: The Run,” spelled disaster. Anyway, if the movie managed to make money (which it somehow did), then other movies based on computer games can be made, which means there’s at least something positive about it. Or is there?
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If you've ever played the game "Need for Speed" or even just watched it, like I have, you might get a pleasant déjà vu feeling during the races because it's quite a ride. Plus, you're not on a track, and eventually, you even get out into nature. Yeah, it's got a typical plot, but the ride itself can be really enjoyable.
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The game “Need For Speed” is something I remember with fondness. I’d be hard pressed to forget it when the US developers keep making one sequel after another every year. Some of them are better, some of them worse. It was just a matter of time before this franchise would be turned into a movie and I must say that from the amount of bullshit we have been treated to during these races, the story the creators picked wasn’t so bad. I enjoyed the action scenes that felt a lot like playing the game. Those made me happy. On the other hand, the characters took some getting used to. Perhaps with the exception of Imogen Poots, who made me happy since the first moment she appeared. Aaron Paul, on the other hand, is a bit wet behind the ears and it took me about half an hour to accept the fact that he’s no Vin Diesel or Paul Walker. I also cringed during every scene with Dominic Cooper. Michael Keaton, however, managed to knock my socks off with how he was enjoying his character. Had it not been for the running time and contained less talking and more action, I would have rated it better. 131 minutes was too long for such a movie.
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Instead of an exciting racing film, an everyday road movie arrived in movie theaters with the most common and predictable story of revenge and the most ordinary romantic plot. The chases and racing scenes do have energy, but everything else is hopelessly uninteresting. The characters lack charisma, the film lacks insight, tension and humor, and the creators' quest for realism is a clear step back after the last two parts of The Fast and the Furious series. Desperately dull and uncool.
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By gamers, for gamers. Or, more precisely, by people who present themselves as gamers (because doing so is favourable with respect to marketing), for viewers who consider those people to be gamers (young men from poorer backgrounds without higher education, dreaming that they will pick up beautiful women thanks to their driving skills). Waugh’s film is possibly one of the most thorough video-game adaptations and thus, more than other game adaptations, lays bare the limits of trying to be maximally accommodating toward fans of the source material. The plot is of marginal importance and serves primarily as an unobtrusive (though necessary) basis for the action. However, the mediocre dialogue, overacting, infantile humour and formulaic situations are significantly more irritating on the big screen than in the cut-scenes of the game (though their purpose remains the same – providing the possibility to give one’s eyes and ears a rest). The slavish adoption of certain formalistic techniques from video games (extreme slow-motion eye-candy crashes) necessarily come across as clichéd, since game designers like to go to the movies for inspiration. By faithfully imitating bad imitations of films – instead of drawing more from, for example, the quoted Bullitt or other 1970s action movies (knowledge of which the director can only boast about) – Need For Speed becomes a copy of a copy that doesn’t have any specific character of its own. However, I don’t think it’s a bad film, since it fulfils its mission (escapist automotive entertainment) more satisfactorily than, for example, the most recent, poorly focused instalment of Fast & Furious. In the context of macho action melodramas that, according to the logic of the genre, must contain unrealistic feats that are not conditioned by emotion or reason and red-lined moments of action, there really isn’t much for which to reproach Need for Speed. For me, it was a pleasant way to relax my mind, which I appreciated for not requiring any greater mental effort than playing one of the games in the series. 60%
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