Jesse feels the need for <del>meth</del> speed
Surely the overwhelming critical success of Breaking Bad could have set up Aaron Paul for a better cinematic role than this one. He has won two Primetime Emmys, and yet one of the first roles he manages to land is in a video game adaptation...
Need for Speed
Director: Scott Waugh
Writers: George Gatins, John Gatins
Starring: Aaron Paul, Dominic Cooper, Imogen Poots, Dakota Johnson, Michael Keaton, Scott Mescudi, Remi Malek, Ramon Rodriguez, Harrison Gilbertson
Runtime: 132 minutes
Certification: 12A
Rating 1/5 stars
Surely the overwhelming critical success of Breaking Bad could have set up Aaron Paul for a better cinematic role than this one. He has won two Primetime Emmys, and yet one of the first roles he manages to land is in a video game adaptation, a category of films that historically have the tradition of sucking. Need for Speed is no exception to this rule, and no matter how low you set your expectations, chances are, you are likely to walk away having witnessed one of the early contenders to be the worst film of 2014.
Trying to cash in on the mega-success of the Fast & Furious franchise, which already has a seventh film in production, we are introduced to a group of characters cut from the exact same cloth (a wronged, clean-cut hero, a surprisingly masculine female who knows a lot about cars, a greasy villain who has the hero’s potential love interest, a naive young guy etc.) What the _Fast & Furious _series lacked in decent story and characters, it made up for in sensational racing sequences. Need for Speed fails to even get that part right.
A wrongly imprisoned Tobey Marshall (Aaron Paul) is back with nothing but vengeance running on his mind. The circumstances surrounding his unlawful imprisonment are ridiculous enough, but what follows is even more preposterous than before.
So there is a death, although it’s never sad, because the victim can’t shut up about his “vision” relating to Tobey’s “destiny” (really), and the responsible bad guy, Dino Brewster (Dominic Cooper), dressed in black, strutting his stuff, manages to get away with it, putting the blame solely on Tobey. After his release from prison, Tobey decides to take part in an underground supercar race competition hosted by DJ Monarch (Michael Keaton) in order to...clear his name and get back at Dino? How the exact logistics work never quite makes sense.
The film prides itself in having put together action sequences that did not use any CGI. There is a way of making things work without the help of computer graphics. _Bullitt _and _The French Connection _managed this in the 1960s and 70s, and yet Scott Waugh, a stunt coordinator-turned-director whose debut was the corny _Act of Valour _that dealt with an elite team of Navy SEALs, falls short. The chases themselves are irritatingly noisy rather than pulse-racing; having the loud, screeching Imogen Poots trying to be funny doesn’t help things one bit, as not even Aaron Paul’s intensity and focus on his mission are enough to barely carry this film through.
Tobey is blessed with having a couple of sidekicks – Finn (Rami Malek) gets properly naked in the film’s most pointless, bizarre scene, whereas Benny (Scott Mescudi) has a knack for stealing all sorts of helicopters and provide air support for Tobey. Benny is also capable of giving 100% accurate information regarding surrounding traffic and come up with methods of outrunning the police. He basically acts like ARIA that tormented Shia LaBeouf in _Eagle Eye. _Yes, Benny is so incredible that he possesses the skills of a super-computer.
The obligatory love line that needs to be struck up is abysmal to say the least. Tobey has two potential candidates. Anita (Dakota Johnson), the girl who is now with Dino, or Julia (Imogen Poots), an English girl who tags along for the ride. Johnson, playing a dumb, dim-witted female, proves she must be well-suited for the very similar role in _50 Shades of Grey, _and Poots’ Hollywood breakout role is going ot have to come from something else. She reportedly has five films to be released in 2014. _That Awkward Moment _didn’t do much for her, neither will Need for Speed. Let’s hope any one of the future releases sticks.
Worst however, is Michael Keaton’s participation in the film. He is DJ Monarch, the host of the races, who often provides pointless, tiresome narration throughout the film even though no one asked for it. He is insistent on talking through every single plot point, just in case the audience cannot follow the mind-numbingly simple plot developments on offer here.
And the ending? It all comes back to that “vision”. Such an ill-advised final note that people started sniggering.
