Movies based on video games certainly don’t have the greatest track record with critics. Still, there is certainly potential to create an interesting movie from the series Need for Speed. Even the filmmakers behind this effort have expressed a desire to emulate counterculture, auto-centric movies of the seventies. But while there is some incredible stunt driving, other aspects of the movie end up lagging behind.
Tobey (Aaron Paul) is the struggling owner of a small car garage. Thankfully, he also happens to be an expert street racer as well as a genius at building car engines. Even with his skills, the garage is still on the brink of foreclosure. In desperation, he takes a job from a sinister pro racer named Dino (Dominic Cooper) to build an vehicle that can reach speeds of 230 mph. The mechanic and his crew take an enormous payday, but events take a turn for the worse when the egos of Tobey and Dino get out of hand. They bet their profits on a private street race, which not only ends in tragedy but also lands the protagonist in jail. Two years later, our hero is out for retribution. He teams up with a foreign investor and attempts to convince the “Monarch” (Michael Keaton) to include him in another illegal race with Dino.
The one strong aspect of the film is the racing sequences. The stunt driving really impresses, with cars speeding through environments and making incredible hairpin turns. It’s captured with cameras placed in all sorts of creative locations, including low angles near the tires and alongside the vehicles. There’s a great moment with the camera mounted inside a car during a crash for a first hand view as the vehicle flips in the air. And some of the night scenes have a stylish neon-lit hue to them as well. For those concerned about how the 3D looks, the post-conversion job is actually better than most. Surprisingly, it compliments some of the more exaggerated camera angles nicely.
Unfortunately, the story is as cornball and preposterous as it gets. There’s a ridiculous lack of police cars present during all but the final chase. And the actors aren’t helped by one note characterizations and wince-inducing dialogue. As a viewer, one might be interested in knowing what is attracting these characters to their dangerous and illegal profession and why they risk their lives for it – besides the prize money or revenge motives. When a movie runs well over two hours, you’d expect a bit more of an explanation than a simple, “That’s what we do!” but that’s all that is provided. As written, there isn’t much more to hero Tobey than a menacing look and a growled delivery similar to Christian Bale’s Batman.
There’s some confusion as to the protagonist’s motives as well. We learn that his revenge plot doesn’t really have anything to do with the death of his friend, but rather the fact that Dino didn’t pull over and return to the crash site. While this is an understandable sentiment, it seems strange when, on numerous occasions, the hero whizzes past vehicles (driven by both racers and civilians) that have crashed or are in the same sort of trouble. No doubt Tobey simply wanted some company while screaming, “No!” next to flaming car wreckage.
Yes, the stunt driving is impressive and the movie looks slick and polished. Otherwise, it’s silly and overlong and doesn’t do justice to the cast assembled. With its multimillionaires, giant racing prizes and ultra high end vehicles, Need for Speed seems like less of a throwback to the counterculture racing films of the seventies and more of a quick cash in.