Need for Speed

RATING: D+

Oh, Hollywood. We know it's bad when they're pilfering out an adaption of a video game series like *this* just to get a few bucks. I mean, seriously. Need for Speed? A movie out of that? Part of the problem is, the Fast & the Furious films are stealing all the money with regards to the street racing genre. 

One has very little to go off of with a film like this. Your prerequisite is basically that you make a film about illegal street racing... with really, *really* fancy cars. After that, it's all up to you. Perhaps that's part of the problem. They didn't really know what to do, so they had to improvise. 

The plot we end up getting saddled with is an up-and-coming racer named Tobey goes into a three-way race along with one of his crew, Pete, and his rival, Dino for some money and bragging rights. Dino decides to play dirty when he falls behind and pulls the old bumper trick on Pete--dead instantly. Even worse, Dino goes into hiding just long enough for the cops to be tricked into thinking it was Tobey that did it--so two years later, the Count of Monte Cristo--er, um, I mean Tobey--comes back out of jail ready to race again and this time leave Dino in the dust for good. 

Yup, it's mostly a revenge story. If you're expecting a story where the guy realizes the error of his vengeful ways and repents, you're in the wrong place. If you're hoping for a vengeful blood-fest, you're still in the wrong place--the story falls somewhere in between. Yes, Tobey gets revenge--that's inevitable--but not in the way you might expect (not that that fact makes it any better). The plot isn't *that* bad, at least not in principle. 

What *is* bad, however, is the acting. Aaron Paul ends up doing very poorly as the lead--he's not even that believable when he goes back for his dead crew member and is freaking out. As a character, he's extremely one-dimensional, but that can be said for just about everyone in this movie, just as the poor acting can. Dominic Cooper does a bit better as Dino, but sometimes he's just annoying. And then there's the female character whose role is the random dame stuck along for the ride--but is really just there for no reason. She can't really even be called eye candy. The only acting performance in this film worth anything was Michael Keaton as the Monarch, who runs the penultimate race of the film. Too bad his acting talent is rather minor in this film. 

This film is *very* shallow on characters and acting. And sadly, there's not quite enough of the speed. Yes, there's a lot of scenes with cars going fast, but I kinda expected more scenes like what we see at the end--a high-speed street race on the highway with some more stunts and crashing. There's only one *really* good stunt in the film, and it comes about midway through. 

As lacking as this film is in a lot of departments, it's not all bad. There are a lot of cool roadway views and scenery shots, as well as some quite good camera angles during the racing scenes. I also have to say I kinda liked the soundtrack. And admittedly, the final race was pretty thrilling. I also have to admit that watching a Lamborghini and a Bugatti Veyron--among other awesome cars--racing each other is pretty darn cool. 

Of course, one never should expect much from a film like Need for Speed. A film like Need for Speed is one that you simply expect to be dumb entertainment and sort of an escape from the real world for about two hours. The "guilty pleasure" genre, if you will. But Need for Speed doesn't even really even fit the bill there. Where does it fit in Hollywood's library? That's something I'm still trying to figure out. If you're *really* bored, it might work as a minor distraction, but otherwise I can't see a way to recommend this film.