Getaway from me!

I may not know an awful lot about cars, but there’s one thing I do know – a Mustang Shelby should save any movie from flopping.

But even with Ethan Hawke behind the wheel for an hour-and-a-half, Getaway was slow, boring and extremely disappointing.

Selena Gomez didn’t help matters either. She has been doing a good job at leaving her Disney image behind her by taking on more serious movies like Spring Breakers, but she should stick to what she knows best, preteen blockbusters!

This movie will offend petrolheads, Hawke and Gomez fans and most likely, anyone who appreciates a good action/thriller.

The one thing the movie does an excellent job at is wasting no time getting to the point.

In the first two minutes of the movie the Shelby is already revving and the audience are introduced to former professional racer Brent Magna (Hawke).

Jumping between present and past flashbacks, the audience follow Magna as he discovers that his home has been broken into and his wife (Rebecca Budig) is missing.
 
Not long after, he receives a call from a Bulgarian man who informs him that he has in fact kidnapped his wife. If he obeys the mystery man’s every command, he will get her back in one piece.

His first mission is to steal a Shelby Super Snake Mustang. After a few minutes of ‘ooing’ and ‘ahing’ at its beauty, the audience discovers that the car is covered with cameras so the Bulgarian ‘voice’ can see Magna’s every move.

Obeying the ‘voice’, Magna wreaks havoc on the streets of Bulgaria, driving into everything as asked. While trying to escape the police, Magna is confronted by a young woman (Gomez), the Shelby’s previous owner.

When she attempts to hijack the Shelby back, she becomes an integral part of the plan, as Magna will stop at nothing to bring his wife home safely. He pulls the ‘kid’ into the car and she turns out to be the only person who can actually help Magna and save his wife.

That’s about it, I won’t ruin what happens next, but spoiler alert, this Mustang Shelby is indestructible! It manages to crash into Christmas stands, trucks and even destroy power plants, but it always manages to escape in one piece.

Director Courtney Solomon’s filming techniques created a jumbled mishmash of confusing events. Using a sort of found footage theme, the cutting of clips is frantic and random, switching from shots of Hawke and Selena in the car and then switching to shots of what’s happening outside. It was headache inducing right from the start.
 
Hawke and Gomez do the best they can with a terrible script, unfortunately they make the worst action-duo for a thriller.

Hawke provides a bit of heart to his character yet I have seen him showcase his skills far more in his recent films like The Purge, I guess there isn’t much you can do whilst driving a car. Whereas Gomez, as the foul-mouthed kid, was terrible. She was not believable as a tech-savvy character at all and had no emotion in her delivery.
 
Jon Voight plays the ‘voice’ in the film. And, although he’s a good actor, he was extremely boring and never showed the excitement or energy that a villain should possess, in my opinion.

This 90-minute film felt like hours of repetitive and clichéd moments. I don’t even suggest Getaway to Fast and the Furious fans, regardless of how tech-savvy and passionate they are about cars. I recommend readers just stay-away from this terrible film at all costs.

* Showing in Cineco, Saar, Seef II, Al Jazeera Cineplex