Race to a big screen

The release of Need For Speed couldn’t have come at a more appropriate time. With the Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix weekend just around the corner, I definitely wasn’t the only one who raced to watch it in a theatre jam-packed with petrol heads, teenagers and young adults.

The Need For Speed video games by EA have been around for almost 20 years now, selling over 140 million copies worldwide. It’s clear that its popularity lies in the fact that people like to zoom through make believe streets, driving ridiculously expensive cars, at crazy speeds.

And, just like every other popular video game, Hollywood is there to make a film adaptation out of it.
 
There have been a number of good video games developed into terrible movies since the early nineties, and there have only been a handful that are somewhat passable, like the Resident Evil and Mortal Kombat series, to name a few.

Need For Speed isn’t any different. It’s stupid, it’s weird and, most importantly, the plot is so thin, I don’t even understand why they bothered with it.

Having said that I actually thoroughly enjoyed the whole film.

The only difference between this movie and the list of terrible adaptations that it follows, is that director Scott Waugh knows that this is not the next Fast and the Furious!
He may appear to take the film too seriously, but it’s the fact that it’s so sincere that makes it enjoyable.

Why not pair up with Disney’s DreamWorks and make the characters lame enough to bring in some laughs?

This film works more like a parody to the Fast & the Furious franchise than it’s a rival. Its pure ignorance rather amused me for 132 minutes.

It’s beautifully shot, it’s impressively well-choreographed and it has a lot of action ... it delivers exactly what you are expecting. Not to mention, even if the movie is complete drivel, Aaron Paul fans will be queuing up anyway rooting for him to be good.

The film focuses on Tobey Marshall (Aaron Paul) who is a mechanic. He is finding it difficult to pay the mortgage on his late father’s garage, despite the fact he is taking part in illegal street races on the side with his crew to make extra cash.

When his rival, Dino Brewster (Dominic Cooper) comes back into town, he offers Tobey a gig. He must rebuild a one-of-a-kind- Ford Mustang. Needing the money, Tobey takes the job and before you know it, the car is finished and Dino challenges Tobey to a street race.

During the race, Tobey’s best friend, who also happens to be Dino’s girlfriend’s brother, Pete (Harrison Gilbertson) dies in an accident,

Dino frames Tobey for Pete’s death, sending him to jail. Skip two years later and Tobey is out and looking for revenge. He decides to take part in the big annual illegal race against Dino where the winner gets to take home all the participants cars. But first Tobey must bring his old crew together again. While driving from city to city getting them back to together, he meets car expert Julia (Imogen Poots) and you can guess where that leads.

That’s pretty much it. There’s nothing new about the plot and you can guess what’s going to happen … but if you like fast cars, a lot of action and Aaron Paul, then you’ll definitely enjoy this movie.

Paul is best known for his role on Breaking Bad and, as proven from his two Emmy wins, there is no doubt he can act.

His Need For Speed role isn’t one he will be remembered for, but he did the best he could with what he was given. He gives his character a bit of heart and charm and will definitely wring out some more hits in the box office.

All the other supporting characters aren’t even worth mentioning. They all had lame scripts as well as over-the-top and cliché roles. It’s exactly what you would expect DreamWorks to produce when it comes to a violent and fast movie like this one.

If you have nothing else to do and are up for a laugh, check it out!

* Showing in Cineco, Seef I, Saar Cineplex