Here at Car and Driver, we don't review many movies, but when a feature-length film focusing on cars comes around, we roll up our sleeves and attend advanced showings that feature neither the glitz nor the glamor Hollywood is famous for. So, when an invite came along to screen Need for Speed ahead of its opening tomorrow, we suited up and headed to the nondescript theater listed on the invitation.
NFS has everything a car nerd could reasonably expect from a Hollywood blockbuster and a cast of exotics so vast that it makes our parking lot look like a scrapyard. Being a car film of this era, though, it's chock full of crazy-intense wrecks and chases, but is severely lacking in plot depth and acting chops.
Clockwise from top left: Aaron Paul, Scott Mescudi, Michael Keaton, and Dominic Cooper.
The star of Need For Speed is former Breaking Bad standout Aaron Paul, who plays Tobey Marshall, a blue-collar garage owner out to avenge the murder of his best friend at the hands of world-famous car collector Dino Brewster (played by Dominic Cooper). Of course, the only way for Marshall to get even with Brewster is to drive from New York to Los Angeles in less than two days to partake in—and surely win—an underground street race organized by the legendary wheelman known simply as Monarch (played by Michael Keaton).
Like any other high-intensity car film, there are instances of extreme absurdity, but Need for Speed takes it to another level. Even while Marshall is manhandling a 900-plus-hp Shelby-tuned Mustang, the cops manage to keep up with ease. While trying to save time in his drive across the country, our protagonist gets his buddies to drive a fuel rig alongside him at 100 mph for an in-flight refueling. We find the Mustang gassing up at a filling station just 20 or so minutes later.
We'd love to tell you that NFS is a great movie filled with Academy-quality acting and a twisted, mind-blowing plot, but that'd be a lie. The plot is without doubt the worst aspect of the film. All the fun that's built up by watching 30-foot-tall exotics perform real-life, CGI-is-for-pansies stunts is torn down by the film's tired, unoriginal story. (Listening to Keaton suggest that, "Racers should race, cops should eat donuts" immediately brings to mind Vin Diesel's cringeworthy proclamation that, "It don't matter if you win by an inch or a mile, winning's winning.")
What the film does offer, however, is 130 minutes of car porn, pure and simple. The driving sequences are nothing short of immersive, and the exhaust notes are so pure that you can smell them. Putting aside our qualms with the flick's script, car nerds like us can only hope that movies so focused on the minutiae of performance automobiles—like this one—will continue now that the Fast and Furious franchise is nearing the end of its days.
- First Drive: 2014 Porsche 918 Spyder
- First Drive: 2012 Ferrari FF
- First Drive: 2013 Lamborghini Aventador Roadster
Despite Need For Speed's shortcomings, we're hopeful that a second is on the way. With any luck, makers of future NFS films will learn from this one: Yes, a good plot would be more than welcomed, but so long as the driving scenes are done well, and they certainly are in this movie, we'll begrudgingly part with our cash. If you have two hours to kill and are obsessed with supercars, you could do a lot worse than spending 20 bucks on a ticket and a bucket of popcorn.
from Car and Driver Blog http://ift.tt/nSHy27
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