Need For Speed

 NEED FOR SPEED

Director : Scott Waugh

Year : 2014

Genre : Action

Rating : *1/2

 

Here's a quick question for you. With movies such as the 'Resident Evil' series, 'Max Payne', 'Street Fighter', 'Alone In The Dark'. 'Postal', 'Super Mario Bros.' 'Prince Of Persia : The Sands Of Time' and 'Silent Hill' proving to be such critical and commercial flops, why in Gods name are movie distributors still throwing millions of dollars at video game adptations when they blatantly aren't needed or even wanted? Costing the industry billions of dollars a year, filmmakers across the world continue to lobotomise the ideologies and themes of some of the most epochal and influential games ever made and while I myself am not an avid gamer, I appreciate that video games are just as much of an art form as cinema, music or art. Thankfully, the movie going public aren't standing for it. Clearly fed up with hack directors and scriptwriters destroying the nostalgic legacies of some of the most beloved games of all time, audiences continue to flock away from the cinemas whenever a new film based on an established game franchise rears it's ugly head. 

However 'Need For Speed', the latest film from 'Act Of Valour' director Scott Waugh may fare better this year. Blatantly leeching off the success of the hugely successful 'Fast & Furious' series, 'Need For Speed' (based on the massively popular EA game of the same name) promises cars, girls and a hell of a lot of explosions and if anything makes money in Hollywood today, it is mindless action. Sadly, this is all that the film has to offer, without providing a narrative to care about or characters to become remotely invested in. At over two hours long, 'Need For Speed' is a loud, obnoxious and wholly needless piece of trash that wastes the talents of it's amazing camera work and the established careers of it's usually admirable and reliable cast. 

After serving time in jail for the death of his colleague, drag racer and mechanic Tobey (Aaron Paul) seeks vengeance against the man (Dominic Cooper) who caused the events that tragically ended his apprentices life two years earlier. Determined to beat his blood rival in a dangerous but prestigious underground race, Tobey enlists in the help of a car broker (Imogen Poots) as well as his team of various mechanics and navigators to travel to California and race not only for glory but also for redemption.

If you cannot plot the entire narrative of this unbelievably cliched bore, then you really aren't trying very hard. The central characters both protagonist and antagonist are as bland and forgettable as the supporting cast, the story is as conventional as any lower rate underdog tale and the action scenes, while shot very well are incredibly monotonous and tedious. For a film of such low quality, the cast is pretty sizable; featuring some of the most respected up and coming actors working in both movies and television. In the starring role we have Aaron Paul, an actor who has just come off from co starring in AMC monster cult hit 'Breaking Bad', a show that has been rightly hailed as one of the absolute best in television history. As an avid fan of the show, I was looking forward to seeing how Paul would transfer from the mediums of television to film but within 10 minutes of 'Need For Speed' it very quickly becomes clear that Tobey is no Jesse Pinkman. Paul's trademark performance style is still there, with his gruffness and quietude echoing that of Ryan Gosling's central anti hero in Nicolas Winding Refn's stylish cult hit 'Drive' but stating that Gosling gave a much more rounded and accomplished performance is pretty much a no brainer. Playing the regular guy who is out for revenge, Paul's performance isn't bad per se but it's certainly not at all interesting or identifiable and this is due to a total lack of overall character development as well as dreary, plodding and predicable dialogue; strange for an actor who played one of the most iconic characters in recent TV history

In much the same way I have pre-concieved expectations of Aaron Paul, I was very much looking forward to seeing Imogen Poots on screen again because she is, for my money, one of the best young British actresses working in cinema. This Hammersmith born thespian may not be a house hold name right now, but if you have watched various home grown gems such as '28 Weeks Later', 'Filth', 'Me & Orson Welles' and 'The Look Of Love', you will know what an incredibly talented and nuanced performer she is. Watching 'Need For Speed', I was constantly saying to myself, ''What is an actor of her calibre doing in a piece of crap like this?'' Of course, her delivery and overall screen prescence elevates the film to a level far above anything it deserves but when she is not on screen, 'Need For Speed' lumbers around like a dying walrus.

While I may have a big problem with the overall narrative (or lack thereof), my biggest complaint with 'Need For Speed' lies with the zero respect the picture has for both the law and those who care little for racing. Constantly mocking the characters who have nothing to do with the boring underground racing, the film continually makes needless jibes at any secondary character driving a smaller car, doing a job that actually pays money or has a pathological fear of speed. Driving around the streets of America like lead footed pea brains, the central characters are lackadaisical twits who care nothing for the welfare or safety of the other drivers or pedestrians on the road, but rather how fast their motors can go. Now I know that with a title called 'Need For Speed', I can't expect adherence to every single one of the road safety laws, I'm not naive. But by only showing how the actions affect the innocent bystanders rather than the drivers we are supposed to care about, the film loses any sense of likability or human emotion. Maybe if Waugh included a scene of a character being seriously injured or even dying due to his reckless driving, then maybe a sense of empathy and emotion may appear. But no, we are just given endless scenes of the near death experiences of hundreds of unbenknowsdt innocents who are caught up in the stupid, immature minded races. 

In an astonishingly mean spirited scene, an innocent vagrant is hit by one of these velocity obsessed morons, causing his precious trolley of items and belongings to fly in the air inevitably destroying every single object in it. Of course this causes the various racers to laugh hysterically and as they drive off in a wholly dangerous manner, we are left with the sight of this poor man pining and sad. Now, I wouldn't have a problem with this scene if it wasn't used for comedic purposes but it is and just like this scene, there are many moments of public humiliation and belittlement all intended to make us laugh. It is this snide, smug attitude towards those who have absolutely no interest whatsoever in the sport (like me) that I find so utterly repulsive and there are only so many scenes I can take before I will walk out of the cinema swearing at the screen. In fact this is exactly what I did. I literally walked out of the screening for about 20 minutes or so, just pondering how else I could be spending my precious time. Of course, I would go back in a few minutes having not missed a damn thing storywise. But either way, it took every ounce of patience and restraint to not walk out again and go and see 'The LEGO Movie' I could hear playing in the next auditorium instead.

It's poorly established characters are self centred pseudo - psychopaths, it's story is as generic as they come, the screenplay is risibily dull and unimaginative and the 3D is as pointless as the film itself. Yeah it's in 3D so prepare yourself for a monster headache! In short, 'Need For Speed' is one of the worst movies I have ever seen and in the not-so-great pantheon of video game movies, this ranks somewhere near the top. It is amazing how boring and mean spirited this film is and how little respect is has for it's audience. If studios want to make bad racing films, be my guest. But don't slap the name of a popular franchise on the poster just to guarantee an audience who may have reverence and nostalgia for a gaming series that has long since dissipated. Sure, it may be more technologically advanced than Uwe Boll's cinematic treats and it may have more action and explosions than it's lower budget counterparts but does that make it any better? No, no it certainly does not.