Need for Speed

For many years Hollywood has thrown at us, quite literally, a ton of high-adrenaline, high-octane and pulsating films based on succeeding at a task with intensity and extreme speed so as to grab us by the juggler and drag us through that proverbial keyhole. I remember seeing "Speed" '95 which kept you right on the edge, and even last year's "Getaway" had that same feel to it. So why is it that "Need for Speed" couldn't equally succeed at keeping us on that same edge?

Tobey Marshall (Aaron Paul) is a blue-collar mechanic who races muscle cars on the side in an unsanctioned street-racing circuit. Struggling to keep his family-owned garage afloat, he reluctantly partners with the wealthy and arrogant ex-NASCAR driver Dino Brewster (Dominic Cooper). But just as a major sale to car broker Julia Maddon (Imogen Poots) looks like it will save Tobey's shop, a disastrous race allows Dino to frame Tobey for a crime he didn't commit, and sending Tobey to prison while Dino expands his business out West. Once out of prison, Tobey's goal? To gain entry to the infamous Deleon race sponsored by Monarch (Michael Keaton) and win the race as revenge against Brewster.

Others to round out the cast are Scott Mescudi, Rami Malek, Ramon Rodriguez and Harrison Gilbertson as Benny, Finn, Joe Peck and Little Pete, respectively, racing buddies of Tobey's, Dakota Johnson as Anita, ex-girlfriend of Tobey's, Stevie Ray Dallimore as Bill Ingram, Julia's boss, Logan Holladay as 'DJ' Joseph, and Carmela Zumbado as Jeny 'B'.

This was directed by a guy whose very familiar with intensity. It's Scott Waugh ("Navy SWCC (Documentary short) '07, "Act of Valor" '12), and even though he doesn't have a tremendous amount of experience, he knows how to put the 'I' in intensity. It was written by George Gatins based on a story by George Gatins and John Gatins which is based on the video games series created by Electronic Arts. This is where the trouble begins. When the film started, it was difficult to tell what exactly the premise was, because the script just jumped all over the map. I know there was a plot somewhere, and after about a half hour passed, the story started to show itself and viola! a film was born. It just took forever to realize what they were trying to do. Once that was made evident, the movie moved right along. The real star here was the cinematographer Shane Hurlbut, asc ("Crazy/Beautiful" '01, "Drumline" '02, "The Greatest Game Ever Played" '05, "Into the Blue" '05, "We Are Marshall" '06, "Terminator Salvation" '09, "Act of Valor" '12). As his resume dictates, he knows action-packed films and this showed that abundantly. In fact, Hurlbut's cinematography, coupled with Paul Rubell, ace and Waugh's editing made this film sing at all.

Where this film soars visually (photography/editing), it unfortunately lacks in the script. It's an interesting premise; a bit predictable, but interesting, and if they just got to the premise quicker, who knows, maybe it would keep one on the edge of that seat.

Out of 4 Stars: 2                           Rated: PG-13                         130mins.