Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Do you have a need? I have a need...

NEED FOR SPEED (2014)



Ok. Seriously planet earth... why are you hating on this film? Does anyone remember when The Fast and The Furious dropped waaaaaaaaay back in 2001... remember what people called it? Well, let's just say critics were not kind. Yet, people lined up, and it made a ton of money. Then came a long line of sequels, that most critics have finally caved, and decided to enjoy for what they are - Fun. Pure Fun. So as I sit here about to write something that goes against 94% of the critics out there... I want to ask them a simple question - Why you mad bro? 

So your plot goes something like this: Aaron Paul (of the "OMG greatest show ever" Breaking Bad) plays 'Tobey Marshall' the best driver that never made it anywhere. So instead he spends his time working at the mechanic shop he inherited from his Father. The bad guy is Dino Brewster... Ya... Thats a name. Anyway they hate each other because Dino made it out of the small town and took Tobey's girl. But, Tobey needs money for his shop and Dino wants a new car built (a super Mustang). From there the major plot details are - Street Race - Dino is responsible for framing Tobey for a crime, and killing a friend - Then a huge street race at the end Where they will finally settle the score (wait for it!) BEHIND THE WHEEL!

Ok. Listen. This is an action movie folks. And on that front it delivers. What do you want from this movie? I think Aaron Paul realizes the whole world expects nothing but Oscars from him in the future and he said F that noise, I wanna have some fun. This movie delivers on every aspect it claims it will... So, so much fast car stuff.

Add one shot sexy blonde (the always watchable Imogen Poots) in the passenger seat for his cross country adventure. Add another shot strange race announcer guy (played by - F me is that Michael Keaton)... and one and half shots million dollar cars going 200+ miles an hour for two hours... I mean what the hell is wrong with film critics? I honestly think in this day and age... we are built to hate, to tear down... to demand more... but sometimes... I just wanna watch fast cars, and crashes and stuff.

Watching a car like that go boom, really punches the ol' ticker
No CGI

Drink that up folks. All the chases in this film. All the crashes - Real. The director wanted the realest experience he could get and he felt that meant real cars, real chases. Oh he was right. Also the 3D is used to some very cool effects. The first person shots behind the wheel are great (best use of depth I've seen in a bit), and yes a few bits of exploding glass and metal do fly at ya.

The story is simple, sometimes stupid, I mean the race goes to nothing? How would they get the cars? After jail? No one accounted for cops? What?

But I digress. That was my two lines of thinking like a jaded critic.

Aaron Paul's Tobey Marshall is instantly likeable, and wonderfully "I'm a tough guy, but I  have a heart of gold'. You will root for him. I actually really liked Imogen as the love interest... She is sexy and has no problem holding her own in the who's smarter showdowns. Plus... I means points for the accent.

When racing cars loses it's appeal... Chopper showdown!

All in all one of my fav action movies of the last few years.

Beautiful to watch, although sometimes painful... I mean watching those million dollar cars at the end crash... brought a tear to my eye.

Ask yourself... when the average score from most critics is 5 out of 10 or lower (Rotten tomatoes I believe is at 20%)... why then does it get a B+ from "Paying" crowds at theatres? Because for regular folks, that don't over think an action movie... this is a blast! Same reason why the Fast and furious films have become cultural and world wide phenomena.

Movie scale 3.5 out of 5 stars
Action scale 3.5 out of 5 stars

Man. I want my Lambo. Oh and quick shout out as I actually have played the video game for years... I was sitting in my seat going "Oh man, I raced that car there. Awesome"

This has been a review by Chuck Boonsweet, who hopes, his critic card doesn't get revoked... Lol... nah I'm bigger than them.... Oh... OOOOOOooooo and to everyone that made a big deal of all the violence towards the cops... To the best of my knowledge there are no cop deaths in this film... even severely injured... racers get messed up... But man, I seriously wonder if all these guys even watched the movie...

#NeedForSpeed

Till next Booniacs.

2 comments:

Chris Widdop said...

THANK YOU! I've seen this movie get eviscerated everywhere, and I really don't get it. I thought this movie was tons of fun from start to finish, and yeah, while the running time may appear to be excessive, there wasn't a single boring second to be had here. I liked it! Glad to see I wasn't the only one, lol!

Chuck Boonsweet said...

Ya sometimes I feel critics have pack mentality. And with so much dissection of writing, acting, camerawork and every tiny thing in between... somehow people seem to have forgotten the "Go to the movies to have fun" idea. This is gunna be one of those films that does great on home release and everyone says - wait, why didn't we go see this in theatre... ?