Need for Speed (2014)
Directed by Scott Waugh
The film revolves around a local street-racer who partners with a rich and arrogant business associate, only to find himself framed by his colleague and sent to prison. After he gets out, he joins a New York-to-Los Angeles race to get revenge. But when the ex-partner learns of the scheme, he puts a massive bounty on the racer's head, forcing him to run a cross-country gauntlet of illegal racers in all manner of supercharged vehicles.
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While this film is based on the video game franchise of the same name, “Need for Speed” is much more an homage to the macho car-culture flicks of the ’60s and ’70s like “Bullitt,” “Vanishing Point,” “Grand Prix” or even “The French Connection.”
"Need for Speed" is filled with tributes to -- and ripoffs of -- vintage car flicks: A drive-in theater plays "Bullitt," a cop car loses its back axle a la "American Grafitti," and Keaton's character is an update of Cleavon Little's jive-talking radio DJ from the 1971 cult classic "Vanishing Point."
Kisco, N.Y.) where people talk of “the big city” as if it can only be reached by arduous overland journey, and where ruddy-cheeked youths gather on summer nights at the local drive-in theater (where “Bullitt” is either enjoying a reissue, or has simply been playing continuously for the past 45 years).
Probably the only real mistake made by the filmmakers — director and ex-stunt guy Scott Waugh and his writers George and John Gatlins — was to show on a TV screen a few clips from the famous car chase in “Bullitt” (1968).
Early in “Need for Speed,” the characters visit a drive-in movie theater for the Steve McQueen classic “Bullitt.”
Sharp-eyed car fans will pick out references to auto-cinema classics like "American Graffiti," "Bullitt" and even "Mad Max" in all of "Need for Speed's" wanton mayhem, which might just be enough to distract viewers from the more awful bits.
Sharp-eyed car fans will pick out references to auto-cinema classics like "American Graffiti," "Bullitt" and even "Mad Max" in all of "Need for Speed's" wanton mayhem, which might just be enough to distract viewers from the more awful bits.
Later there's a sight gag replicating the police car prank in "American Graffiti."
When our hard-luck hero returns to his small-town auto shop (picture an outlet in American Graffiti but with less edge), the unexpected but welcome voice of Michael Keaton announces the De Leon, a Cannonball Run -style fracas, an occasion that may allow Tobey to get revenge on cocky Dino.
Happy middle, actually, since Tobey is headed to San Francisco for the big, super-secret De Leon race masterminded by a manic entrepreneur named Monarch (Michael Keaton), who oversees and narrates the action like Wolfman Jack in American Graffiti.
Speaking of Wolfman Jack, director Scott Waugh (the Navy SEALS ad Act of Valor) ill-advisedly includes nods to superior vehicular movies American Graffiti, Bullitt and Speed—not to mention the Cannonball Run-ny plot point forcing Tobey to speed from New York to California in 45 hours.
At one point, Tobey even pulls the old chain-on-the-axle trick that got Richard Dreyfuss into the Pharaohs in American Graffiti.
"Need for Speed" is filled with tributes to -- and ripoffs of -- vintage car flicks: A drive-in theater plays "Bullitt," a cop car loses its back axle a la "American Grafitti," and Keaton's character is an update of Cleavon Little's jive-talking radio DJ from the 1971 cult classic "Vanishing Point."
Entering the race involves Tobey getting the crew back together, driving cross-country and unconvincingly falling in love with car expert Julia ( Imogen Poots ) and attracting the attention of eccentric rich race organizer, Monarch ( Michael Keaton , who apparently pocketed a big check for sitting in a room and giving us a third-rate impersonation of Cleavon Little in “Vanishing Point”).
“Need for Speed,” a tricked-up, morally dubious videogame spin-off about driving really, really fast while cops and citizens crash into trees behind you, is made possible by three things: The success of the “Fast and Furious” series, the rise of “Breaking Bad” co-star Aaron Paul, and a 1971 vroom-vroom classic called “Vanishing Point.”
That's Michael Keaton talking, soul-patched, sunglassed, and functioning a lot like the Cleavon Little character in the 1971 road- pic cult classic Vanishing Point.
The film would hardly win the Bechtel Test though the chemistry between Breaking Bad’s Paul and Poots is sweetly appealing and there’s a few nods to 1971’s Vanishing Point as Michael Keaton’s ranting DJ race guru waxes lyrical to his internet audience but it’s all just window dressing for the real reason to see this film: the cars and the racing.
It all reminds me of the cult movie “Vanishing Point,” back in 1971.
While this film is based on the video game franchise of the same name, “Need for Speed” is much more an homage to the macho car-culture flicks of the ’60s and ’70s like “Bullitt,” “Vanishing Point,” “Grand Prix” or even “The French Connection.”
Think back to the films of the 60s and 70s when we had some of the most breathtaking chases ever put to film in movies like “Bullitt” and “The French Connection.”
Need for Speed is Waugh’s homage to gritty car-oriented classics and there are obvious visual references to Bullitt and The French Connection, among others, splattered throughout his film.
Waugh has dutifully cited the CGI-free chases in ’60s and ’70s films like The French Connection and Bullitt as key reference points; he even puts the Bullitt chase sequence up on a drive-in screen early in the film.
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It isn’t about hopped-up racers as in the gimmicky Fast & Furious franchise, or cars that suddenly and disconcertingly climb walls like The Transporter.
The cast doesn’t have the sassy swagger of the “Fast & Furious” crew.
“Need for Speed” makes the “Fast & Furious” films look ready for the dean’s list and is strictly for those who don’t mind sitting though a 130-minute Mustang ad and paying extra to see it in 3-D.
Need for Speed, I’ve seen all the Fast & Furious films.
Tobey’s pit crew mirrors the tokenistic ethnic diversity of Fast & Furious — the black guy (Mescudi), the Hispanic guy (Ramon Rodriguez), the Arab guy (Rami Malek) and the cute blond dead Pete (Australia’s Harrison Gilbertson) — each with one quirk, none with distinctive appeal.
Clearly going for the “Fast and Furious” vibe with a side order of “Smokey and the Bandit,” “Need for Speed” tries to capitalize on the buzz around newly graduated “Breaking Bad” star Aaron Paul.
Adapted by stuntman-turned-auteur Scott Waugh (the Navy SEALs actioner Act of Valor was his feature debut) from the street-racing video game, Need for Speed revs its engines appreciatively at some cinema car chases: Steve McQueen's Nob Hill careen in Bullitt is seen early on at a drive-in (foreshadowing Paul's own San Fran run), various cop-car crash-ups echo Smokey and the Bandit , and at one point, Paul and Poots are gunning straight toward the oblivion of Dead Horse Point in Moab, Utah - the same precipice Thelma and Louise hurtled over.
Paul turns hard into the spin of this part, channeling Escape From New York-era Kurt Russell through a dedicatedly gravelly voice.
Screenwriter George Gatins hints at elements Peter Fonda or Warren Oates would have nailed, and there are moments when "Need for Speed" flirts with the darkness found in films like "Dirty Mary Crazy Larry" and "Race with the Devil."
I suppose just asking Ingram to air-freight the car directly to California would have taken too long; it would also have deprived the movie of its only genuine moments, in which this preposterous Dirty Mary Crazy Larry situation brings Julia and Tobey together.
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Screenwriter George Gatins hints at elements Peter Fonda or Warren Oates would have nailed, and there are moments when "Need for Speed" flirts with the darkness found in films like "Dirty Mary Crazy Larry" and "Race with the Devil."
A homage to such cross-country race/chase movies as Smokey and the Bandit (1977) and The Cannonball Run (1981), Need for Speed can also trace its roots to any Hollywood Golden Age movie about a bunch of spunky kids getting together and beating the big guys at their own game.
A lofty goal, but its idiotic combination of revenge-seeking racer meets goofy comedy makes “Need for Speed” feel more like a cross between “The Fugitive” and “The Cannonball Run.”