Need for Speed (2014)

As one knows, acquiring the name of a driving game franchise immediately legitimizes a movie adaptation, giving unique character needed to differentiate it from Fast and Furious. Regardless of how thin plot from any Need for Speed games are, the movie manages to trip itself with overly inconceivably ridiculous story and actually failing an already low expectation. It's a fusion of hot mess with barely any charisma, only offering display of expensive cars, as the movie constantly brags, and high level of stupidity on everything it does. Fans would be better off attending car shows.

Story is completely absurd, while motivations are necessary as reasons for the lethal unlawful races, the movie would've been better if characters would just race randomly. They make plot holes in every turns; it has surpassed the redeeming point long before they reach finish line. People would do things so numbingly reckless simply because Fast and Furious clearly inspired them, not to mention script and screenplay are done haphazardly, there's little to no humor or emotional investment to be had.

Aaron Paul as Tobey Marshall tries to put some sense of personality with gruff voice. He looks tense and worried in almost all scenes, probably trying to decipher of the script. Imogen Poots as Julia Maddon is a complete waste of space. Never mind it's stupid for a car dealer to be involved deeply in the first place, she has neither charm nor wit to hold a scene. Probably the purpose she's badly shoehorned is she's blond and has thick English accent, a supposed independent love interest, but she's just nagging, yelling obvious things or trying to ensure the audience how radical the stunts are.

The rest of ragtag team is stereotype support characters, such as the savvy mechanic, another savvy mechanic who can only be differentiated by stripping erratically, and a pilot who arrives timely with array of aerial vehicles, always cracking jokes. The movie never decides whether they are a fully coordinated team or just a bunch of clowns. And there's Michael Keaton, who passionately wants to sell the movie as if he's a used car salesman. Throwing high tag prices and misleading dramatization of what's actually a life-threatening road rage disguised as a race on par with F1, where the participants are constantly facing the threat of death or incarceration. He does a good job or narrating crash near a bus school and mocking the police as cool things.

Its racing scenes are admittedly pretty decent. There are some scenes that utilize camera angles very well, like occasional drivers' perspective or strategically placed shots of near misses and crashes. They exhibit orotund energy, conveying the fast heated rivalry. If only the movie focuses more on this aspect instead of the nonsensical plot, doesn't try too hard to be pretentiously dramatic or funny, it could've been fun to watch. Furthermore, the movie is about two hours, that's a lot of time to drive in obscurity.

With idiotic story, poor attempt on comedy and altogether bad acting, Need for Speed ruins yet another video game adaptation and hopefully crashes so terribly, there won't be a sequel.

Fmovies: I got to see an advanced screening of Need For Speed and I must say, despite a 2hr 10min running time, this film was extremely entertaining from start to finish. The film follows Toby, played by Aaron Paul, and his quest for revenge against a billionaire racer, played by Dominic Cooper, who killed his friend. The film's familiar plot gets excused for the mere fact that the action sequences in this film are amazing and keep you holding your breath. The lack of CGI is jaw dropping. It makes the action sequences in Fast & Furious 6 look like more of a video game than the basis for this film. It truly is amazing. Aaron Paul is very good in this film, while he is nowhere near the caliber of his famous Jesse Pinkman from Breaking Bad, he still proves that he is an amazing actor with great things ahead of him. Another surprise here is Kid Cudi, who gives a light hearted touch to the rough and tough story of revenge. Michael Keaton is another welcomed addition to this film as he lets the viewer get a better idea of who our anti-hero, Toby Marshall, truly is. Dominic Cooper is a down side of the film, unfortunately he weighs down the film with a typical evil billionaire performance, the only think he is missing is his pinky finger against his lips but it is just enough to overlook. Getting back to the basis of this movie, this is hands down the best video game adaptation ever made. It's hard to believe when watching it that this is a video game adaptation because it is actually good. This comes as proof that with good actors and directing, video games can be adapted correctly.

I came into this movie with low expectations. I'm a massive fan of the F&F franchise and have no issues with nonsense dialogue and thin plot - as long as it's entertaining i'm easy to please.

But boy, this is another level.

Characters - I could not care less about any of them if I tried. The English woman was just awful. Truly, awful. Kid Cudi was just painfully unfunny. Lead character (Aaron Paul) wasn't any better. Definitely not leading man material. Should stick to "geeky best friend" roles.

Script - Just unfunny and so cheesy. Switched constantly from "emotional" scenes (that just don't work) to action scenes (that are all a bit stale and have been done before). Kid Cudi randomly managing to get hold of all manner of air transport as if picking up a newspaper is just lame. Having to refuel "on the go" as they were pushed for time - but then spending the next 10 minutes drifting round a small town to scare the English girl, makes no sense.

And the killer for me - the cars. Being a car movie, you expect the cars to steal the show but we are treated to some American muscle that has been seen before. The Shelby mustang just came over as a massive ad for Ford motor co. And the sound of them was just terrible. I expected turbo whistle, the crackle of anti-lag, screaming engines and the throb of V8's. Didn't get it. All the cars sounded fake. Not once did anything rev over 5k. Plenty of tire squeal though if that's your thing.

Left me cold.

Any of the F&F movies does this so much better. Even the bad ones ;)

Need for Speed fmovies. I remember the first time I saw the Fast and the Furious, and how it made me feel after leaving the theatre. By the time the credits rolled, I wanted to get into my car and driveÂ…fast. Unfortunately at the time, I was just barely fourteen years-old and not even able to drive, let alone drive fast. Since then, there have been five more entries to the Fast franchise, a tragic death within the series and an upcoming seventh entry that will no doubt pay homage to the late, great racing action star Paul Walker. Obvious comparisons from this film will be made to the Fast film franchise, but I can assure you that Need for Speed will gracefully race near to, if not speed right in front of the series that made street racing cool. When was the last time you saw a car fly? Like actually fly? And I'm not talking about the CGI filled James Bond/science-fiction films that show flying cars with wings as the norm in the future. For the first time in a very long time at the movies, I had fun! I held my arms close, my palms were sweaty, and tension was flowing through me like the warm synthetic engine oil of a race car, and it was all thanks to the high-octane energy of Need for Speed. Based on the famous video game franchise of the same name released in 1994, the film had many hurdles to overcome even before its release; horrible track records among critics and in the box office for video game film adaptations (Super Mario Bros., Doom, Max Payne); direct comparisons to the Fast films; and a television star Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad) leading the film. But despite all the hurdles, Need for Speed delivers on its promise for an urgency to entertain, enthral, and perform, giving a whole new realism to the illegal street racing action genre. Now the word realism can be misconstrued in the context of this review. The disclaimer at the end of the film does state that "many of the stunts performed were done by trained professionals on closed courses", including the actors, who had extensive training with street cars and performance racing. Now when I say realism, there is no way we can explain that word without mentioning director Steve Waugh. Waugh, who was a seasoned stunt performer before he became a director (Act of Valor), on films like Bad Boys II, Spider-Man and The Italian Job, opted for genuine stunt performances from his actors, director of photography, and stuntmen, and mostly abandoned the use of CGI in the film, which gives a slight edge to the longing of danger to be put back into filmmaking. The video games, which popularized the use of 'first-person racing', put gamers in the driver's seat and revolutionized the way in which racing games were made. Need for Speed may be light on story, completely absurd on intent and plot, and have many two-dimensional characters, but makes up for it in action, thrills, and impulsive entertainment. The film then becomes a blend of buddy comedy/road-trip actioner/hard boiled revenge thriller that will have you rooting for our hero and born underdog Tobey Marshall, with every gear shift and sharp turn ahead. The film spends a hefty amount of time establishing its characters, especially its lead Tobey Marshall (Paul). A natural behind the wheel but behind on most of his payments on the shop his late father left him in Mt. Kisco, N.Y, Marshall makes up for his payments and barely keeps the shop afloat and his close friends employed through a string of minor street races. After a generous offer from an old acquaintance, pro NASCAR driver

I saw an advanced screening of Need for Speed at NAS Pensacola for free and went in with no expectations. I actually expected it to be really bad. But my hand to god....it was awesome. There is not a dull moment in the entire movie. With a countless number of street races, police chases, and car crashes i was entertained throughout its two hour run time. But of course all of this time spent on the action scenes comes at the cost of a well thought out plot. It was pretty formalistic and predictable. but what did you expect from a movie based off a racing video game? There were no stand out performances by the actors but no one was bad either. Kid Cudi played the comic relief and he did a lot better than i expected having no prior acting experience. Overall if you're looking for a very intense and entertaining movie this is it. Hopefully now Aaron Paul wont just be remembered as "the guy from Breaking Bad". 8/10

I'm trying to swallow this movie, but so far I just couldn't.

I will be brief because this thing don't deserve more than a few lines from me, first the acting is poor from the beginning to the end, the characters are flat and history doesn't make any sense on the real world, I know that this is a movie based on a game and I may not expect too much, but this movie is a catastrophe.

There are several dramatic scenes that should make you feel something about the characters but you don't feel nothing at all, specially because everyone of the dramatic sequences are fallowed by an unrealistic and illogical event, you have to watch it to understand...

The races are boring, the action on the movie is kind of lazy, you feel like there are lots of ultra expensive cars running at 40 miles per hour and a Parkinson guy holding the camera.

So if you want to get a big disappointment watch Need for Speed.

If you don't believe me and want to watch this pearl make something as you watch, do the math and calculate the profit, you will know what I mean when you finish the movie.