AARON PAUL
REVS UP IN
NEED FOR SPEED
Review by Alyn Darnay
Directed by: Scott Waugh
Cast: Aaron Paul, Imogen Poots, Dominic Cooper, Scott “Kid Cudi” Mescudi, Dakota Johnson, and Michael Keaton
I’ve felt it, I’m sure you’ve felt it, Maverick and Goose felt it, even your great aunt Tilly felt it! That thing that happens when you get behind the wheel of a powerful car, rev the engine, and see a clear road in front of you. That desire that burns deep inside all of us to just floor the sucker and let loose every horse power we have on the highway. And so it is with “Need For Speedâ€. The interesting thing is it happens not only to the characters who do let it all out on the screen, but they make you feel like being right there with them, or better yet, racing against them.
This is not another ‘Fast and Furious’ clone; it’s much much better. There’s a story here, and some good acting, great racing sequences, and the cars, well, the cars are a dream I’ll drive any day of the week. ‘Need For Speed’ is an exciting throw back to the great car-culture films of the 1960s and ’70s, when we all believed in the long gone myth of the great American open road. It conjures up memories of films like 1971’s ‘Vanishing Point’, or 1974’s ‘Dirty Mary Crazy Larry’, or 1977’s ‘Smokey and the Bandit’, or even the greatest car chase film of all time 1968’s ‘Bullitt’. High praise I know, but no one in the audience where I saw the film left the theater unsatisfied.
Here’s the storyline:
In a last attempt to save his struggling garage, mechanic Tobey Marshall (Aaron Paul reluctantly partners with wealthy, ex-NASCAR driver Dino Brewster (Dominic Cooper) to build out a fabled ‘McClarin Mustang’. But a disastrous, highway race results in Tobey being unjustly convicted for manslaughter.
Fresh out of prison, Tobey is set on revenge with plans to win the high-stakes De Leon race—the Super Bowl of underground racing. To get there in time, Tobey must run a high-octane, action-packed, coast-to-coast gauntlet of danger. Will Tobey and his crew defy the odds and prove his innocence by winning in the flashy world of exotic supercars? Watching it happen is all exciting fun.
Aaron Paul is simply great in the role and proves again that his performance in “Breaking Bad†was no fluke. He’s the real deal, an actor with chops. Equally good are all the young actors surrounding him in this film. Even Michael Keaton, who we see to little of these days, is terrific as the creator of the race. Also, to his credit, Director Scott Waugh understands the importance of having enough great race action to satisfy the audience while never forgetting there’s a story here to be told.
So my take…see this on the biggest screen you can find. It’s worth the night out!
Rating: 4-1/2 Stars (out of 5) “Need For Speed†is Rated PG-13 (for sequences of reckless street racing, disturbing crash scenes, nudity and crude language)
Running Time: 2 Hrs 10 Min