Need for Speed

If you have ever played the game "Need for Speed", or at least watched someone play it, like me, you might have a pleasant feeling of déjà vu during the races, because it's a real ride, and besides, you are not on a circuit, and in the end, you will also get into nature quite nicely. Yeah, it's a pretty typical plot, but that ride can really be enjoyed. (08/15/2014)

My neighbors just love racing movies. The sound of the engine revving in my bass combo is music to their ears, and perhaps the only one that can complain is their broom, which comes into contact with the ceiling a few times in these cases, but is slowly getting used to it. Need for Speed is of course completely moronic in terms of story, but no wonder with this kind of target audience. Which is not the players of the game in this case, because it can't logically make sense to them why they would go to a movie based on a racing game that spectacularly adopts formal film techniques yet at the same time is graphically comparable to reality (because it contains almost no people, only objects). Moreover, there can be no question of any cinematic expansion of the game universe when the game has none. The Need for Speed movie is primarily aimed at those who have to have and see everything that falls under the franchise – all the games, trailers, t-shirts, and of course their Renault Multipla also has a fresh Need for Speed sticker on it. That said, the film's greatest asset is the fact that Scott Waugh and the writers have understood the brief, and thus the whole plot can be summed up as basically 'the main character goes somewhere to drive, thereby avenging the fact that the last time he drove somewhere his friend didn't finish. Ironically, all the characters are stuffed in the pockets of the utterly likable Imogen Poots, and the rest are so bland the film doesn't even try to make them the bearers of a higher truth (unlike the last F&F), such that the center of it all is really just the driving, which is filmed very skillfully, so I couldn't complain too much that, since I personally am more or less only interested in the racing, there's remarkably little of it here, because it's really more about the driving. Otherwise I don't know, but 178 days in jail for street racing, a few dozen misdemeanors, assault on a public officer, and general endangerment is a pretty good deal. Not to mention, the main character probably wouldn't be sitting behind the wheel again for the rest of his life. (07/23/2014)

The game “Need For Speed” is something I remember with fondness. I’d be hard pressed to forget it when the US developers keep making one sequel after another every year. Some of them are better, some of them worse. It was just a matter of time before this franchise would be turned into a movie and I must say that from the amount of bullshit we have been treated to during these races, the story the creators picked wasn’t so bad. I enjoyed the action scenes that felt a lot like playing the game. Those made me happy. On the other hand, the characters took some getting used to. Perhaps with the exception of Imogen Poots, who made me happy since the first moment she appeared. Aaron Paul, on the other hand, is a bit wet behind the ears and it took me about half an hour to accept the fact that he’s no Vin Diesel or Paul Walker. I also cringed during every scene with Dominic Cooper. Michael Keaton, however, managed to knock my socks off with how he was enjoying his character. Had it not been for the running time and contained less talking and more action, I would have rated it better. 131 minutes was too long for such a movie. (11/17/2014)

Instead of an exciting racing film, an everyday road movie arrived in movie theaters with the most common and predictable story of revenge and the most ordinary romantic plot. The chases and racing scenes do have energy, but everything else is hopelessly uninteresting. The characters lack charisma, the film lacks insight, tension and humor, and the creators' quest for realism is a clear step back after the last two parts of The Fast and the Furious series. Desperately dull and uncool. (03/10/2014)

I have to say that this movie features great cars and some quite interesting racing with some pleasant locations, but that is about it, hence the two stars. The narrative is told in a strange way and it was not original - just some clichéd rivalry issue between two drivers and a quest for revenge for the ruined life of a friend. Unlike in The Fast and the Furious, I did not get on with the main male protagonist or his crew (the main female protagonist was not very sexy, either), so I was almost wishing for the cops to catch them already. I do not know if it was the stupid Czech dubbing or if the dialogues are this crazy in the original; however, the lines of those guys and the way they were communicating with each other left me with only the question “WTF?” and it was almost impossible to bear. Somehow I do not believe that guys in their twenties talk like I did when I was thirteen. If there were going to be another NFS, I would have liked a better story, a more charismatic main protagonist, a prettier girl, and edgy, relevant, and believable lines, not just a random load of supposedly funny lines meant to sound edgy to kids aged thirteen to fifteen. 3/10. (11/22/2014)