Based off of the popular video game franchise “Need for Speed,” the series was not the type of game to be caught speeding with a storyline. Only enough story to have dastardly racers to go as fast as possible was acceptable.
“Need for Speed” begins with the story of Toby Marshall (Aaron Paul, “Breaking Bad”), son of a racing legend, who finds himself in a financial bind. Toby needs money quick and an offer comes in from a rival car owner Dino Brewster (Dominic Cooper, “Summer in February”) to build upon a Ford Mustang that the legendary Carroll Shelby was working on when he died in 2012. Toby accepts handedly, though not without his reservations.
Eventually, some complications arise over the speed of the Mustang and this leads to a drag race that ends up costing the life of the childlike and sensitive Pete (Harrison Gilbertson, “Beneath Hill 60”). Toby gets framed for the death and spends his time in prison anxious to have revenge.
He gets the chance and with the aid of a tarty, quick-witted companion by the name of Julia Maddon (Imogen Poots, “Fright Night”). Toby races off on a cross country quest to enter the DeLeon, a race set up by a limnal talking head who calls himself the Monarch (Michael Keaton, “RoboCop”).
Despite its title, “Need for Speed” is not economical in even the slightest sense when it comes to its length. However, stuntman turned director, Scott Waugh (“Act of Valor”) manages to fill the time with a large percentage of practical stunt work that looks quite impressive. An innovation utilizing GoPro cameras attached to the front end of vehicles capture some glorious displays of metal mangling crashes.
“Need for Speed” can feel much like a classic race-across-the-country film in the vein of “The Smokey and the Bandit” and “Cannonball Run.” It’s unfortunate that it doesn’t completely take advantage of the embracing a genre that doesn’t exist anymore in that form, but rather heaps on idiotic melodrama in its place.
There is nothing philosophically deep about the “Need for Speed” and it certainly doesn’t aspire to be anything as such. Paul and Poots have a natural chemistry together. Scott Mescudi’s (Kid Cudi to everyone else) performance is middling, though thoroughly enjoyable. And Rami Malek (“Short Term 12”) as Finn gets a satisfyingly stirring scene when he decides to quit from working behind a keyboard and gets back into the racing trade.
For a video game film with as much souped up torque as Waugh has built into the engine, “Need for Speed” moves quite nimbly allowing itself to to be taken seriously, but not too seriously. We may not feel the need for speed yet for a continuing series, but Waugh’s film certainly revs its dramatic engine quite superfluously.
