200 mph Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		1.0
Video		3.5
Audio		2.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		2.0

200 mph Blu-ray Movie Review

That's how fast you should run away from this one.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman September 20, 2014

"You can't shoot him! They'll know it was a gun!" says Rick, dryly and in a disturbingly lifeless monotone, in 200 MPH. It's the worst line in a movie filled with them, and quite possibly the height of the excess of unintentional humor and miserable acting that dominates the movie. 200 MPH is The Asylum's knock-off of the Fast & Furious franchise. Which one doesn't matter because this movie offers little more than people building a car and a teenager visiting the strip club at which his mother works. Really. Add in a few disastrous special effects and acting that's below what one would reasonably expect at a middle school Christmas play, and the stage is set for what is easily one of the worst movies The Asylum has produced, and certainly the worst acted, by a mile or 200.

Oh my...

Tommy (Tommy Nash) loves to race. He's just been promoted to manager at his dealership, and with the extra cash and company discount he's splurged on a new ride, a sleek Nissan sports car that he intends to race, much to the excitement of his younger brother Rick (Jaz Martin) but much to the chagrin of his stripper mother Debbie (Janet T. Keijser). When Tommy tries out his new wheels against a dangerous opponent named Kayce (Darren Thomas), he dies in a terrible accident, costing Kayce his winnings and his car in the process. Kayce crashes Tommy's funeral, leading Rick to challenge him to a winner-take-all race. Now, Rick will have to find help from unexpected sources if he's going to build up his nothing of a car into something that can beat the mighty Kayce at his own dangerous game. Meanwhile, he must dodge the actions of a corrupt cop named Flynn (Paul Logan) who works the illegal street racing scene and who will stop at nothing to win money from it.

200 MPH really does try. It's obvious everyone involved meant well in every aspect of the production. The movie isn't phoned in. It just suffers from a complete lack of skill at every level, from the scriptwriting to the acting, from the special effects to the laborious pacing. Much of the movie just doesn't add up. Why is the mother, who must be in her late thirties or early forties, work at a strip club? It adds no value to the film beyond showing some T&A in the middle of a long second act that's almost literally nothing more than Rick and crew building the car and acquiring parts, which includes a terribly lengthy scene between him and a former racer who also has it out for Kayce and from whom Rick wants to buy the racing movie-ubiquitous speed-boosting NOS. In essence, the movie is a cliché sandwiched around a middle stretch that stretches for (200) miles of nothing all that exciting.

But for everything the movie gets wrong -- including a couple of car crash special effects near the end that are, kindly, some of the worst in the business and would look bad on a 15-year-old car racing video game -- it's the acting that brings the movie down to an unbearable level. The only semi-bright spot in the film is Darren Thomas as Kayce, the "villain" who is involved in Rick's brother's death. He at least manages to offer a solid baseline performance, capable of conveying basic emotions and delivering lines without sounding like he's being forced to read them at gunpoint. While the rest of the cast isn't bad for the entirety, nearly every scene sees at least one actor stumble through the dialogue with hardly a clue, it seems, of what they are saying, how they should say it, the emotion they should convey, or even why they are saying what they are saying or to whom they are saying it. Tech talk frequently sounds flat and forced, and more emotionally charged moments lack any real sense of urgency or heartfelt realism. There are three scenes when the dialogue delivery is at its worst: the above-referenced scene in which Rick attempts to purchase NOS, another at the end when Rick has his final run-in with Flynn (and delivers the "You can't shoot him! They'll know it was a gun!" line), and a third in the middle when Rick's mother is asked to take a leave of absence from the strip club. If nothing else, these are clips to show on the first day of acting 101 on how not to do it.

200 mph Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

200 Mph zooms onto Blu-ray with a good 1080p transfer. The HD video source material takes on an inherently flat appearance that lacks life and texture, but that absence is offset but quality detailing and crispness of image. Clarity is strong, and viewers will enjoy clean lines on cars, accurate details on faces, and good general background definition. Colors are fairly bold, particularly car instrument panels and brake lights. Black levels push slightly to the purple end of the spectrum and the darkest scenes are home to some unsightly noise. Flesh tones, however, never appear overly problematic. Light banding is also an issue at times, but overall this is a solid enough effort from The Asylum.

200 mph Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

200 Mph features a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. There's solid musical energy and spacing but nothing that approaches the clarity and vitality of superior lossless presentations. Sounds of racing sometimes satisfy, sometimes fall flat. Engine roars and tire squeals are never paltry, but there's a range of aggression and vigor and clarity that's not always at the top of the lossy scale. There's never significant weight to the heavier effects, either, never placing the listening audience in the car or along the raceway. Surrounds aren't used extensively, and background ambience, particularly at the strip club, isn't realistically spaced or immersive. Dialogue delivery, however, does satisfy in terms of sonic accuracy.

200 mph Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

200 Mph contains a few throwaway supplements, typical of the average Asylum offering.

• Making of Featurette (1080p, 5:16): Interviews mixed with clips from the film. A most basic piece.
• Bloopers (1080p, 0:58).
• Trailers (1080p): Additional Asylum titles.

200 mph Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If a car is traveling at 200 Mph, how long does it take for it to get anywhere? The answer is forever if it's from The Asylum. 200 MPH represents the worst of the worst, a truly terrible film that's cliché, dull, poorly written, miserably performed, and while not home to an excess of special effects, home to a few that are so miserable that they're a sore sight for already pained eyes. There may not be a film with worse acting on Blu-ray, so if nothing else this disc -- with its bland HD video picture, boring lossy soundtrack, unnecessary supplements, and DVD-style menu -- is worth a look just for the shockingly awful performances throughout.