Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Need for Speed Blu-ray Movie Review

The Further Adventures of Jesse Pinkman

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown August 5, 2014

Need for Speed is a mess of a movie. Let's lay that out there from the start. It's not just angling to kick off the next Fast and the Furious franchise, it's bound and determined to snatch up every genre cliché in reach, toss it at the screen and let the audience sort it out. Now I'll be the first to admit there's a fair bit of fun to be had here, so long as you're willing to pop some popcorn, switch off the ol' brainbox and make a night of the Big Dumb Fun writer George Gatins and director Scott Waugh commit to the page and screen. But that would require ignoring a solid 50% of the flick and, sorry kids, that's not my job. (CinemaSins is going to have a helluva time fitting all the problems, mistakes, missteps, plot holes and logic-defying story developments into one video.) The other 50%, though, is where those who'll enjoy Need for Speed will watch as all the film's flaws bleed away in a blur and the road ahead -- a road of truly impressive driving and racing sequences, realized almost entirely through practical effects -- becomes crystal clear. Oh, and it helps a bit if you pretend Tobey Marshall is Jesse Pinkman.

After fleeing a life of crime in Albuquerque, New Mexico with the help of lawyer Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk), reformed meth cook Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) turns a new leaf, discovers a talent for racing and purchases a specialty car garage in New York. There, living under the name Tobey Marshall, he puts together a tight-knit crew -- his ex-girlfriend's naïve little brother Pete Coleman (Harrison Gilbertson), fast-talking aerial navigator Benny (Scott Mescudi), gearhead Joe Peck (Ramón Rodríguez) and feisty mechanic Finn (Rami Malek) -- and develops a fierce rivalry with Dino Brewster (Dominic Cooper), a hotshot businessman willing to stab anyone's back for a buck. Soon, though, with his garage under financial strain, Tobey is left with little choice but to work for Brewster again, this time completing work on a rare Ford Shelby Mustang.

The car eventually sells for millions, but ego and greed land Marshall in a race that ends in the tragic death of a dear friend. Imprisoned for manslaughter (his false identity intact, thanks to the thoroughness of Goodman's criminal contacts), Tobey emerges from lockup two years later, itching to exact revenge against the real murderer: Brewster. To pull off his vendetta, he concocts an elaborate plan involving his old crew, an illegal race organized by elusive ex- street-racer Monarch (Michael Keaton), and the same Shelby Mustang that got him into the mess with Brewster to begin with. There's just one catch. Okay, two. Maybe three. One: he has 48 hours to drive the Shelby from New York to California. Two: he has to contend with a bounty issued by Dino. And three: he has a passenger, Julia (Imogen Poots), the British car dealer responsible for keeping a close eye on the car. Cue cross-country chaos; the race before The Race.

Need for Speed is actually one of the more faithful film adaptations of a videogame series to date, with elements culled from several installments in the franchise, including Hot Pursuit, Underground, Shift, The Run, Rivals, Most Wanted, and all the various sequels entailed. Sure, the resulting storyline is convoluted and contrived (to say the least), but it's with some measure of effortlessness and ease that Waugh's racer drifts from one videogame to the next. Fans of the series will have a basket of chocolaty easter eggs to feast on, and will probably come away more satisfied for it.

That can only be a good thing, right? Right? Not quite. I game, and I've played more than my fair share of Need for Speeds, but the jump from console to feature film is a big one, and Waugh's hill-hopper doesn't even come close to clearing the chasm.

The police are dim-witted, near-faceless obstacles with as much personality as the dashboard on an '85 Tempo. (God bless its soul.) The only exception to the rule is played by name-that-character-actor Nick Chinlund; a great addition... for all of three minutes. Then there's the nonchalance of the street racers who come close to killing -- and I gotta believe in some cases killing -- the poor drivers and officers whose minivans and police cruisers get in their way. Tobey turns back, distraught, for a friend whose car, engulfed in flames, is flipping end over end; he has a crisis of conscience over it. But Joe Cop? Highway-Travelin' Betty? Commuter Phil? Vacation-Bound Nora and her noisy kids? Nah. They'll be okay. The airbags deployed. The worst of it? The silliness that is the film's ending. Mild spoiler: our hero is part of a road trip and illegal race that a) violates his probation thirty-six times over, b) leaves millions of dollars of damage and dozens of battered, bruised and seriously injured (if not dead) citizens and police in his wake, and c) commits crimes in at least thirteen states on his trek across the country. His prison sentence? Six months. Six months. Yep, it's that sorta videogame. Ahem, movie.

Paul is the strongest actor on screen (no surprise there) and brings with him a seriousness that elevates the dramatic stakes. It's the chipper, quip-slingin' comic relief that is his road crew -- at times a carbon copy of Diesel and Walker's F&F crew -- that grates on the nerves after a while. The impulse is noble. Keep it light, keep it quick. But the execution is forced. Need for Speed frequently feels like a six-flick pileup, and the transitions between each is about as rocky and bumpy as Julia's off-road desert excursion. Which brings us to the film's hurriedly manufactured love interest. To her credit, Poots brings a good deal of fun and playfulness to the Shelby cockpit, and if it were only her and Paul on the road, it might have worked out smashingly. It's the mechanics of juggling a budding romance (while pining for an ex), dealing with a revolving door of baddies, and keeping so many players in the mix that fails Waugh, especially when all those players collide via cookie-cutter encounters and paper-thin character beats. It's a shame too. The actors are clearly giving it their all and seem to be having a great time doing so. It's pretty infectious at times honestly. (Eccentric Keaton is always a treat.) I'd even call it a well-cast film, minus Cooper, who's all over the place, under-delivering one minute, over-acting the next.

It's the cars that save Need for Speed from its script. Waugh's insistence on using practical effects over CG wizardry grounds the film in a metal-on-metal thunderdome of clashing steel, screaming engines and screeching breaks that borders on heartstopping. The film rarely, if ever, resembles a videogame cutscene; something that can't always be said of the Fast and the Furious saga. The eye can always tell the difference and Waugh -- a former stuntman, born to a famous Hollywood stuntman and surrounded by a lifelong inner-circle of stunt drivers -- knows that difference well enough to avoid it. The sad thing is if you trimmed the fat, streamlined the story, cut a few characters, accelerated the first act and tweaked the dialogue, the races would really shine. As is, they tend to get buried in the film's struggles. Waugh is a craftsman when it comes to action, stunts, exotic cars, racing... the nines of his niche. It's obvious he's talented. What he needs is a co-director; a partner whose talents lie in refining scripts, characters and narrative cohesion. If his visuals and practical know-how were combined with a skilled, like-minded storyteller, Waugh's films would be on a whole other level. Instead, we have Need for Speed: a risky rental plagued with fundamental issues that just so happens to feature a string of amazing car sequences.

Need for Speed Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Say what you will about Need for Speed. Just don't assume it applies to Disney's absolutely stunning AV presentation. Custom built with a gorgeous 1080p/AVC-encoded video presentation, the film's practical, stunt-driven ambitions are on full, brilliant display. Colors are vibrant and striking, with beautifully saturated skintones, rich black levels and red-lining primaries. Contrast is dialed in perfectly as well, delineation doesn't disappoint, and detail delivers the high definition goods. Edges are crisp and clean, with nothing in the way of ringing or aliasing, and fine textures are wonderfully resolved, without any significant macroblocking, banding, noise or other nonsense to be found. Yes, there are a handful of brief car-rigged GoPro shots that exhibit just such anomalies, but when dealing with lower quality and, more importantly, split-second issues inherent to the cameras being used, it not only hardly matters, it doesn't register at all. Need for Speed has all the makings of a fantastic home theater demo disc.

Need for Speed Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Not to be outdone by its video presentation, Disney's DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 surround track is a full-throttle, sternum- pounding muscle car of a mix that will leave gearheads cheering. And with sound design specifically tooled to seat viewers inside the film's cars -- a process outlined in "The Sound of Need for Speed," one of the disc's production featurettes -- it doesn't get much better than this. The rear speakers are as aggressive and effective as they get, with slick, drift-smooth pans and pinpoint directional effects that send cars careening oh so convincingly past the listener. The result is seriously nothing short of a blast to experience. The LFE channel makes its presence known as well; early, often and with a control that's quite disarming when paired with the raw power and authority that prove to be such crucial components of the track's low-end support. Dialogue isn't left in the dust either. Neatly centered, perfectly intelligible and precisely prioritized, the actors are never drowned out by the throaty bellow of the metal beasts tearing up the road. As AV presentations go, Need for Speed hurtles past the competition without looking back.

Need for Speed Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary: Director Scott Waugh and actor Aaron Paul discuss the production from start to checkered flag, touching on everything from Waugh's childhood as the son of a Hollywood stuntman to meeting Steve McQueen as a boy, his own work as a stuntman, his move to filmmaking, the dream-job that was Need for Speed, script development and casting, Paul's contributions, the fun the ensemble cast had on set, the visual effects, the cars, the races... on and on they go. There's a fair amount of back patting, but it's good natured and harmless. Fans of the film will no doubt enjoy the track regardless.
• Capturing Speed: Making an Authentic Car Movie (HD, 10 minutes): While the definition of "authentic" is probably best left for a separate debate, this featurette takes a look at the very real street machines, special engines, custom frames, stuntwork, camera cars and racing Walsh used in place of CG to create more believable sequences.
• Ties that Bind (HD, 12 minutes): Waugh discusses the family affair that was the Need for Speed production, which drew upon the talents of Waugh's father (the original Spider-Man; son-in-law to Joe Yrigoyen, a legendary stuntman who worked from the 1930s to the 70s on more than 200 films), stunt coordinator Lance Gilbert (son of famed stuntman Mickey Gilbert), stunt driver Tim Gilbert, stunt driver Troy Gilbert and stuntman Cody Gilbert. Three generations, one film.
• The Circus Is in Town (HD, 11 minutes): Waugh leads again, comparing a multi-location film production to a traveling circus, particularly with a lineup of race cars. Essentially, though, the featurette boils down to a series of still photographs with director commentary followed by a behind-the-scenes footage reel.
• The Sound of Need for Speed (HD, 9 minutes): Composer Nathan Furst talks about creating the score, while re-recording mixers Greg Russell and Scott Millan discuss the sounds of the cars, spreading the experience across eight channels to put listeners "in the cars", the art of isolating passing cars in a 7.1 soundfield, and spatial techniques that led to the film's top tier DTS-HD Master Audio track.
• Deleted Scenes (HD, 5 minutes): Four short deleted scenes are included -- "Pole Position," "Princess Julia," "Salt Flats" and "Jailhouse Dance Party: Extended" -- each with an even briefer director's introduction.
• Monarch & Maverick Outtakes (HD, 2 minutes): Laugh it up with Scott Mescudi and Michael Keaton.
• Need for Speed Rivals Trailer (HD, 1 minute): A quick videogame promo.

Need for Speed Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Yeah, yeah. The Jesse Pinkman thing doesn't really hold water. I had to try something. I found myself liking Need for Speed even though I knew it wasn't a good film. Or more precisely, I found myself liking the people on screen and behind the camera. There's a passion, joy and prowess coursing through the practical stunts and race sequences that almost, almost brings Need to Speed roaring to life. But it's not enough. Without a solid script or a sharper story it has trouble crossing the finish line. It's Fast and the Furious Lite, and couldn't keep up with Vin Diesel and his crew if it wanted to. The same can't be said of Disney's Blu-ray release. A top tier stunner, it offers a terrific eye-popping, neighbor- waking AV presentation, as well as a decidedly decent collection of extras. I'd still recommend renting before buying, but if all you care about it is the next great demo disc, be sure to give this one a spin.