Need for Speed (2014)

Fresh from prison, a street racer who was framed by a wealthy business associate joins a cross country race with revenge in mind. His ex-partner, learning of the plan, places a massive bounty on his head as the race begins.

Director:

Scott Waugh

Writers:

George Gatins (screenplay), George Gatins (story),

Stars:

Aaron Paul, Dominic Cooper, Imogen Poots

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Aaron Paul	...	Tobey Marshall
Dominic Cooper	...	Dino Brewster
Imogen Poots	...	Julia Maddon
Scott Mescudi	...	Benny
Rami Malek	...	Finn
Ramon Rodriguez	...	Joe Peck
Harrison Gilbertson	...	Little Pete
Dakota Johnson	...	Anita
Stevie Ray Dallimore	...	Bill Ingram
Michael Keaton	...	Monarch
Alan Pflueger	...	Flyin' Hawaiian
Brian L. Keaulana	...	Right Seater
Logan Holladay	...	'DJ' Joseph
Carmela Zumbado	...	Jeny 'B'
Jalil Jay Lynch	...	Jimmy MacIntosh

Storyline

Framed by an ex-partner for a murder he did not commit, Tobey Marshall, a financially struggling custom-car builder and street-racer, spends two years in jail thinking about one moment. Fresh out of prison he reacquires the fastest car his workshop ever built and sold, and seeks to enter a secretive and extremely high-stakes race known as The DeLeon. His purpose; redemption, recognition from the world of racing and to solve his problems. Yet all this fades in comparison to his driving reason. Revenge. Above all, revenge. This is a story about love, redemption, revenge and motor oil all swirled together, but above all; It's a story about fast, fast cars.

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Plot Keywords:

illegal street racing | car race | revenge | redemption | prison | 

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

USA Philippines Ireland UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

14 March 2014 (Canada)

Also Known As:

Need for Speed: O Filme

Filming Locations:

San Francisco, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$66,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$17,844,939 (USA) (14 March 2014)

Gross:

$43,568,507 (USA) (13 June 2014)

Company Credits

Production Co:

DreamWorks SKG, Reliance Entertainment, Electronic Arts

Technical Specs

Runtime:

132 min

Sound Mix:

SDDS Datasat Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

A majority of the car stunts in the film were done practically using car shells, with hardly any VFX used. The body shell for the Konigsegg, a $4.6 million supercar, cost roughly $300,000.

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Goofs

When evading Trooper LeJeune, Julia states that "the window is on the 2nd floor". A Britisher would have said 1st floor, since what is called the 1st floor in the US is the ground floor in the UK, with the next being the "first." But while traveling in America she knows to "do as the Romans do."

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Quotes

[first lines]
Monarch: Hey, I've been doing some homework on this kid Tobey Marshall from Mount Kisco. This kid was a phenom. Used to tear up the local circuits. Him and his dad, man, they campaigned like champions. Of course, Mount Kisco had another great, Dino Brewster. You all know Dino. He went on to race in the big leagues at Indy, and Toby just kind of fell through the cracks. Well, here's some news, cretins. Tobey's been running again, and running fast. Real fast, fast as that "Grim Taquito" will ...

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Crazy Credits

The Touchstone, Dreamworks, Reliance Entertainment and EA logos are tinted orange and sped up in some way.

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Connections

References Real Steel (2011)

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Soundtracks

Siempre Amore
Written by Bobby Summerfield and Matt McGuire
Courtesy of 5 Alarm Music

User Reviews

I'm not even sure why I'm giving this a four. Really.

Oh boy. Where to even start.

I suppose that first off I had way better expectations because I was a HUGE fan of Aaron Paul in Breaking Bad, considering it one of the most brilliant shows I have ever seen. I was let down. Thankfully, he wasn't the worst actor in this film. Every single other person was.

This is the first film I've seen that Imogen Poots had a lead role in, and I will probably never see one again. There were a couple of parts that I had hope for her, but it only lasted a few seconds until I was questioning if this was the first film she's ever been in. I was also unimpressed by Kid Cudi (Scott Mescudi)'s performance. He is one of my all time favorite music artists and that is definitely what he should stick to, music. I guess it's not really his fault that the script was so awful and he was required to recite "joke" after "joke" that they were trying SO HARD to make funny (failed immensely), but I figured he'd have the balls to say "I'm not reading this crap on camera." As far as the other actors and actresses, it would be a waste of my time to even say anything about them, because it is nothing good. I don't even want to get started on Michael Keaton's washed-up performance.

The entire movie flip flops between emotional scenes (which are anything but) and action scenes. None of this flows at all. The scenes where you're supposed to feel some kind of connection between characters does not succeed. Nothing builds you up to them and they're all really awkward and you will feel no differently about anyone or anything going on in the film. The action scenes seem like they were thought up last minute and felt very rushed. It was like they had a five minute time limit on each one or else someone was going to murder their family.

I guess one positive thing was the visuals, which were alright. That's probably where this movie is getting rated anything above a seven, it's from the gear heads (no offense to anybody.) There were some pretty bad ass cars that were nice to look at and some of the action scenes were done nicely (looked nice) aside from feeling hurried.

To wrap this up, this is one of the cheesiest and most predictable movies I have ever seen. I called everything that was going to happen in almost every scene because it's been done hundreds of times in hundreds of films, all executed in the same way. I'm still not sure why the synopsis starts with "fresh from prison" because how prison affected his life is touched nowhere in the movie. I know that isn't a big deal but for some reason that just bugs me.

If you must see this movie, make sure someone else is paying or you have a free rental up for grabs from your local video store.