Don't waste you time on this piece of crap... You'll regret it unless you have very low standards when it comes to watching movies, or if you don't care about a story, plot lines, consistency, character development... Because this has none of that stuff.


The IMDB blurb says the following.

"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."

Now this is really inaccurate to begin with... The first 20 mins of the movie are devoted to the initial opening race to show that the protagonist is a real racer, the best of the best sort of thing who loves to street race. It also sets up the younger friend who's like a brother and will soon be dead scenario (predictable) and who happens to be the younger brother of the ex girlfriend who's now with a douchebag and the films antagonist... Still following that utterly predictable and lame format so far.

Antagonist makes offer protagonist can't refuse to finish building a 3 million dollar car... because protagonist does that sort of thing. Car is sold to a millionair after a few seconds of it being test driven and instead of taking the 500k fee for the work, protagonist accepts offer of a race to prove he's better than the antagonist in return for the rest of the cash from the car sale if he wins... By this point the movie is so predictable that I'm sat there saying, friend/brother will be dead a few mins. A few mins later, antagonist causes accident and gues what... the friend/brother dies in a horrible fiery death. Protagonist stops, can't help and gets arrested... antagonist drives of and claims he was never there and because he's rich is able to stick it to the man and get away with it... Still utterly predictable. Protag gets fingered for stealing cars and getting friend killed.

Cut to a few years later and protagonist is released from jail... according to the voice over... has managed to arrange to 'borrow' that 3 million dollar car he helped build from a virtual stranger who knows that he was in jail for stealing a car and getting a friend killed... but that's ok because we wouldn't want to hold up the lame and predictable plot now would we.

Car is delivered by the woman who works for the cars owner and flirted with the protag for a few mins when she met him a few years earlier. Is completely fine with driving across country with a convict she doesn't know so she can keep an eye on the car.

That sets up the love interest part of this predictable movie and does nothing to further the plot at all. In fact of the two women in this film... both are only there because they're new or former love interests of the protagonist... Why even bother having any women in the movie at all.

So protag and lover set of across country... they've got 45hrs to get to California to take part in a secret race that they don't know where it's being held, haven't been invited to and sets up the final act.

Now this is where the blurb for the movie pisses me off... they're travelling across country to try and take part in the race... not taking part in a race across country.

But first... the predictable plot needs to get the old team back together because the car that they built and is/was perfect and capable of doing 230mph now handles like a bag of shit and only the team can fix it... Not that they actually make any changes to the car at all, it's just mentioned and miraculously resolved... during the time wasted getting the team together, we have a police chase that one of the team films from the air (conveniently a pilot) and the protag films from the car... this is uploaded miraculously to the website of the guy holding the race in california and impresses him so much he offers an invite to the protag to take part in the race... because that's where the antagonist will be and we all know you can only prove yourself innocent by beating your former friend and killer of said other friend in a race.

Are you bored yet... because this review is actually more exciting than the movie so far.

Cue the antagonist finding out that he's invited to the race and puts out the call to stop him reaching San Francisco.

This is all in about the first 40 mins of the movie.

The actual racing across country and dealing with these bounty hunters out to stop him is completely glossed over, the 45hr trip is all said and done in around 30 mins complete with side stops to refuel, so he and the girl can flirt with each other and so we can see the lame how to stop the policeman from chasing you... that's ripped right from the script of the Blues Brothers... Seriously, they' not even trying to come up with a single original idea here.

So the sister of the dead friend/brother just so happens to be watching the podcast by the guy holding the race in San Fran when the new love interest calls in to defend protag and advance the plot by stating that the antag was also present when friend/brother died.

This prompts the woman who is engaged to the douchebag antagonist to go and search through his office... where she conveniently finds storage paperwork on his computer, with his signature on it... that happens to be where he put the car he was driving when he caused the death of the other guy... Yes, a few years later, that car is still in his possession, still owned in his name and was NEVER even repaired to hide the proof of the crash... C'mon, they're not even trying... I'm sure some one has a script generator program and just hit 'Run' to produce this pile of garbage.

So protag and love interest make it to San Fran just a few mins late and sign up for the race... As they leave to find a hotel, employee of the antagonist crashes into them in a truck and flips the car over. Cue maudlin scenes where he takes love interest to hospital and is moping around because 'Game Over Man, Game Over' (what I can't steal a line from Aliens, but this movie can steal everything from everywhere)... CUE old love interest turning up because she now believes he's innocent and hands him the address and code to get into the storage unit where the other car is stored.

YAY... now the protag has a car for the big race and it's the one used to kill his friend.

So what does he do.

Does he take it to the police to prove his innocence and that paint from the accident is still on the bodywork, does he show police the storage paperwork and ownership docs to prove the antagonist is responsible.

NOPE

He's going to race him instead to prove that he's the better driver because only then will that resolve anything.

GIVE ME A FUCKING BREAK... This movies is so shit that I can't believe I'm still watching it.

So cue the race and one by one all the other cars are taken out, cops giving chase and so forth until just the two cars are left. You'll never guess which two... seeing as we were never even introduced to the other drivers taking part in the race at all.

Cue protag taking the moral high ground and not bumping the antag of the road, instead selling him a dummy and making him crash all on his own because he's an inferior driver.. Protag then sees his car upside down and on fire and has to stop and pull him out of the wreck... so he can check he's ok (because he's a doctor and knows all about internal injuries and so forth) and then punch him out for his friend.

Then he runs back to his car, finishes the race and gets arrested... whilst the podcast guy does the exposition voice over to explain everything to the audience... who I assume are 12yrs old and unable to follow the utterly stupid, predictable and pathetic script/story.

Cut to a few months later... protag getting out of jail again and being picked up by love interest who is perfectly fine after being critical in hospital where he just upped and left her to go race a fucking car... and she's fine with that, is ok with him being moron for racing instead of going to the police with the evidence that could have been destroyed by his actions.

Cue end of movie sexism where he won't let her drive.

Roll credits


This review is ten times better than the movie... Please save yourself from wasting a couple of hours and do something far more interesting... Like watching paint dry. You'll thank me for it.

Unless of course you like, pathetic movies with bad acting, terrible action sequences, one dimensional characters with no depth and a plot with so many holes you could sail the Titanic through them.

Because if you though this movie was good... I have news for you... You have idea what makes a good movie.

The only thing that kept me watching is the driving action and the fancy cars, otherwise, I would have stopped watching it. Playing the game is more exciting.

**Need for Speed isn’t mind-blowing or innovative, but with a stellar cast and great stunts, it’s still an entertaining and exciting movie!**

Need for Speed is surprising! Let’s start with this crazy stacked cast, especially for a video game adaptation: Aaron Paul, Michael Keaton, Rami Malik, Dakota Johnson, and Imogen Poots. I was shocked rewatching this and seeing all those stars. The plot wasn’t anything new or mind-blowing, but it was an entertaining revenge street race film with some awesome stunts and solid effects. Incorporating the cop chases in the middle of the races was a nice way to tie the games into the film. Need for Speed was no Gone in 60 Seconds or The Fast and The Furious, but it is one of the more fun and well-done video game movies out there.