Need For Speed

Racers Should Race.

Cops Should Eat Donuts.

Let me first start off by saying that when I initially heard about Need For Speed being turned into a movie, I was pretty excited. I have been playing NFS games since Need For Speed II SE, so that's what got me excited.

However, that excitement was soon replaced with worry. EA was going to do a movie about something that has pretty much been done already (Fast and Furious anyone?), so I then expected there to be a fair amount of cheesiness in the film. While this worry was well founded, it was, for the most part, not necessary.

The plot revolves around Tobey Marshall (Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul), a struggling small town mechanic and racer. When he and his crew get the opportunity to change all that, things appear to be looking up. But when Tobey gets accused of the murder of one of his closest friends, things go downhill quickly. After getting out of jail, Tobey gets the opportunity for revenge and to prove his innocence in a race run by a man known only as Monarch.

This is what we came to see - Fast cars racing and crashing.

So, the story is a little cheesy. What can you expect from a movie based on a game series, that, with the exception of one game, really has no story? But even with the cheese, the story is surprisingly well executed. This is mainly due to the characters. The main characters are well written and are mostly played by a bunch of relative unknowns, which allows you to focus on the character rather than the actor.

Unfortunately, the stars of the movie, the cars, are not handled quite as well. For your average, everyday moviegoer, the cars will be fine. But for those of you out there who know cars, you may be a bit disappointed. There are a few cars that are stated to be one thing, when in fact they are another, the differences being noticeable in the details of the cars. Others, while they may be accurate in appearance, don't behave like they should. Case in point: There is a Mclaren in the movie that should have its spoiler raised when racing at high speeds to create downforce to keep it on the road. That spoiler stays down the whole time. Talk about a spoiler alert!

But for all its flaws, the movie is just a lot of fun. I was genuinely surprised at how much I enjoyed myself while watching it.That's not to say I want to see them to make sequel after sequel and milk the idea for all its worth and then some (still looking at you F&F). Even though I love the games, I feel confident enough to say that I hope this is a one and done movie. Not because it was bad, but because I don't want it to be ruined.

7 stars. A nice surprise.

Overall, the movie was pretty good. It had a decent enough storyline, pretty well written characters and fast cars (inaccuracies notwithstanding). It's a fun movie for fans of the games, and well worth at least one watch. And, if you wanted to watch it more than that, you can now buy it on DVD and Blu-Ray. 

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