Review of Getaway (2013) by Alexproductions — 06 Sep 2013

Getaway really had me thinking on the way out of the theater, was it an ad for GoPro, or the Mustang? I have to say, the biggest star in the film was the beauty. Not Selena Gomez, but the Shelby GT500 Super Snake. Getaway features Ethan Hawkee, Selena Gomez, and Jon Voight, which was the original reason for my interest in the film. With such an interesting cast I wondered how the film would perform on screen. Getaway is the story of Brent Magna (Ethan Hawkee) former pro racecar driver, whose wife is taken. To get her back, Magna has to steal a car, and basically crash whatever Jon Voight tells him to. Many people at this point would consider me listing Jon Voight a spoiler but when you see the movie, you’ll immediately know it’s him even with his face partially obscured.

Getaway truly wasn't a bad movie; it just was a struggle to get through. The more the film went on, the more pissed, me and other film critics became. Director Courtney Solomon made some big mistakes with the film, such as shooting 75% of the movie with GoPro's. I'm pretty sure there’s a rule in the Producing for Dummies about that. It was cool for a few minutes and then my head started to hurt watching the film switch from regular movie quality, to whatever lower quality the GoPro records at. Their must've been at least 15 of them on the car and that was the majority of the footage used in the film. It was funny to see all of them disguised in these cheap black tubes, and when you see them, you just know their GoPro’s, such as in picture one.

Whoever decided to cast Selena Gomez, should also be fired, and banned from any job related to movies. She was just so bad it was amusing, and embarrassing at the same time. Let's face it, she's not a tough person, and I think the funniest part of the film was her aiming a gun at Ethan Hawke. It seemed out of place, and there are tons of actresses I could list, who could've taken her place, and done a better job in the roll. There's a scene when "the voice" (Voight) tells Hawke to kill "the kid" (Selena Gomez), and he refuses saying he's not a killer, and Voight says "good, because you will need her help." At that point I felt like it was our cue to take a bathroom break and get some more popcorn. What I’ve picked up in a lot of action movies lately is the unnecessary jump-cuts, and Getaway makes no effort in an attempt to prevent them. No doubt, a few of the car chases, and crashes were eye pleasing to watch, but when its nonstop camera angle cuts, and shaky scenes, the film loses some of my respect. I just felt that with an 18 million dollar budget, they could've hired some better editors, so the high end car scenes could've been better appreciated.

Another flaw in Selena Gomez's role (other than that she is Selena Gomez in an action movie), is that all of the "computer hacking" she does is on a iPad. I'm not sure who on the crew thought it was a good idea, but they too deserve to be eliminated from the film industry. No hacker can be taken seriously doing their work on an iPad unless of course they are Face timing another hacker.

I will say that despite all of the negative things I’ve explained about this film, there is an amazing car chase at the end all in one take, in first person, for two minutes. Also, I think Ethan Hawke did a phenomenal job in the film, convincing me he was the character. I feel the film would’ve been much better if I saw the trailer, and just the last ten minutes.

Overall if you’re a fan of car crashes (especially at the end) I highly recommend Getaway. I would see it over Mortal Instruments: City of Bones any day, but other than that, it is a movie with much potential, held back by a crappy script, and Selena Gomez. I am sad to say that the film owned up to its title, and literally makes you want to “Get Away,” from the movie.