Review of Getaway (2013) by Orlando O — 25 Dec 2013

Getaway is an action thriller ride that just gets messy with no sensible plot, terrible performances, and poorly executed action sequences.

Brent Magna (Ethan Hawke) is an ex racecar driver who is forced behind the wheel cause they kidnapped his wife. The unknown voice (Jon Voight) giving Brent orders on what to do with the getaway vehicle becomes dangerous. Until a young hacker (Selena Gomez) tries to steal the getaway car and being forced into an uneventful night.

There is not really much of a story as it jumps right into action with brief moments of Magna's wife being kidnapped and him getting into the car, driving away with a police chase. The movie is one big chase sequences, and it does get very repetitive. Even, the action sequence was not really exciting. It is badly edited and put together with many camera shots. All of those shots were jumbled into one big wreck. The director of photography also had most of the action sequences with terrible camera set-ups. Especially, there is one prolonging shot with the camera set up in front of the car as it chases another car, looking like it was one of those police chases that are seen on tv.

Ethan Hawke tried his best and gave much more of a performance than anyone else. Selena Gomez is a talented young actress but her playing a hacker. It felt miscasted with her in the role but props for her in trying. Jon Voight's performance as the mysterious voice and antagonist was not really a good one either. Even, if he was behind the other end of the phone line and in front of a computer looking through video feeds of Magna being chased around.

Getaway does try to play out as a nonstop thrill ride with its everlasting action. But the action alone felt incoherent with loads of cars crashes, explosions, and an hour and half of the chase sequence.