Review of Getaway (2013) by Jeff B — 07 Sep 2013

Taken for a ride, moviegoers will stall out every shred of intelligence during this Nitrous-injected B-Movie car chase flick's bumpy ride toward the end credits. Familiarly, they choose a man who's done some nefarious deeds, kidnap one of his loved ones, and then pit this desperate fellow on a one-way breakneck rescue mission. It sounds like all involved want this engaging premise to get Taken to the bank...only the hard-driving twist on this formula only goes so far. Instead, the Hand of God seemingly drops a ridiculously gifted computer hacker into the passenger seat to keep the plot advancing in the same manner that Dr. Crusher saved billions of lifeforms on Star Trek: The Next Generation by whipping up a race-saving pharmaceutical cocktail at the 11th hour. It's cheap and only works if you shift your intelligence into Park for 90 minutes.

In this PG-13-rated crime-thriller, an ex-race car-turned-getaway driver (Hawke) gets forced behind the wheel to follow the orders of a mysterious man (John Voight) to save his kidnapped wife.

Of course, it helps to have a capable wheelman in the driver's seat. Ethan Hawke is no Liam Neeson in that that he's not a 60-ish action hero. No, he's cut a swath through popcorn (The Purge) and indie cinema (Before Midnight) by being a reactionary actor, playing the thrills to the hilt and emotion to the halt. Meanwhile, Selena Gomez remembers her lines while director Courtney Solomon uses a thrifted mash-up style of dashboard camera footage and steadi-cam to keep the action going.

Bottom line: Too Lame Blacktop.