Review of Need for Speed (2014) by Brian A — 18 Jan 2016

OK, first of all, in order to watch this genre, you need to understand a few things before viewing: no Oscars forthcoming, expect the unreal and foolish, and watch out for that tree!!! Sure, the acting won't bring down the house, and it's competent at best here, the story line won't take a lot of effort to follow, and you just might have to put your reality gauge on the back-burner for this one.

Actually, the name of the movie should have been Need for a Lengthy Prison Term. Seems most in the film are doing everything in their power to end up in jail because ... well, I don't have an answer to that (Remember, put common sense on hold). But even the cops get involved in the foolishness. During the big race at the end of the film, they put life, limb, and thousands of dollars of property at peril for ..... well again I don't have a good explanation, other than it looks cool and probably sells well to the male, 17-34 age group. But the problems don't end there. We may also ask why does Tobey sit outside revving up the Cobra merely to communicate urgency to a former crew member? Well, it sounds cool. Plus it presents an opportunity for a cop to come over and ask Tobey to take the car around the corner. Does he? No, because he has to show his former crew member who's looking out of the building several stories high that the front end is kind of loose. And in order to show this he needs to peal out and drive in circles going real fast while the cop takes chase. Yes, that silly.

That being said, if you put all common sense on hold, don't ask for much more than spectacular stunts and really cool, uber-expensive cars going real fast in illegal (seems to be the key word here) street races, you won't be disappointed. And just try to ignore the cop at the tend who uses his car as a weapon in an attempt to stop the big illegal street race while in the process possibly severely injuring if not killing several drivers. Oh, but make sure you watch with a protective tarpaulin on your lap. You don't want all that pedestrian and cop debris getting all over your couch and clean clothes.