Tobey Marshall (Aaron Paul) is an illegal street racer building a name for himself in the underground circuit.
Hoping to win a starting position at the Deleon, the biggest race of the year, Marshall makes a bet with billionaire scumbag Dino Brewster (Dominic Cooper) where the prize will be a Koenigsegg Agera, a car worth more than $4 million and fast enough for the Deleon. All Marshall has to do is beat Brewster.
Unfortunately, Cooper rubs one of the other racers a bit too hard and that racer dies in a fiery crash that Marshall is blamed for. As this was an illegal street race and Cooper won’t own up to his actions, Marshall serves two years in prison for manslaughter.
When Marshall is released, he does everything he can to get into the current Deleon race while seeking revenge from Cooper.
We say, “If you like to see fancy cars race, this is for you.”
HOWE: I’m a big fan of the BBC’s Top Gear, and love sports cars so having said that, I should love Need for Speed. It started out with muscle cars racing which isn’t my thing but there was nothing silly about the race, unlike the Fast and Furious franchise with ridiculous car jumps. So with that in mind I was pretty optimistic that I may be in for a cool car racing movie. Oh how wrong could I be?
TAYLOR: I am not a big fan of fancy cars or racing them, so I was surprised to find myself not too bored or rolling my eyes.
Don’t get me wrong, the plot is paper thin and any meaningfulness has to be gleaned from characters caring about other characters.
The characters, by the way, only care about themselves and their gang, not only dismissing opponents, but the countless other drivers and pedestrians on the roads being raced.
However, nobody is going to Need for Speed to see anything other than the street racing of super cars, that is perhaps, nobody but you.
HOWE: OK, but what about the leaping car? Yes, that could happen but for it to drive away without a scratch, come on. And please don’t get me started on the car getting hooked up to the helicopter while being driven off a cliff. Then the shaky cam at the end race just pushed it over the edge for me. While in the cars, it got so shaky it spoiled the overall pleasure of what these cars do best, which is go fast.
TAYLOR: I also would have been upset with the driver taking jumps in my Mustang worth $2.7 million and yes, there are unbelievable stunts in the movie, but at least they weren’t laughable, as they were in the last Fast and Furious. However, I was quite enjoying the race cinematography, I thought it was exciting and well done.
This type and calibre of film need only not annoy me to score highly.
HOWE: I should have just stayed home and watched three episodes of Top Gear on Netflix.
At least they make the cars act real and is far more entertaining.
Taylor gives Need for Speed 3.5 Scandia tokens out of 5.
Howe gives it 2 run into shopping carts out 5.
