Film Review: Need for Speed

If you aren’t looking forward to seeing Fast and the Furious 7 starring Paul Walker’s ghost, then Need for Speed might be a suitable alternative if you are a woman and don’t like drooling over dead men. Adrenaline junkies and the male demographic probably will not care which of the two movies they see.

My expectations for Need for Speed were pretty low. For those who do not play video games, you will probably not be aware of the curse that haunts games which are given a movie adaptation. Basically the formula is this: Hit game series = shit movie. As thus it has been for years. But I was shocked by Need for Speed, (the movie that is) it was actually quite good.

Despite the first twenty minutes being slow (no pun intended) the film had a strong storyline. Yes, it had dumb moments and more plot holes than a sieve but I was willing to forgive all that because it was hugely entertaining and for 132 minutes made me feel half a kid again just wanting to race around in fast cars. 

Also Aaron Paul (AKA Jesse Pinkman from Breaking Bad) makes an excellent piece of eye candy. And for the guys there is Imogen Poots to gawk at. 

When it comes down to it, Need for Speed is basically a revenge film - with cars. It’s a formula that’s been done may times before but this movie’s take on the concept is very fresh. There are a lot of jokes, a lot of action and a lot of heart as well. There is also a Mustang, race tracks, flying cars, super cars, an office worker stripping off for no apparent reason, explosions, random cement mixers in the middle of the desert and an apache helicopter. The only thing this film didn’t have was a giraffe. 

Need for Speed gets 7/10.