Getaway By Brenton Thom GETAWAY is an action-thriller about an ex-race car driver whose wife is abducted, and who is forced to drive around the city and cause havoc in a stolen car to get her back. The film stars Ethan Hawke as Brent Magna, the ex-race car driver, Selena Gomez as a character known simply as “The Kid,” whose car he steals, and Jon Voight as “The Voice” on the phone giving instructions to Hawke. Right off the bat I can tell you to "get away" from this movie. It is hardly worth watching. Now, I’m not saying one specific thing is bad about this movie, but a collection of things. From the start, you have to question yourself, why is this movie being made? Well, like all movies, they start from the script... and what a bad story/script this was. Just bad writing altogether. The story feels forced and rushed. For some strange reason, the main characters in this movie are American, but they live in Sofia, Bulgaria. There are no questions or answers to why these people are living here in this location. The only thing that can come to mind is some rich guy in Bulgaria wanted to make an “American-action” movie, and boy let me tell you, there is action. I don’t think I’ve seen so many European police cars get destroyed before. I think that was majority the budget (or maybe those Euro cars are so cheap, they can afford to destroy so many). Back to the script - it serves no purpose for this story to be told and shot in Bulgaria. Besides the visuals, it serves no greater purpose to the plot. The characters are unbelievable, minus Hawke's character. He seems the most realistic out of all these people. Maybe it was Ethan Hawke’s performance (but Hawke alone sadly can not save this movie). His character has purpose: his wife has been kidnapped and he’s doing anything in his power, while being monitored under cameras, to get his wife back and follow the instructions from the car phone. “The Kid.” Selena Gomez’s character. Ey, ey, ey. Where do I begin with her? She's by the far the most unrealistic and unbelievable character. You know the main car that Hawke drives in this movie? The Shelby Mustang. Well, that’s her car he stole. Hers. This 19 year old girl, who tries to rob him at gunpoint to get her car back. Where did she get this gun? Why and how can she afford this car? Also, she’s a gear head. She knows a ton about cars and how to torque the engine and make it faster and better. Did I also mention she’s a computer genius, can hack networks and various computer programs, and knows about what's going on in the story they are stuck in? She basically becomes the exposition. When Hawke is confused, she has to explain it for us simpletons, but with a sarcastic tone. Example: “The feed was re-routed to a government server so we can’t track the IP address, but anyone could access the feed, duh!” Are you kidding me? She was the biggest mistake of this movie. How she can afford all this stuff, be a genius, and also hack and shut down power plants is beyond me. She should be an evil genius if she can figure out evil people’s plots while stuck in said evil plot. Now, I’m sure Selena is trying to broaden her range (after working for Disney up to this point) by doing SPRING BREAKERS and now this action theft movie, but her dialogue is bad. I counted her saying “shit” or “oh-shit” variations at least 13 times (and that’s just her - Ethan Hawke said it a few times as well). Part of me thinks the writers took a page out of SOUTH PARK’s book when aired programs can say “shit” on television and went to town by overusing the word. Another issue is the physics and “reality” within the movie. I honestly think the film is probably just one big commercial for the Shelby Mustang. This car swerves, crashes, and gets shot up a ton, but not once do any of the windows crack, shatter, or explode, nor does the body get scratched up, at least until the very end (I never realized this car has been reinforced with armored plates and bulletproof glass). The car never stalls, and the engine always roars. But for being such a powerful American automobile, it sure does a poor job leaving the Euro cars in the dust. EVERY police vehicle catches up to this muscle car when they are in pursuit. If that’s the case, why even have this specific fast car if other cars can catch up to it? Again, this could come back to a writing flaw. The one good thing about this movie is its “climactic” chase scene, which is shot from the point-of-view of the car itself, chasing down "The Voice" through the streets of Sofia. It's a cool scene done entirely in POV. We hear the engine roaring, the gears shifting, and the vibrations of the car as it cuts lanes and crosses intersections chasing the other car. Again, if this fast car can’t catch up to other cars or leave others in the dust, why use it? Advertising! Overall, I would NOT recommend this film to anyone. The movie drags on, nothing is accomplished, the story is boring, the characters are flat and we don’t care for them. I can only recommend this movie if you want to watch a non-traditional holiday movie, because this movie takes place during the holiday season with Christmas approaching. Otherwise, skip this movie all together. It annoyed me. It wasn’t even good (or bad) enough to make fun of, because it took itself too seriously.
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