When I watch a film, I like to do a little research. I find it fascinating to see what the majority think before I devise my own opinion, especially since I often disagree with most. Unanimously, Getaway received some of the worst criticism I’ve ever seen and I’m not sure I can say much to the contrary.
Ethan Hawke stars as Brent, an ex-race driver, who comes home one evening to find his house wrecked and his wife, Leanne (Rebecca Budig), missing. Shortly afterwards, he receives a call from a mysterious (and I use the word “mysterious” very loosely) man (voiced by Jon Voight) who is revealed to be Leanne’s kidnapper. In order to ensure her safety, Brent must complete a series of destructive tasks given over the phone, the first of which is to steal a customised Shelby Mustang, wired up with cameras and microphones to track his progress. Selena Gomez plays the computer hacking, car enthusiast daughter of a large bank’s CEO known only as “The Kid,” she is picked up during one of the earlier tasks and is Brent’s only ally throughout the dilemma. There are no rules, only to avoid police capture and to follow all instructions without fail, but it is most definitely not an aimless game.
As far as plots go, it’s actually not a bad idea – the only thing it needed was interesting main characters, an intriguing villain and unrivalled high-speed action scenes. Unfortunately, I regret to inform you all that not a single box was ticked. The villain is just an old man and Brent is as bland as unsalted chips; The Kid manages to bring a light flurry of brattish banter to the screen at times, but that’s as far as it goes. Overall, the dialogue is simple, repetitive and unconvincing, and they all lack depth due to lack of character development. On a side note; since half of the characters aren’t even given names, I can’t help but wonder if this was a stylistic choice… if so, it failed miserably and comes across as nothing more than frightfully lazy.
The action is high-speed for sure, but mediocre; flicking camera shots every 0.5 to 2 seconds does not make driving around for 90 minutes any more engaging – I wanna see stunts, flips, crashes, explosions, drifting etc. I know my expectations sound high but, realistically, to attempt a film like this whilst the Fast & Furious series is at its pinnacle is just silly. A few police car evasions and collisions are in no way comparable to driving through the windscreen of a moving plane (Vin Diesel for life!)
Despite how it may sound, I don’t think Getaway deserved to be torn apart the way it was. It could’ve been worse… I’m not sure how, but I actually took a nap half way through and still came back to finish it, so it can’t have been THAT bad. Maybe the motive of the man on the phone induced a glimmer of curiosity or something, and for that alone it gets a few brownie points. Can’t say I’d recommend it though, unless, of course, you’ve watched pretty much every other film in existence.
Getaway gets a 1/5.
[★★★☆☆]
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Getaway at CeX
