My Review: Getaway (1/10)

"I am not going to die for you."

The title of director Courtney Solomon's film serves as a warning for us to getaway from this movie as fast as we can. If you haven't experienced this film then you are a very fortunate person because it is by far the worst film of the year. There are so many quick cuts and over 6000 edits (when your average film has far less than 2000) that your head just begins to feel like it's going to explode. Getaway is a mind numbing experience and a B-movie that you won't even find entertaining in a guilty pleasure sort of way. It is just one gigantic 90 minute car chase, where the main character is a Shelby Super Snake Mustang. The Mustang has more depth than any of the other characters in this film. Ethan Hawke and Selena Gomez deserve a Razzie for their performance here. It's a shame that Hawke wasn't allowed to write the script because he would have done a much better job than Sean Finegan and Gregg Maxwell Parker. The dialogue between Hawke and Gomez was so painful that I couldn't believe one of the best films of this year also starred Hawke.  How I wish it was Delpy in that chair beside him instead of Selena Gomez, so that she could slap some sense into him. There is no reason he should have made this film (unless his wife was actually kidnapped and he was forced to star in this). 

The plot is pretty simple since the entire film is just an excuse to see fast cars chasing this marvelous and invincible Shelby Mustang. Brent Magna (Ethan Hawke) is a former race car driver living in Bulgaria who arrives home one day to find that his wife (Rebecca Budig) has been kidnapped. He receives a phone call from a mysterious man (Jon Voight) telling him to do exactly what he says if he wants to get his wife back. He is forced to steal a specific Shelby Mustang that has been wired with microphones and cameras so that the mysterious man can see his every move. He then gives Brent several suicide missions during the course of one night causing havoc in the streets while at the same time trying not to get caught by the police. The owner of the car, who is only referenced as the kid (Selena Gomez), ends up being his only ally in this mission. If Brent wants to get his wife back, he must obey the voice's every demand. 

Getaway feels at times like a video game, with several different camera angles and far too many cuts. Which is probably the opposite effect that Solomon was looking for considering he didn't include any CGI shots and had every single scene shot with real cars and real crashes. It was an interesting premise to shoot everything like this, but he overdid it and forgot about any character development. I get bored pretty easily during long car chases, so you could imagine how I felt during this 90 minute never ending chase. I was so numb that I couldn't even fully appreciate one great scene near the end where we get a two minute unedited shot from the Mustang's point of view while chasing a van. That scene was really good and it deserved to be in a better movie. It is the only reason why I will give this film half a star. The rest of Getaway is completely forgettable. The editing in this film was a complete disaster and so were the numerous and senseless plot holes.