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.

My Review: Spring Breakers (5/10)

"I got Scarface. On repeat. SCARFACE ON REPEAT. Constant, y'all! I got Escape! Calvin Klein Escape! Mix it up with Calvin Klein Be. Smell nice? I SMELL NICE!"

Spring Breakers begins with its colorful neon lights, its catchy score, and its hallucinatory hedonistic atmosphere in such a way that it draws the audience in from the very beginning. There is no character development whatsoever or an interesting plot, but there was something magnetic about this social commentary on today's youth and search for pleasure. Spring Breakers was written and directed by Harmony Korine, and at first I was really drawn in to this film that had a very unique mood and energy to it. The music and the slow motion allowed for Korine's social commentary to get across pretty easily. But as the film progressed and continued to be repetitive (there are literally several scenes and voiceover narrations that play over and over again) I felt like I was getting more and more irritated with it. By the end it got so repetitive that I felt like I was watching the same music video on repeat several times. Even at the short length of 90 minutes this movie felt too stretched out. This could have worked as a short film, but instead Korine decided to stretch it out in order to get his point across. He focused so much on the hedonistic and immoral side of today's youth that I just felt overwhelmed by this movie. What began as a provocative film slowly began to lose itself into a fluorescent nightmarish dream. I understand that the one dimensional characters were actually intended, but the plot could've used a little more work and less repetition. I preferred Coppola's The Bling Ring, which I felt worked as a better social commentary about today's celebrity and fashion obsessed youth. In Spring Breakers, Korine focuses on this generation's hedonistic search for pleasures such as sex, alcohol, drugs, and violence. Finding one's identity seems to be related with having fun and searching for as much pleasure as one can find. Korine got his point across, but he seemed to be repeating himself too much. At the end it just felt too preachy.

Faith (Selena Gomez), Candy (Vanessa Hudgens), Brit (Ashley Benson), and Cotty (Rachel Korine) have been best friends since they were in grade school. Now they are all studying at the same University and they are looking forward to spending time together during Spring break. They are planning on going to Florida to have a good time and discover themselves. They talk about this event as if it were going to be some sort of spiritual experience and self discovery, but in reality all they are looking for is to party. The only problem is that they never come up with the money to travel. Candy, Brit, and Cotty all have similar character traits, they are very outgoing party girls. Faith on the other hand is a little more reserved as she has a christian background and likes to go to church and prayer groups. The three troublemakers decide to rob a local restaurant in order to come up with the money for their trip. With only a couple of water guns they succeed and are all set for their adventure. Faith joins the girls and together they begin having the time of their life in Florida. But the fun and games don't last too long after they experience some trouble with the law and end up behind bars. A stranger, a gangster rapper named Alien (James Franco), bails them out and invites them to hang out with him. He has some interesting plans for these special girls. 

The film has some very interesting performances here, but the stand out without a doubt has to be James Franco. He plays a very different character from the ones we are used to seeing from him. Despite how much I enjoyed his performance, I still think you could enjoy it from the trailers alone because there isn't much more in the film. Some scenes actually felt like if it were the trailer repeating itself over and over. Selena Gomez also gives a very different performance from her Disney roles as we see her smoking and drinking, although she is a little more reserved then the rest of the girls. The other three girls are very hard to distinguish in this film. They all play similar roles and it was as if director Korine was purposely mushing the three characters into one. They were all hungry for adventure and all they were looking for was to experience as much pleasure as they could having no morals at all. When James Franco comes into play at first we see him as this dangerous figure for the girls, but soon we realize that he might be in for a surprise. I had no problem with the performances here, I enjoyed them. My main issue had to do with the fact that the movie had no plot and it continued to repeat itself over and over. The magnetic appeal it had at the beginning slowly went wearing off on me until I could care less for what was happening.