Starring: Ethan Hawke, Selena Gomez and Jon Voight
Directed by: Courtney Solomon
Rated: PG 13
Running time: 1 hour 30 mins
Warner Brothers
Our Score: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Christmastime in Bulgaria. While decorating the tree Leanne Magna (Rebecca Budig) hears a knock on the door. When she opens it she is pushed back inside, thrown around for good measure and taken away. Across town, her husband Brent (Hawke), a former professional race car driver, receives a call on his cell phone. The voice on the other side (Voight) tells him to steal a certain car from a certain location. Or his wife will die.
With more quick-cut editing then the entire Edgar Wright “Ice Cream Trilogy,” “Getaway” plays more like a live action video game then a film. From the moment Brent steals the car mentioned above, a sweet Shelby Super Snake Mustang, the action is non-stop from beginning to end. But, like a video game, there really isn’t much of a story. In a nutshell, the “voice” wants Brent to spend his night driving like a bat out of hell while eluding the local police authorities. Not an easy thing to do but “the Voice” insists. Every 15 minutes or so Brent is given a mission to complete. After one of them has been completed he is suddenly joined by the Kid (Gomez), a too smart for her own age smart aleck who claims the car Brent stole is hers. Seeing her in the car (the Voice has wired the interior of the car with cameras and microphones) he insists that Brent take her with him on his high speed demolition derby. The Kid said she had the car specially made so apparently she’s the one that told Ford not to put an air bag in it. The plot holes are huge, most notably one that the writers stole directly from “Speed.” Doubling that error is the fact that Brent and the Kid continue to speak out loud inside the car coming up with the next plan apparently unaware that the Voice is STILL listening and now knows what your plans are. And if you’re apparently the ONLY Shelby Snake Mustang in Bulgaria it might be a good idea not to drive it up and down the main drag of the city hoping to avoid attention.. The plot also makes sure that the Kid is a virtual “Rain Man” and by the time she reveals all she knows about the secrets of international banking I can only hope you make your “getaway” from the theatre.
On the positive side the film features some dynamite car chases filmed by apparently 10,000 cameras! I hope they use this process for the next “Fast and Furious” film. Of course, I also hope they don’t make another “Fast and Furious” film so we’ll have to see whose hopes are more important!