MOVIE REVIEW: Need For Speed

Ever wonder what it would be like to live in a video game world? Need For Speed kind of answers that question.

In a video game world, you can drive recklessly and there are almost no consequences! 

Wheee!

You can totally borrow military helicopters from your friends! 

It's on loan, I swear!

You can host a well-known private street race annually that is highly illegal and law enforcement won't even bother to search your ISP! 

Somehow Michael Keaton still has Batman's money.

You can crash at high speeds and (almost) no one dies! 

That'll buff out, right?

Time in the Brig is supplemented by the fact that the soldier guarding your cell has an iPad and she'll totally let you borrow it! Everything you do is cool as long as it's in revenge!

You dirty rat!

Okay, so I went into this film with low expectations. It's a movie about a racing-themed video game, how much COULD I expect? Honestly, I walked out of the theatre having seen exactly the film I was anticipating to have seen. It's not like the filmmakers had pre-existing characters to build upon to make an interesting storyline. Besides, who goes to see a movie about fast cars and fiery crashes expecting an awesome story? No one. The dialog is predictable, and yes, I do believe the phrase "need for speed" is uttered at least once in the film (sorry Goose). And yes, they even manage to play the game in the movie ABOUT the game! It's so meta!

Making Mustangs cool again!

"But, are the cars cool?" you ask. Well, of course they're cool. Bugati, Mazerati, McClaren, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Konigseg... if you can name a multi-million dollar car, it's in there. Plus, there's an exact replica of the game-featured Mustang (although, I honestly don't think Mustangs are all that cool, even souped-up versions, sorry). And yes, they're shiny and they go fast. That's the whole point.

Shiny expensive cars go FAST!

Parents, your teenage boy is probably going to bug you to see this movie. Also, as soon as your sparkly-vampire-obsessed teenage girl finds out that Benjamin from Twilight is in there, and you get to see his butt, she'll probably bug you to go see it too. 

He's over there, on the right.

Heck, mom will probably enjoy looking into Aaron Paul's crystal blue eyes for almost two hours (and sorry, no, he's actually the only character in the film who doesn't say "the B-word" that his character on Breaking Bad made famous). 

Intense hot guy stare!

Yes, I know I'm totally jaded about a movie about fast cars, but that's just me. Lots of the bloggers I saw this with actually enjoyed it. There are some neat car tricks in there and obviously lots of metallic eye candy. Just, don't go in expecting Ocsar-worthy performances and you'll be good to go.

Need For Speed is rated PG-13 and opens in theatres nationwide TODAY! Grab your gamer geek or gear-head friends and go check it out if you like fast cars and/or good looking people. It's all in there. 

*All images in this post are courtesy of and copyright DreamWorks Pictures.*

P.S. Disney totally paid for our concessions to see the movie. I got an ICEE as big as my head, no joke. And it was awesome. So, thanks Disney for the ginormous frozen beverage! 

Image thanks to Meredith of SuburbanCouponMom.com!

Disclosure: I was provided a free screening of this film for review purposes. Opinions are entirely those of TV Mom and TheTVMom.com. Please see my Disclosure tab for more information.