Stars Aaron Paul, Imogen Poots, Dominic Cooper, Scott Mescudi, Rami Malek, Ramon Rodriguez, Dakota Johnson and Michael Keaton. Directed by Scott Waugh The Fast and The Furious franchise is probably in no danger of being replaced, although given the nature of the games, there are other avenues for this new potential franchise to explore. Starting as they did with this particular story however… the only benefit going for the movie is the fact that, at least, there are no CG cars around. As much as director Scott Waugh tried to strive for realism (he employed real live SEALs firing live rounds for his previous movie, Act of Valor), his handling of the action set-pieces still leaves a little to be desired. This is especially in the wake of the Fast and Furious movies. While we do have an opening race, or two actually since it’s the second race that kicks the plot into action, we get the sense of how the car action is going to be for the rest of the film. It’s extremely old-school in terms of execution, although I did read about how they went about filming these car chases, keeping the actors in the driver’s seat as much as possible. And as gorgeous as some of these cars are on screen, the camera doesn’t quite ogle them the way they do on the F&F movies. In any case, most of the middle stretch is a road trip as our hero and gang make their way to another race for the climax of the film. The editing is competent enough to build some suspense in the race scenes, but they don’t come close to Michael Keaton’s play by play to create the drama of the race itself. The camera work seems to keep a safe distance at times, and then absolute close-up that you’re there for the shudders and judders of the cars going at full speed. The 3D is effective in some scenes to give you a nice immersive sense of being sped along - one jump stunt in particular makes very effective use of the 3D - as well as utilising the environments. Car chase fans might have something to enjoy here. The stars do alright with their roles although it would seem that Scott Mescudi, Rami Malek and Ramon Rodriguez as the sidekicks have more fun than the leads. Keaton also seems to be having a blast with his singular locked-off character (probably didn’t take more than a week at most to film). Ultimately, the efforts of cast and crew should be applauded, even if the movie does come up a little short in terms of drama. Then again, if this is treated as the first film of a franchise, it could only get a little better. Perhaps with a little lesson from the likes of John Frankenheimer or Paul Greengrass on how to hand the vehicular action set-pieces. Rating: **1/2
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