One of the worst movies I’ve seen this year. I kept rubbing my eyes together, wondering if what I was seeing was really as crumby as I thought. If a movie about a race car driver (Ethan Hawke…not exactly on creative fire after this and The Purge) forced to complete a series of mysterious tasks by a hilariously accented voice (Jon Voight) through his car to get back his kidnapped wife doesn’t sound good, then I’m afraid I’ve spoiled the best part. When Selena Gomez shows up as the “tough” girl who tries to car jack him, it’s all downhill from there.
What Works: Hahaha…Well, in absolute fairness, there is one sequence I liked. Late into the movie, our hero is doing one of his endless chases after an SUV, and right when we feel “Oh God, another poorly shot and edited car chase” it does something subtly refreshing: It just lets the action play out in one long, unbroken take from the pursuer car’s viewpoint. As we watch these cars bob and weave and almost spin out with ultra-realism, it actually captures the fun that a car-chase movie should be.
What Doesn’t Work: But the rest of the film left me completely numb. The Bulgarian setting feels cheap (I’m sure they filmed this movie inexpensively there). The indistinguishable action sequences have no flair (it’s like we’re watching the same collision over and over and over again). And Selena Gomez gives one of the worst performances of the year as a whiny, unintentionally hilarious tough-girl/rich-girl who plays every scene with same doe-eyed annoyance. It’s like watching a Bratz doll play with a butterfly knife and look spectacularly unconvincing at it. The script’s “playful” banter between her character and Hawke’s is supposed to be funny, but really just comes off as sad.
What I Would Have Done Differently: Urinated on the screen, and watched it dry for two hours.