Getaway Review

Getaway

2.5 stars out of 4

By Brett Takeshita

To be completely honest, I was really excited to see Getaway. When I first saw the trailers, I thought to myself, "Ethan Hawke + Selena Gomez + fast cars = awesome." And then I got nervous after I saw the reviews. It has a whopping 2% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and is one of the worst reviewed movies of 2013. But I gotta tell you that I sorta dug Getaway. It's ridiculously stupid and unbelievable, but it's also tons of fun. 

Brent Magna (Ethan Hawke) is our protagonist. Seriously, how rad of a name is that for a lead character? Anyway, he's a former racecar driver who lives in Bulgaria with his wife. But while the wife is decorating the Christmas tree and dancing around to carols, some thugs come and kidnap her. Oh no! We never know the name of the man who is in charge of the kidnapping. We only know him as The Voice (Jon Voight). The Voice demands that Magna hop into a dope Ford Shelby Mustang and speed around the streets. If Magna doesn't follow his every command, the wife will die. And there are a bunch of cameras and microphones planted inside and outside the car to boot, just to make sure that Magna is a compliant servant. Then, The Kid (Selena Gomez) gets involved. She's the owner of the car, and she wants it back. She places a gun to Magna's head to get her precious baby back, but then The Voice tells Magna to bring The Kid along for the ride. If she exits the car, then bye-bye to the wife again. So Magna and The Kid must find a way to outsmart The Voice, save the wife, and get out of this mess alive.

As you can tell, the premise alone is bonkers. And then, once you actually see the action unfold on-screen, you'll see just how insane this movie is. Magically, the Mustang never ever gets scratches, even after the first mission during which The Voice tells Magna to drive into as many objects and cause as much destruction as possible. (I actually laughed at loud partially because that's the first mission and partially because of Jon Voight's stupid line delivery). It's pretty awesome that there is so much coverage of the action, as the cameras both inside and outside of the car act as cameras for the audience to see the action. However, Getaway is ADD to the max. I don't remember the last time I've seen a movie edited so quickly. You will literally blink and miss a shot. A lot of people complain about how fast paced this movie is, but I kinda enjoyed it. Sure you can't see everything that's happening, but do you really need to? The movie is never dull, and the hour-and-a-half running time is over before you even know it.

Getaway has some of the worst writing and cringe-inducingly bad dialogue of the year. Writers Sean Finegan and Gregg Maxwell Parker do not know how to turn these characters into real human beings. (I'm pretty sure that half of The Kid's dialogue involves the word "Sh*t"). And the plot continues to grow more ludicrous until the unbelievably random twist ending that I'm still not entirely sure if I liked or not because it's so stupid but really amusing. I wish that director Courtney Solomon chose to approach Getaway with a slightly less serious approach, so that it came out more like trashy, B-movie fun. (Think of Battleship or White House Down, great movies that are a blast simply because they know that they're stupid and ridiculous). Instead, he approached this project too seriously and didn't attempt to go for a campy, cheesy vibe. But I gotta give props to Solomon for some really exciting set pieces. There's one extended POV shot from the front bumper of the car that is breathtaking in its execution and visceral energy. Solomon has some good ideas that occasionally misfire, but for the most part, work.

Ethan Hawke and Selena Gomez do a surprisingly good job with the terrible script. Hawke is always a superb actor, and here, his desperation to save his wife is quite convincing. He definitely elevates the material. Selena Gomez does a fine job of playing this spunky, wise-cracking, techy badass. Her character is a little annoying at the beginning, but I loved Gomez's sass, snark, and commitment to brattiness. Hawke and Gomez are a pretty fun and watchable duo to watch.

Don't bother seeing Getaway if you can't get past the premise and suspend your sense of disbelief. But if you're willing to put all preconceived notions aside and are down for some dumb but mindless fun, check out Getaway. For those who have fun with movies that are a little bananas, Getaway is a ride worth taking.