Have you got the need…? The need… for speed? The need… for Need for Speed?
If so, you must be interested in seeing Scott Waugh’s adaptation of the hit video game, starring “Breaking Bad’s” Aaron Paul, when it hits theaters on March 14, 2014. You’ve seen the trailers, and those car chases look pretty darned cool, but they don’t tell you a damned thing about the movie. Aaron Paul is on a mission of vengeance, Dominic Cooper wants to stop him, but how does that mission of vengeance work? What is Paul driving towards, or even driving for? Will anyone even want to see Aaron Paul in a role where he isn’t guaranteed to punctuate every other scene with an epic “Yeah, bitch?!”
We all have our questions. What follows are CraveOnline‘s Top 5 Questions about Need for Speed, and why the answers to those questions may even matter.
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
Need for Speed: Our Top 5 Questions
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What the Heck is Need for Speed About?
The trailers have been mostly vague, promising epic car chases, lots of stunts and some sort of revenge story that pits Aaron Paul against Dominic Cooper for some reason. What we can tell you is that Dominic Cooper wronged Aaron Paul in a very serious way, and that only getting into a nationwide car chase can avenge those wrongs. That's a pretty cool set-up for a movie. Hopefully director Scott Waugh doesn't get so caught up in the action sequences that he forgets to properly dramatize why they're happening, the way the marketing team clearly has so far.
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Is Aaron Paul a Movie Star?
It's a make-it-or-break-it moment for Aaron Paul, the beloved star of AMC's "Breaking Bad" now auditioning for theatrical acceptance as a potential movie icon. He's got the acting chops, and he's got the charisma, but will audiences be able to accept him as any character other than Jesse Pinkman? It's been a problem before: George Reeve was nationally renowned as the first TV Superman, but audiences couldn't accept him as anything else, forcing producers to cut his part entirely from the Oscar-winning classic From Here to Eternity. Poor guy. We hope Paul fares better.
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What's Up with Michael Keaton?
Michael Keaton appears to be playing a narrator in Need for Speed, and he also appears to have filmed his entire role in a single afternoon. It's possible that Scott Waugh is intending Keaton's role to be a sort of homage to Cleavon Little's appearance in Vanishing Point, one of the best car chase movies ever made, which co-starring the Blazing Saddles comedian as a radio DJ offer color commentary on a massive car chase across state lines. Whether that's true or not, Michael Keaton appears to be trying to re-enter the public consciousness with smaller roles in high profile movies, reminding audiences why they liked him in Beetlejuice and Batman so much in the first place, and possibly paving the way for a proper comeback. But with RoboCop underperforming, it may fall to Need for Speed to make or break a new epoch in his career. Maybe it'll work. Maybe.
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Aren't We Overdue for a Good Video Game Movie?
Oh heavens, yes. For whatever reason, video games have a terrible history as far as motion picture adaptations are concerned. Even the best ones - Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil, Silent Hill - stink of low ambitions, barely met. Need for Speed is the first video game adaptation since 2010's Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time with a major studio backing it, in the hopes of building a proper mainstream franchise. Will this be the film that finally breaks out, or are we doomed to another few years of "video game movies suck" before Splinter Cell or Assassin's Creed comes out? We'll find out in mid-March.
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Can Need for Speed Save Practical Stunts?
Action movies are so wrapped up in what they can do with computers that they forget what they can do with actual stuff. Former stuntman Scott Waugh is directing Need for Speed, and dedicated himself to doing all the impressive-looking car chases with real cars, and with real cast members (mostly) driving them in the action sequences. If Need for Speed is a hit, it could help preserve the practical stunt industry and remind studios that audiences really do care whether believe what's happening on screen actually happened. If it bombs, it could be just another nail in the coffin. There's a lot at stake here.
