MOVIE REVIEW - Getaway

For some reason they made this thing, Ethan Hawke and Selena Gomez star in the car chase thriller, Getaway.

Holy cow, what is this?  It seems like a 90 minute car chase, with a video game feel with non stop sensory overload and we're just getting warmed up.  A story that doesn't really exist, a script and dialogue that is horrible, with performances by our principles that are equally bad.  But in fairness, they had no chance.

Condensing this down for you, here goes.  Brent (Hawke) is an ex-NASCAR driver that busted out of the sport a couple years ago. He marries Leann (Rebecca Buddig) and has begun a new life in Bulgaria.  Leann is kidnapped by a high tech operation and is held for ransom.  The Voice (Jon Voight) is the kidnapper.  He places Brent in a super-charged Ford Mustang Shelby Cobra and by GPS, orders Brent to carry out terrorist type crimes in this car using his superior driving skills or he will kill Leann. So Brent does.

Brent then comes across The Kid (Gomez), who is a thug street type kid who attempts to steal the car from Brent, actually it is her car that has been stolen and is being used for this job.  So, Brent and The Kid are off now to carry out the orders, try to stay alive, and try to rescue back Leann.  That's about it.  The rest is car chases and crashes.   There is nothing more.

This movie is proof positive that when you start with nothing, and have no one behind the scenes qualified you have no chance.  It makes no difference how big an actor or actors you get to play the leads, or what teen pop star you think will put butts in seats, you still have nothing.  This is nothing except 90 minutes of silly PG-13 car crashes and chases.  It's loud, ADD, and redundant to say the least.  And this has holes in every single solitary fame.

Plus, Gomez is so horrible in this flick it is almost embarrassing.  Granted, they asked very little of her and the script is terrible, but the rest is on her.  She has no real believability on screen at all in this movie.  She basically looks 14, talks 17, and all while trying to act 20, in a movie that has a mentality of a 10 year old.  As good as she was in her small role in the brilliant Spring Breakers earlier this year, she has thrown it all away here.   Not to pile on,  but this is a huge career blunder as it shows she really can not act.  But we all get hear her cuss!  Woooo!   As she says the "s" word about 5,000 times while riding in this car.

The rest of this outside of her is equally as bad. Hawke takes a giant step backwards after a brief resurgence this year with a couple of big hits, including The Purge which was a huge hit.  There are some fine chase scenes here, but there's just way too much of that, and really nothing else. Why was all of this really happening, who is The Voice really and why does he do what he does?  They try to tie it up, but even that is silly and misses badly.   Oh, and did you know that most cars and SUV's, and dirt bikes in Europe can outrun and keep up with a 650 Horsepower Shelby Cobra Mustang?  Yeah, me either. 

Getaway.  Yeah, don't just get away, run away from this.