Getaway

A late night car chase through the cosmopolitan streets of Sofia, Bulgaria; throbbing with that distinct and exotic coolness European cities exude when darkness falls... it's an idea that could have been executed very well. Unfortunately not in the case of Getaway, which instead slaughters the idea so poorly you can't help but feel sorry for it. 

Everyone loves a good car chase. You won't find one in Getaway though. All the chase scenes are nothing more than a nauseating rapid succession of very brief cuts. It's literally   impossible to get a wider picture and understanding of what is going. Many scenes could have been quite impressive if they had just been shot at a wider angle and held a longer frame. This does not happen once though. The breakneck speed at which the cuts are made (close up of car headlights-exploding box-back wheel-driver-back to headlights) just doesn't allow the chase to flow and is frustrating to watch. How can one appreciate what's happening when they can't even see what's happening?

Selena Gomez may be trying to break out of her Disney image (and good for her) but that doesn't mean she's suited to every role. Her performance here feels weak and definitely isn't helped by an even weaker dialogue. Ethan Hawke's performance is more believable, but it's only one taste bud of sweetness in the overall bad taste this movie leaves. 

There's pretty much zero laughs, the first half is filled with the characters bickering annoyingly, the chase scenes are visually unwatchable, it's painfully unnecessarily noisy and the plot is nothing but mediocre. 

Fortunately I viewed the film at an advance screening and therefore given it was free I just felt disappointed, rather than feeling ripped off as I would have had I actually handed over my hard earned dollars in exchange for that mess. I tried my best to enjoy the film, but to be honest all I wanted to do was getaway.

This might not be fun in the traditional sense, but it does have its moments. Especially when it doesn't know it's being funny. Not a compliment, but casting Selena Gomez as your lead, you should know what you are letting yourself into. But it would be unfair to load everything on her thin shoulders.

Ethan Hawke on the other hand, a very fine actor, cannot save this movie either. What might make this fairly interesting, is the fact that it does keep up its pace from beginning to end. And one particular chase scene, that goes POV (of the car), which is really phenomenal! Almost too good to be in a movie like this. A movie that has tension and a fast pace, both of which distract from the fact that nothing makes sense

'GETAWAY': Two and a Half Stars (Out of Five)

B car-chase movie starring Ethan Hawke and Selena Gomez. Hawke plays an ex-race-car driver who's forced to bend to the will of a madman in order to rescue his kidnapped wife. He finds help from a young girl (Gomez) who knows a lot about computers and is the owner of the stolen car he's driving. The movie co-stars Jon Voight as the voice of the 'madman' and was directed by Courtney Solomon (who also directed the B movies 'DUNGEONS & DRAGONS' and 'AN American HAUNTING'). The film was written by first time feature film writers Sean Finegan and Gregg Maxwell Parker. It's already well known as a painfully bad movie but in my opinion it's not that bad.

Hawke stars as Brent Magna, a former race-car driver who's wife (Rebecca Budig) is kidnapped by an unknown man (Voight). The man tells Magna he must steal a car, a Shelby Mustang Super Snake, from a parking garage and do whatever he says (in it) or his wife will be killed. Magna is forced to drive around like a madman, endangering innocent bystanders, while constantly evading capture by cops. When the owner of the mustang (Gomez) shows up attempting to take her car back Magna is forced to take her along with him. Her computer skills become useful as the two try to outwit this crazy man, holding them all captive, and end his crazy games.

The movie is a pretty routine car-chase action flick but it delivers what it promises. It has a decent amount of thrilling and spectacular action scenes and is pretty fast paced. The story is pretty dumb and the character development is ridiculous but people don't usually go to see movies like this for things like that. If not for the casting of Hawke, Gomez and Voight this movie probably would have been a direct to video release where it could have been a little more respected for what it is instead of failing to meet unusually high expectations. The movie is a bad B movie but it's still kind of fun (at least in places). I like Hawke as a leading man and Voight makes a good sinister villain (even if you only ever see his mouth and hear his voice). Gomez is cute but she still doesn't seem to have any acting skills and her character is pretty annoying in this. The movie is what it is and if you know what you're getting into it shouldn't be that much of a letdown.

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According to another user, this movie is "brainless fun", which I really must contend with. This movie sure is brainless, but there isn't much fun to be found here. The script is dismal, the central plot makes no sense, and the chase sequences are edited in the contemporary shaky-cam style that makes it hard to tell what is going on at some points, which really gets my goat. The whole reason I went to see this movie is to see some kick-butt car cinematography, but there is better, free content on youtube that I could have watched to whet my appetite(like Ken Block's gymkhana series or vintage rally B-group footage). To say that I am disappointed would be a lie, I had a feeling this movie would be a dud because they hardly marketed it at all and released at the end of summer, which is always a bad sign.

Ethan Hawke's performance may be the only redeemable part of this movie, as I could really tell he was working hard to make the 11th grade level dialog work. Selena Gomez's acting was predictably sub-par, it seems to me the only reason she was included in Getaway was to get guys my age into the theater. And if the two other dudes in the theater besides my friends and I are evidence, it didn't work.

In short, don't waste your time on Getaway, watch The Transporter or Top Gear instead to get your gearhead action fix.

The "plot" follows Former race car driver Brent Magna (Played by Ethan Hawke.) Who discovers that his wife has been kidnapped by a mysterious man referred to as the Voice,(Played by Jon Voight.) Who promises to promises to return her to safety if he completes a series of broad and laughable tasks while driving through the streets of Sofia, Bulgaria in a supped up Shelby Super Snake Mustang. Along the way, he runs into the original owner of the Mustang named "The Kid" (Played by Selena Gomez.)

Now, at first glance it's very easy to see that this movie's plot and characters are there to serve as a backdrop for the action, which would at least be tolerable, if the action was any good, sadly that is not the case here. Getaway is weighted Down by it's clunky script and frantic direction. The action sequences are unwatchable, consisting of exhaustingly monotonous and poorly edited car chases. And in the rare moments where it escapes that monotony, it usually crosses the border into unintentional hilarity.

The Acting is terrible. Though in Ethan Hawke and Selena Gomez' defense, the horrible dialogue (which consists mostly of sh*t and a**hole) is to more to blame then they are.

Never has a movie been more apply titled than "Getaway". Because it's warning you to "Getaway" and avoid this clunker at all costs.