Getaway - Via di fuga

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.

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.

I will be the "other side" of the reviews, as i will be honest , I saw it for free... I would probably be mildly disappointed if i had payed $15... it's a "red box" movie ...worth a couple of bucks . but it wasn't that bad --like "Frankenstein theory" or other REALLY bad films lately-- If you saw "vanishing Point", this is better ,by far than that one .

In a nutshell , Getaway is , or could be called "A Lot of Cops Crashing"

Yes it is a thin plot , yes it has bad writing ,and although overall, it is highly polished, some of the camera work seems to be shot by a 9th grade A/V student,and some is crazy good, there is one shot towards the end that -for me- was incredible camera work .... it is a grill cam shot from the second car car , it is one continuous shot that winds you through traffic like you are riding a street luge, it is a clean crisp long -no scene splits- camera shot that I just loved ,

Although predictable , this film is full of action, well , car chases, Im a car nut so , who cares about Oscars when you get to thrash a highly built mustang ... it's no "shawshank" but it gets at least a five ---6.5 , from me , great action , no slow plot development , and the ending is great if not just a little predictable ....its just popcorn fun ...yes, it was fun ..dont listen to the other critics if you like any of this . I hate slow crappy movies , this is not one of those .... when i am bored , I will watch this again

Oh boy where to start....

If I'd list everything that is just utterly wrong in this movie in terms of character motivation, logic glitches .... pages would be filled.

A crash car derby has a plot that makes more sense. At least there you know its all about turning cars into scrap metal. In this movie it happens to more expensive cars and there's not really anything else happening. Cars get destroyed left and right and you sit there and think: "Yeah this should all be filled with tension and be exciting." Instead i was just bored. Just in terms of making sense as a movie so many thing were done wrong early that i felt sort of detached and was not caring about what was happening or who it was happening to.

I did see this movie in a sneak preview screening. The audience there is somewhat different. We were having our fun after all, because this movie gives you so many opportunities to laugh at it. And once we were resigned to just how bad it was, it was rather funny (unintentionally) in the end.