Getaway

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.

I love ethan Hawke, selena gomez, and action movies. So what went wrong with this? Read on to find out.

Cinematography: Pretty mediocre shots and scenes in general. For a movie based around action and chase scenes so much, they don't do a very great job of it. 6 underground did their chase scenes a lot better.

Acting: The cast is good but performances are only okay. But with such little plot direction and mediocre scripts make for average performances. Seriously like has the director even heard of characterization?

Story: The worst part of this is the story. The whole plot is pretty much a mustang commercial the whole time. No characterization, only thing that happens is running from cops. Also what is with the indestructible mustang? I cant even count how many times it rammed, smashed and got shot at but still ran/looked fine. You cant have action 100%, of the time because then it actually is too normal and ends up being boring, which ultimately happens to me when watching this.

Summary: Not a very good movie, I love the cast and I'm a huge car guy but nothing in this movie can make me think it's any good to watch. It's very boring, extremely mundane plot and no characterization. I would reccomend not watching this one.

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 story is a poor excuse for a high speed car ride. The plot does not make much sense, and is not believable. Selena Gomez's character is annoying.

I don't normally take the time to write reviews as I don't feel I have much to add to everyone else's take. But Getaway has been so poorly received, unjustifiably so in my opinion, that I thought I'd weigh in.

This is a popcorn movie. Nothing more. I understood that going in. It's not high art. It doesn't revolutionize movie-making, and is not even the high point of the genre. But it's entertaining, and that's all I ask of a movie. Give me some popcorn and a Coke, and dim the lights, let me forget about the world for a couple hours, and I'm happy.

The two leads are very good in my opinion. Ethan Hawke is a very capable actor, and he brought a depth to his character that I didn't expect. He expressed concern without being overly dramatic or gnashing his teeth or chewing up the scenery, and conveyed his character's limitations without appearing dumb. Selena Gomez was bright, and had the expected attitude of someone her character's age without being precocious or annoying.

Most of the plot was admittedly easy to figure out early on, but the movie still provided plenty of excitement in how it got there. There were some aspects of the story that were dismissed without explaining a lot of detail, but it didn't rely on otherwise smart people doing dumb things to make it all work, and I appreciated that as well.

I've read criticisms by others concerning the "shaky-cam" technique during the chase scenes. I didn't find that to be a problem in the least. It was much less annoying or even apparent than in movies like Transformers. I found everything was easy to follow and served the story well - I didn't think any style choices got in the way. And there was one street-level point of view sequence that I thought was especially well done - presumably a single take - that gave me a real rush.

Overall, I enjoyed Getaway, but that may be in part because I went in with low expectations due to its opening weekend box office and some negative reviews. With stiff competition this summer there are certainly better choices for your entertainment dollar. I don't know if I'd even consider this in the top ten or twenty films this year. But for cheap ticket at a matinée or second-run theater, or later as a rental it's an entertaining diversion.