Need for Speed Review

Hi, this is John Delancey and you are listening

to the GeekCast Radio Network. Hello and welcome

to another episode of The Cinema Geeks. I am

one of your Cinema Geeks optimists solo and joining

me today is movie revolve Dan, hello. Hello.

And Mr. Fridley Send. Hello, Matt. Hi. It's just

a guy's night out here tonight for our episode

today. There's no hard candy, Mandy. We'll get

into the reasons why here in a little bit. We

are back with today's episode to discuss the

next in our video game film series, which is

none other than the 2014 3D American action thriller

Need for Speed. Originally, this would have been

the last one we covered, guys, if we had finished

back the same year we started this. Now, there

are a couple of other ones that we might have

to cover, but this was the last one of the already

released video game films when we started this

process. Did we save the best for last? We're

going to have to wait and see about that. First,

before we get to the actual film, though, like

we usually do, we talk about the video game.

And Matt, go to you first. Did you ever play

or watch somebody play Need for Speed? Yeah,

I think I played Hot Pursuit 1 and 2. I believe

that's the, like, the other Need for Speeds are

all just street racing. Hot Pursuit line has

police as, like, a playable thing. And so Hoppersuit

1 I played when I was rather young, maybe middle

school age, and it was a lot of fun like setting

out speed traps and stuff, or like laying down

like a spike strip and then like trying, like

the cars want to stay on the road, right? So

you lay the spike strip, which covers like two

-thirds of the road, and then you try to block

the other third with your police car, because

they want to not hit you. It was a lot of fun.

I really enjoyed this. Franchise though the two

times I played it Dan what about you? Did you

ever play the game? I? Did I I don't know which

ones it was somewhere where it was You could

play probably was the same game We could you

could be police or you could be the one chasing

and I thought that was really fun dynamic at

the time like being able to race with I was already

huge in the racing games unless it was like cruising

USA for like the Sega Genesis or is that Sega

64 it was I don't remember but for me like you

know I'd play racing games and then eventually

get bored with them but as Matt mentioned it

had a little bit more to it but once like Grand

Theft Auto came out I'm like I feel like that's

the the joy of running away from the cops which

was more fun in that game than Need for Speed.

I tried the most recent one or one of them that

was on Xbox One. A little bit where you go and

it's more open world, but it didn't really grab

me. It was like a demo. I don't know if there

was more story to it or anything like that. I

have a little bit of experience with the franchise.

We're actually going to have this three for three

for the first time in a long time because I did

actually play Need for Speed once upon a time.

I couldn't tell you a whole lot about it. I remember

playing it and enjoying my time with it But like

Dan I was not a fan and still I'm not a fan of

most racing video games I think I got into like

f0 back in the day because that was like groundbreaking

it felt like you know something you've never

done before Whenever that came out, but other

than that, I you know I don't think Twisted Metal

counts. That's about the only other one. That's

just more of a demo derby. But I just never could

quite get into the straight -up racing one. So

I did enjoy Need for Speed a little bit more

since I had kind of a little bit more of that

angle to it. And then I kind of had tapped out

of video games by the time Grand Theft Auto came

around, so I never got to play that. But I do

remember enjoying Need for Speed for the most

part. Matt, since you might have had the most

experience out of all of us playing the game,

what kind of... Transition do you feel like they're

what kind of reflection was the movie on the

game? Did you feel like it had anything to do

with the Need for Speed video game? Well, Need

for Speed, like I said, is just a series of street

races, so, like, there isn't usually a story

to it that I can remember. So, like, they had

to inject a hundred percent of that story, you

know? Usually, when you're playing the racing

video game, it's not like, hey, your ex -girlfriend

got stolen by this jerk, and he really hates

her kid brother. Like, there's none of those

elements. I would say that the first street race,

uh... Like felt very need for speed where like,

you know, it's like everyone's taking slightly

different paths But they all have the same end

line And honestly the the final race where you're

racing and slowly other people are getting taken

down by the police is also very need for speed

But if you were to total the time of this movie,

which is like almost no over two hours two and

a quarter. Yeah. Oh my god The racing is about

ten minutes of that percentage wise they didn't

do a good job but like they did manage to capture

the feel of the games kinda yeah it did have

racing in it so I guess that you know that's

an element and it did have you know the same

types of cars I guess that you would have seen

in Need for Speed and I read that that last race

that's in the movie where they're kind of going

on the coast and heading towards that light tower

is straight out of a game straight out of one

of the games that level and kind of there was

apparently a mode in the game called knockout

or whatever where you did try to have a race

like that where one by one the cars were knocked

out of the race entirely so I guess that somewhat

reflects the game but outside of that like you

said there's obviously a whole bunch of other

stuff they decided to throw in there as well.

Dan did you feel like this was a video game film

or could you take the video game aspect out of

it and it would change nothing? Honestly never

felt like this was a video game movie like if

you shown me this movie and Asked what was this

based off of I'm like fast and furious but different

I mean, I guess because it's you know based more

so on a racing game, but even just in its presentation

Like the the tone of it. It didn't necessarily,

you know fit what I would assume would be more

of a Need for Speed type of game, which is you

know, it's very action -heavy. It doesn't seem

like it would be nearly as dramatic as this is

Again, I haven't played some of the newer ones

I don't know if there's more of a story mode

that was simple. It was similarly similarly modeled

after but I mean I guess the sense of it has

car races based off a car racing game Yeah, but

I don't know. It just feels a little bit more

self -serious than I would expect from a game

based upon our movie based upon Need for Speed

If you were to like pull me back like when I

was big -time into video games like maybe in

the the late 90s or something around that time

period and you were to ask me like Likely I've

seen a lot of these lists in recent years, you

know What video game should be turned into a

film or what video game would you know would

make the first good? Video game film etc. Etc

those types of conversations unless if you would

ask me that in the late 90s I don't think I would

ever have chosen a video game film that was a

racing video game or a video game that was based

on racing to turn into a film. That just seems

like the worst possible choice when it comes

to story and things that you can pull out of

that game and put on the big screen. It's bizarre.

I guess there's been a lot of bizarre choices

when it comes to turning a video game into a

film, but definitely a racing one seems like

it would be last on the list. It's clearly something

that was trying to capture the Fast and Furious

fandom or that same type of effect and box office

draw that maybe they had, but yeah, it seems

like a weird type of a video game to turn into

a film. Just a quick side story here on why Hard

Candy Amanda is not here today. Originally, when

we started this whole process, we didn't own

most of these video game films for good reason,

obviously. We had gone to a used DVD store to

see if we could find any of them like dirt cheap

like a dollar two dollars three dollars, etc

And we probably came home with I don't know eight

eight of these films and paid like less than

$20 in total and it was You know a good you got

ripped off We did probably get ripped off and

that's why you know and we are giving some of

them away like we've talked about for the iTunes

reviews, so We're not even going to have anything

to show for that money, thankfully. But I had

Need for Speed in the pile of garbage that we

were about to purchase. And Amanda said that

I could not add that into the group, which had

the likes of House of the Dead and all of the

other types of films that we've talked about,

Doom and just also garbage. And I was surprised

that Need for Speed was the one that she said,

we cannot. I will not let you spend money on

that film. which was going to cost I think $2

or $2 .99 and she would not let me purchase it

so we did not purchase it and she was watching

this film the other day she did watch the film

for the record she didn't like out on that she

did watch the entire film with me and she did

not want to be on this record today because she

said she would have absolutely zero to add about

this movie which I can totally understand why.

So we're giving her a pass. She also has some

other reasons. There's wedding planning going

on and other things going on. So it's just not

worth her time to even talk about Need for Speed.

So we're kind of doing it for her here today.

Just like this whole video game podcast series,

we're watching them and talking about them so

you guys don't have to or so we could find those

hidden gems and maybe open your guys' eyes to

a video game film that might be worth watching.

I don't know if we've achieved that part or not,

but let's turn and switch gears to the actual

film. Like I said, this is a 2014 film written

by George Gaddins and John Gaddins, produced

by DreamWorks and it is directed by Scott Waugh,

stars Aaron Paul, Dominic Cooper, I always say

this name wrong, Imogen Poots, Ramon Rodriguez

and Michael Keaton. Released back in March of

2014 two hours and ten minutes long Let's start

with how you guys felt on the movie overall Matt,

even though it might not be this great Representation

of the video game itself. Does it work as a movie?

And is it comparable to something like Fast and

the Furious or how does Need for Speed work or

not work for you? Oh man, like so it's functional

as a movie And you should definitely compare

it to Fast and the Furious by saying Fast and

the Furious is shorter and better and has better

acting, which is hard to say about a movie with

Vin Diesel and Paul Walker. But like. I mean,

it's a functional movie. It doesn't need to be

over two hours long. I mean, it's a movie about

two races. Like, think, think about that, like

even Talladega Nights has more than two races

in it. and also functions comedically. It's just

bloated. It introduces characters at the beginning

and I immediately, you can even see it, I live

tweeted while I was watching this, that character's

gonna die. I knew immediately as soon as the

character came on screen, that character was

written into the story to die. I don't need that,

the story doesn't need that. Dan is bloated the

best word for this or what's your take on Need

for Speed as a film? Bloated is good to me. It's

self -serious or overly self -serious is the

word that comes to mind like when I first started

watching this I was like is this the right movie?

It's just a tone of it it would like it had a

score that was Reminding me a little bit of like

moneyball and it felt like so overly dramatic

What is, right from the beginning, why is it

so sad? I thought this was about car races. I

don't know, it just didn't click me right away.

And this has a lot of talented actors, actors

that did a lot beforehand, that have done a lot

recently. But it's like a car that has a great

frame and engine, but you put in garbage for

gasoline and it... destroyers itself, I think

bloated is a good word because it's way too long

and it needed to be edited a great deal and it

gets to the point where, yeah, we're here for

the car chases, that's the need for speed, but

they get to the point where it just becomes overly

redundant and I do appreciate that it was well

-directed and those car chases were well done

and using physical Real -life cars not really

relying on CGI You can certainly appreciate that

but it's just I don't know the scripting was

really bad the the redemption story that was

Trying to make it just felt so forced not not

forced is the right word just unearned like you

know You have this character just trying to overcome

this Horrible thing that happens in the beginning

of the movie, but it's also kind of like not

really his fault in a way so it's like it wants

to redeem him but at the same time not put him

in a place where it really needs that much redemption

but and and then the characters themselves were

really uninteresting um or it just felt like

it was trying too hard at times just to be other

things it felt like a movie that the director

had one vision for it and then let's see what

he okay but but do this because that's what they

did in Fast and Furious so do that and it just

conflicted and then ended up like just settling

in the middle and making it what this is so it's

just it's not We've seen much worse films. But

in the sense of, yeah, Double Dragon is a much

worse movie on every stretch of the imagination,

but it also has like a tenth of the budget with

this. So this to me is almost worse because you

have more to work with and you end up doing less

in the sense of enjoyment. Yeah, the budget for

this film was $66 million. It did have a box

office of $203 million. So I believe that's worldwide.

So it did make its budget back. I think in North

America domestic, it was like 43, 44 million.

So it didn't quite make its budget back just

domestically, but obviously when you add in everything

else, the 159 million that it made in other countries,

you get to 203. Did not open number one, I think

it opened number in third place for the weekend

that it came out. So it obviously wasn't a huge

box office success in the United States. A couple

questions, because obviously we brought up Fast

and Furious a little bit. I honestly had to lean

over to Amanda in almost the opening sequence

and be like, okay, so that guy's playing the

Vin Diesel part, right? And this guy is playing

the Paul Walker part? I mean, it seemed like

they were almost... Correctly trying to put some

of these types of people in here It's just seemed

a lot forced I guess is the best word Like you're

saying it's overly serious overly dramatic and

trying to force something where it should have

just kind of been fun and fast You know racing

with nice cars, and I don't know what else you

can do to make it interesting But it definitely

didn't work overall as a film for me I'm curious

kind of breaking down some of the characters

because I think one of the big problems. I mean,

there are so many problems, so I don't want to

make it seem like there's one thing that's causing

this film not to work. But Aaron Paul as the

lead actor in this, I just want to read what

Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune said.

Obviously, he makes a lot of appearances on film

spotting and obviously writes reviews for the

Tribune. But I think he puts it best as far as

Aaron Paul goes. He says the actor's idea of

simmering intensity in the context of Need for

Speed comes off more like serial killer in the

making. than a lead talented, you know, lead

actor. Did you guys, what was your opinion on

the cast overall and what is Michael Keaton doing

in this movie, Dan? I don't know. I have no idea

what Michael Keaton's doing in this movie. He's

like crazy radio jockey. I'm not sure. He's just,

you know, he's getting into his character. It's

a bird man. I'm not sure. I didn't I guess I

didn't mind Aaron Paul. I in the sense of like

the words he was saying weren't all that great,

but I felt like. Thought this performance was

okay. Like isn't his intensity was I don't know.

It was a little there was like a falseness to

it in a way like I don't know if I was just because

I'm thinking of Jesse Pinkman from Breaking Bad

where you see this guy He's trying to be ultra

cool pump his chest up, but you know, it's underneath.

He's just kind of like it like a dork not a dork,

but I don't know like he didn't seem like that

ultra cool type of you know, you Clearly there's

a lot of references to like something like bullet

and Steve McQueen with like that so silent confidence

and He's not Steve McQueen not many people are

and I don't know like he just seemed like They

try to combine Paul Walker and Vin Diesel into

one character and it didn't necessarily work

for me. That's what he said That's what when

I when I was like wait, who's playing the Vin

Diesel role? Amanda's like he's playing both

of them combined. So that's funny that you said

that Yeah, and it's just like I don't know and

I feel bad for like even saying much about like

the actors in this because it When you're working

with the material that they were given I don't

know if anyone could do a better job like I don't

think if you got Daniel Day -Lewis he would make

that Part work to be honest with you. No, no,

I think they were they had this dad You know

the deck stacked against them Matt was there

anybody that you found most appealing or you

felt that was most effective in this environment

Or are they all just working with a bad deck

so they can't do anything. I thought Michael

Keaton gave a great performance and it was like

amazing that they had the best actor in the movie

just sequestered like you don't need to be anywhere

you never interact with any of these characters

you talk you talk to maybe the best of all of

the of all of the cast you talked maybe the best

one on the phone for a minute and that's the

only interaction you have you just sit here and

just act and you know do it right maybe if he

had been on set with the rest of them they could

have had you know some lessons given to him but

uh like he does not belong in this movie his

character doesn't make any sense like i like

what does his character do he hosts like an online

radio show and then he sets up a race where he

chooses the starting endpoint you don't pay to

get into the race it's invite only the people

race have to at the end of the race give all

of their pink slips to the guy who wins the race,

but he's not there to physically enforce that

rule. And it's such a big event that the police

find it, even though it's also being broadcast

to the internet so the police could find it just

by Googling, hey, where's that race happening?

So like, he's just a guy who sits on a radio

show and people with million dollar cars race

because he says so. And he doesn't get in trouble.

And he, yeah, like he's not committing any...

crimes I guess he's just sitting in a house talking

about how people should I don't understand it

like his character serves no function for the

movie and doesn't need to be there like he does

not need to be there as a character but he's

he's like the only thing that kept me going though

he was the best part of the movie he didn't need

to be there And maybe that's why they added him,

is because they're like, oh, hey, this movie

is very crappy and lackluster. If we throw the

rest of the budget at Michael Keaton and get

him to act off -screen, all of these scenes could

be shot after the movie was done and just retroactively

reworked into the story. There's a good chance

that those scenes are from another movie, and

they're like, well, no one's used these, so what

if we just put this into this? morph these together.

I had a question for you guys because I wasn't

sure if it was just the way that I watched this

in the format that I watched it but the sound

design of this film I believe sound design I

might have the wrong terminology there but was

it hard for you like the car sounds the racing

sounds the mechanical sounds of the film seemed

like they were exponentially louder than any

of the dialogue. I didn't know if that was because

they were trying to get across the point of what

it would sound like and feel like to be involved

in these races or around these cars or if it

was just the version that I was watching but

I literally had the volume all the way up as

loud as it could go just to hear the lines that

were being said and Then like as soon as someone

started stopped talking and it went to like a

car or race or anything like that It was like

deafening and I had to like turn it down by like

60 So did you guys have any problems with the

sound or is that just me? I think that's just

you. Yeah, I didn't have any issues with the

sound. I mean, certainly the the end noises and

things like that were pronounced, but I actually

thought technically it was actually well made.

Like I could see this director being a great

like stunt coordinator or, you know, someone

you would bring in to design the action sequences

of a movie. But no, I did I mean maybe because

like when the dialogue was being drowned out

I was like all for it. I'm like, that's fine

with me But no, I didn't notice it. There's a

scene that takes place at a hospital between

two of the characters and I okay I wanted to

talk about this Okay, go ahead. I wanted to talk.

So I was so confused by that sequence I'm like,

did I miss something when he gets naked and Sexually

assaults a woman and then leaves and I'm like

I'm supposed to why did that happen? I did I

miss something like I was I was I was rather

confused by that Yeah, that was a bizarre scene

and I didn't understand that as well as another

thing that had nothing to do with anything like

it was like the It was basically at that point

in the film. They're going through the recruiting

montage type thing where it's like Oh, we're

getting the gang back together. We're gonna do

this thing almost like you would see like in

a Heist film or something like that. Like it's

a let's go get this guy. Let's go get that guy

Apparently, when that guy was summoned, he decided

to strip all the way down to nothing and just

do that at the top floor of a huge building and

go through all the elevators and stairs naked.

What? Did that show us something that he's just

wild and crazy, I guess? But aren't they all

because they're street racing? I didn't understand

that either. I have another question, too. There

is a shot in one of the very first sequences

where they're obviously out on the streets and

racing around and trying to escape from the cops

or something. I don't remember what was going

on. There's like a truck trailer, a truck and

a trailer that pull out into the intersection

and then it just stays there like causing the

option that other cars might hit it. Like who's

driving a truck trailer pulls out into like an

intersection of a major road and then just sits

there like that seemed like a very forced dramatic

point that they were trying to make and I think

I felt like there was things like that throughout

all these different times where they're trying

to get away from the cops or to the cops like

They're in a sequence later on in the movie where

they're trying to outrun the cops while they're

going across country or whatever it is I don't

remember and the cops are coming up with all

these different ways like oh we're gonna do this

we can't do spike strips because this will happen

and whatnot so their grand plan was for one of

the cops to ghost ride his Squad car into the

street and hit them that happened, right? No,

he he's like in the woods in this in the like

trees and He gets out of his car and put something

on the car so that the gas will go and literally

just like let's his squad car go out into the

The oncoming traffic to try to stop these racers

Like that is that is the cops grand plan. This

is like the final race That that one happens

yet towards the end in the final race where he's

just like oh I'm gonna and that's how one of

the cars gets taken out Because this guy just

like sacrifices his squad car to just run into

him Like what why did no point do they just put

something across the damn road to block the road?

Well, I mean what was great was like real early

on in the race, right? The race had just started.

Like, you hear some police chatter and someone

goes, why don't we set down some spike strips?

And then someone else goes, ah, those cars are

going too fast. We wouldn't get them set out

in time. And it's like, you know the whole course

of the race. Like, you know the whole course

of the race. And their cops are set up along

the race, almost like checkpoints. So there's

no way you didn't have time to set that up. And

at that point they're in they're not in like

a like earlier on the film I get it because they're

in a regular area where they can do all these

little Left -hand turns right hand turns down

alleys across, you know different at this point.

They were basically on a road that was by nothing

else Like they were no turns or anything Yeah,

there was nowhere for them to go except for straight

for most of that point like at what point do

you just not get three or four squad cars and

put them across the road and Make it so they

can't go anywhere Like instead of ghostwriting

your car into them. So there was a lot of things

in this film Obviously that don't make sense.

I mean, it's probably silly for us to even point

out the ones that we noticed but The other thing

that I wanted to point out I guess in a similar

way if there was like a top Ten list that somebody

wanted to do of the worst time elapsed Montages

ever this one would have to be in the running

Like it looks like it's even fake the way they

do like the seasons and the lighting and This

that and the other did you guys notice the the

time -elapsed montage that they do. I don't even

remember Yeah, and honestly, it's not I think

I Remember what you're referring to but it wasn't

something that really stuck out to me regarding

everything else that That didn't work. But did

you got I mean we talked a little bit about the

car chases minus like the lack of logic, did

they work for you at all, just on the investor

level? Considering the big thing was there wasn't

CGI, it was all physical, did that at all? I

liked watching the fact that these were very

exact. I'm not a car person, so I really don't

get into too much of different car types, etc.,

but I liked the exotic styles of all the cars

that we got to see. a lot of cars that you don't

get to see on an everyday basis or whatnot in

some foreign, you know, prototypes or whatever

those those ones were. But so I kind of like

seeing some of that in a realistic fashion. But

then some of the crashes didn't. I mean, I guess

they were. But like the main crash that causes

the the big, you know, change in the big tragedy,

so to speak, that seemed not real at all. Like,

it did seem a little excessive. I'm like, okay,

he's slipping, that's bad. Okay, he's on fire.

Okay, now it's like, I was just waiting for like

a shark to come and attack it. Like, just keep

going over and over again until like, Tornado

comes by and like, it's just like, wow, man,

he's really dead. Like, you really have to...

It's like those speedboat races where they're

just driving and then all of a sudden one of

them just flips for no reason. But I get that

those cars are probably like super light and

whatnot, but the amount of air that that was

underneath that car when it goes like straight

up into the air, I was like, that seems a little

bit insane. But you're right. It is like those

speedboats. So maybe that was like a legit thing,

but it just looks so. Bizarre and then like Dan

saying it just like one after the other after

the other Where it was whether it was hitting

things or catching fire or whatever It was just

like enough we get that this person is probably

not doing okay inside that vehicle But yeah,

I don't know what other things to do is anything

that you guys like but in particular are the

things you want to point out that were ridiculous

Matt start with you. Yeah like I liked how there

was a really really intense fueling scene where

like two people had to get on top of their cars

to refuel and it was like super intense like

are they both gonna survive? Are they gonna be

able to get away from the cops? And then 10 minutes

later they had this super intense refueling scene

where it's like oh man they're refueling again.

Oh and the cops are here are they gonna get away?

Why did they do two of those in 10 minutes? Two

refueling scenes that are super action tense

like why? That was a thing that happened Like

the guy the guy I Like to think of the main character

who I'm just gonna call dime store Joel McHale

like isn't a criminal right he goes to jail because

his brother crashes a car and he goes to jail

for two years or something, that's really weird.

And then he gets out of jail and then immediately

is like, how about I break all of the laws? So

I think the movie is setting a precedent that

jails make non -criminals into criminals, because

he immediately was like, OK, I'm going to break

the law by leaving the state. I'm going to break

the law by leading, I don't know, 100 cops into

fatal car accidents. They're like flipping over

cliffs and stuff. And then, and then like, another

one of his friends is like, it's okay, I'm gonna

steal multiple helicopters. He stole multiple

helicopters. And from the same airport. Like

he was just there. stole a helicopter and landed

it, hopped out, jumped into a different helicopter

to steal. Like, he just kept stealing helicopters.

Eventually he got arrested for helicopter theft,

I think. But it doesn't matter because he still

got to view the race. Hey lady, can you pull

up Google for me? I need to type in the site

for this race so I can watch it for my jail cell.

That's fantastic. Yeah, I didn't get the quick

lack of care, I guess, or whatever, from these

Seemingly people that are just like street racers

like we haven't been introduced to any criminal

like that any of them have like this bad streak

or just lack of I guess care for the law or whatever

or just People's lives in general and it it's

like the film just flips a switch and they're

unnecessarily causing death like I understand

that you want to get across the country to do

this and you got this revenge thing and you want

to right your wrong etc etc, but that There's

a difference between doing that and being like,

and in order to do so, I don't care how many

dozens of people I kill as I do that. Like it

just seemed like there was a weird lack of care

for just like human life in general from a lot

of characters. all so unlikable and like like

they almost like a guy almost runs over a homeless

person and then like the group message where

they're all in this group message just start

making fun of the homeless people it was so terrible

like I could I couldn't like a single one of

these characters Dan what about you anything

that you found was a more of a positive for the

film or would you like to keep on any more bad

parts yeah no I mean I can't really think that

much positive like I said I thought technically

it was fine it was just everything else and again

even though those races were well done it got

to the point where they were just overdone and

you know even like an exciting action sequence

can get too much and yeah it just it seemed there

was like a lack of logic I guess some of the

cast did have some camaraderie with one another

you know for the most part but again it just

felt like You know like a cheap knockoff version

of other movies that we've seen before and not

really providing anything newer of merit So yeah,

I mean I like the little homage they had the

bullet which I guess it's not an homage if you

directly just show a scene from it, but You know,

I enjoy it. I'm like, oh, yeah, I should watch

bullet again. It's been a while. So Their homages

or their nods to other films were a little bit

Two on the nose for me like you're showing bullet.

You're calling someone maverick like Come on

now and at one point they utter the line Hey,

this looks like a scene out of speed. Um, I got

news for you guys There was nothing in this movie

that looked like it was speed Like don't give

yourself that much credit to say that you resemble

a good film and to be clear that comes when he

purposely tries to egg a cop on to race him because

he's Trying to win the affection of some other

person's girlfriend and I don't even I give up.

I don't Breaking me as a person Yeah retrospective

of video game movies and It's not a quest that

I would recommend to most people to do take our

word for it on rotten tomatoes This film did

not do too well either 22 % on rotten tomatoes

Metacritic score of 39 Apparently audience though

pulled by cinema score gave the film an average

grade of a B plus I Don't understand that one,

but I guess if they actually went to see this

in the theater Yeah, I think most people like

they probably got what they wanted because they

probably went for the action sequences and they

got them and they I mean if that's your thing

I think you probably would walk away happy and

I could see this appealing to someone who like

if you love the first like two fashion interiors

movies Which were more about street racing? maybe

you appreciate that this is more about that too,

and it does have a lot of car porn, which seems

like none of us are big car people, so maybe

for those people, it's really cool, but for me,

I'm like, yeah, nah. I mean, if you were a fan

of the Fast and the Furious franchise from Go,

and if you were a fan of the Cars franchise from

Go, and you just love anything that has to do

with cars, then this might be something that

you like, but I would... I'm trying to say that

both of those franchises are better. They have

to be. And I know there was talk of doing a sequel

a couple years back, like 2015, 2016, they were

saying that they were gonna do, that there was

a sequel in the works, but I have not heard anything

like that since then. When it comes to grading

this film, for me so far in this retrospective

or this series that we've been going through

with the video game films, it seems like you're

one of, you fall into one of four camps. You're

either in the UA bowl camp, where you just can't

even make heads or tails of the fact that this

is an actual movie and it's not functional in

a lot of different ways. Or you're kind of like

that camp cheese, we're not gonna take ourselves

serious, just be fun and ridiculous with it,

which you get with Street Fighter and Double

Dragon and Mario and some of those types of films.

You're seriously attempting to do some type of

Adventure fantasy quest type thing with various

varying levels of success like maybe you would

get with Tomb Raider or Some of those types of

films or you're in the camp that I would put

this one in which I think so far consists mainly

of like doom and need for speed films that failed

to figure out that they either Should have gone

full camp and not taking themselves serious or

they needed to start from scratch and find a

way to better be a serious video game film because

it's like they want to be a serious video game

film so they avoid the camp and the cheese factor

and that would have been better off to just do

that because for me it fails in both ways like

it's not an entertaining film and it's not a

fun goofy you know watch with a bunch of friends

and have some drinks and just make fun of it

and enjoy it like It's neither so it's it's utterly

pointless in my opinion. So I for this one I

would it's near the bottom for me It's it just

depends like do you grade something like this

worse than you grade? House of the dead and alone

in the dark and stuff like that because for me

it's doom in this one and then those are all

towards the bottom so I'm gonna give this one

like a Three or four out of ten Dan. What do

you think? Yeah, I'm kind of similar because

it's me it's like I kind of appreciate a bad

movie that realizes a bad movie and it's like,

okay We're not fooling anyone here. Let's give

them 80 minutes and leave We're not you know,

let's let's not torture them. But I feel like

this one I think I'm like didn't realize it's

failings and you know, I guess that's a Something

we all do but I I don't know like I put it in

that similar category like what is that swing

commander that we watched as well where it was

like it's not Awful, but it's just ultimately

really forgettable. And I think it's probably

their Functionality functionally better than

a lot of the movies we talked about like in the

sense of like put together more and there's more

thought and craft into it compared to something

like Double Dragon, but It had the talent involved.

It'd be something much better than it is. So

I'm similar to you to me It's like a four out

of ten, especially because it's like two and

a half hours and man like it does not need to

be like that's just like That's like aggressive

like why do you gotta why you gotta do that like

just It was like using length as a like I hate

using length as like a A negative but sometimes

it works because it it just becomes like you

just become numb by the end Yeah, it's almost

as if someone watched like the first or second

Fast and the Furious and unlike the people that

were in charge of the Fast and Furious franchise

and understood what they needed to do and what

worked for them, they saw those films and took

all the other parts. The stuff that doesn't work

for Fast and Furious is what they focused on

and just said, we're gonna be like them by doing

these things. So I just don't get it. Matt, what

do you think for score and grades as far as Need

for Sweet goes? Four is the right one, right?

Because it's functional. It's not broken as a

movie, but it's unnecessarily long. The acting

is not amazing. It's not the worst acting we've

seen. But like, it's just unnecessary. It's one

of the most unnecessary movies. It's like, there's

very little love, but there's nothing to truly

hate other than the fact that it takes up so

much of your dang time. Does anyone else think

that the villain looked like a shitty Carl Urban?

Is that who it was that he was he reminded me

of somebody but I couldn't place. Hey, it's Tony

Stark's dad. Come on Yeah, yeah, that's that's

why I don't need Cooper. Yeah, that's why I recognize

how many Tony Stark's dad. Yeah Hicks. Well,

he's much better. He's a good actor He's just

and he is in a fashion of furious movie I'm pretty

sure he is. I could be wrong, but I thought he

was in one of the, I don't know. I add, you know,

every one's in a Fast and Furious movie. There's

like 18 of them, but. Right, right. Well, so

not overall positive review here from the Cinema

Geeks. Imagine that on a video game film. We're

not raving about this one. I don't think anybody

needs to see this I could not honestly recommend

this to anybody I just don't there's no point

that's way too long and you're not gonna get

anything out of it unless you just absolutely

go bonkers for car porn then I guess have at

it but That's gonna close the chapter on need

for speed Which means the only ones we have left

were ones that were released after we started

this series, which would be the likes of Warcraft,

Assassin's Creed, and possibly the latest Tomb

Raider. Dan, do any of those elicit any type

of excitement or hope for you for closing out

the series on a positive note? No, not at all.

Not in the least. I saw Warcraft. I have no interest

in watching Assassin's Creed. I don't know. I

don't really want to watch Tomb Raider again

because we did it once and it's like no I Might

be able to use a clause there and get out of

that one because we said we were only gonna do

the first one of each franchise I'm someone interested

in rampage because it feels like that is exactly

it itself aware in a good way Like but outside

I don't know if we would ever do that because

that just came out the weekend. We're recording

this But now I'm not really looking forward to

it And we have to be able to stop this at some

point, right? Matt, any interest in you? I know

you've seen a few of the ones that are yet to

come out for the series that we're doing. I have?

You didn't see Assassin's Creed? No. Oh, or Warcraft?

No. Oh, so these would be first time watches

for all of them for you. I've seen Warcraft,

but that's about it. I've played the games extensively,

but like... Don't need to see the movies Maybe

we should just end this right here. I don't know

We can cover all the other ones in like brief

reviews or something like that But it is it has

been a bumpy journey for sure. We will at the

end of all of this probably do some type of culmination

episode where we crown the best video game film

ever Is that possible? That's like that one list

right the worst video game films of all time

We'll see we're gonna we're gonna close this

out somehow some way But if you want to actually

hear us talk about movies that are not based

on video games Then you can check out our other

series that we have going on right now, which

is going through the filmography of Kevin Smith

So we've been journeying through there We've

already had a few of those episodes out and we

continue to put those out So you can definitely

look out for those as well And there's other

fun stuff that we have planned coming up in the

future as well as probably a review for a little

little film coming out called Infinity Wars The

latest Marvel film we might just be able to sneak

in a review for that as well. Dan Are you excited

for that one? Oh, yeah, I'm a little bit excited

for that. I hear that's gonna be pretty popular

Just the word on the street. No, I'm hyped like

I'm like it was my most anticipated movie of

the year I'm not gonna lie and man, I just keep

watching that trailer. I think a billion times

maybe Matt does the next Avengers film does it

have a shot? of dethroning the crazy successful

box office earnings of Black Panther? Oh man,

so I believe when we did our draft or whatever

at the beginning of the year that I was of the

opinion that Black Panther was going to beat

it. So when I say now that I might have been

wrong about that, looking at the pre -sale numbers,

know that I'm aware. But Black Panther, I think

it just moved into, what, number three all time

in domestic? Yeah, I could be wrong, but I'm

pretty sure it passed everything except for,

the last time I checked, it was behind, I believe,

Avatar and Force Awakens. Is that the two that

it was behind? something of that nature, but

it has gone crazy at the box office way more

than I thought it would so you definitely have

a leg up on the in the draft for box office I'll

have to see if the Infinity Wars can can rival

that or not we have that one and we have Solo

coming out here in the next You know one to two

months, so it should be interesting We'll have

a good idea of who's gonna be in the driver's

seat when it comes to that box office draft here

by the time summer begins technically All right,

so Dan, what else do you have going on over at

GeekCast Radio and your other stuff that people

can check out? I have the Comic Con to Years

podcast. I recently spoke with Mark Russell,

who is the writer of the Flintstones comic, the

current Snagglepus comic, in an upcoming Judge

Dredd book. That was a really fun discussion.

And if you've not read the Flintstones book,

I highly recommend it. It's quite amazing. And

that will be probably shortly after this is released.

Yeah, absolutely. So you should guys should check

that out as well as the post that he's been making

as far as comic book reviews, etc. And I'm also

actually talking a little bit of comics over

at the GeekCast Radio Network too in Mike's pull

bag. I've been guesting for the last couple episodes

on some Back to the Future comics, so if you

want to hear about that, you can definitely check

that out as well. Matt, if someone wants to get

a hold of you or talk to you on Twitter and find

more ways to get in touch with the Twitter famous

Matt Fridley Sent, how do they do that? Oh, I'm

at Fridley Sent. Did that one die off? Did it

reach its peak? It had slowed down for the last

week, but today alone I think I've probably gotten

50 retweets. Nice, nice, growing ever growing.

Dan, how can people get in contact with you on

Twitter? Mine is at optimus solo and if you want

to berate Amanda for not being here today or

give her heck for For bowing out of one of the

video games that we're reviewing that is at hard

candy Mandy eyes not wise I believe is how it

goes and you can tweet the overall show as well

at cinema geek cast But that does it for this

chapter of the video game film series Tune in

next week to hear us talk about something. That's

not having anything to do with video game films