(Review) Need For Speed

AFTER his award-winning stint on the successful TV series Breaking Bad, Aaron Paul is set to make a name for himself on the big screen, starting with a lead role in this flashy flick ­inspired by the popular racing video game.
He plays Tobey Marshall, a driver who is known for his skills at both building and driving race cars.
He is one of the many drivers whose goal is to win the De Leon, a secretive, multi-million-dollar illegal race run by the mysterious Monarch (a ham-tastic Michael Keaton).
Tobey is commissioned by his longtime rival Dino Brewster (Dominic Cooper) to ­rebuild a legendary Ford Mustang, which he later sells to a British collector under the advice of a sassy car dealer named Julia (Imogen Poots).
Dino then challenges Tobey to a race, which goes awry and results in the death of a close friend. Tobey ends up in jail, while Dino escapes.
Two years later, Tobey is out and raring for ­revenge. He manages to borrow the Mustang and travels cross-country with his team of loyal mechanics and Julia, intending to join the De Leon and beat Dino at his own game.
As a race movie, Need for Speed ticks all the boxes. The racing scenes are all shot beautifully, with very little CGI involved.
The supercars are all gorgeous, and while the film will draw attention to the Mustang and the ­Lamborghini Elemento, the car you will want to drive home will be the Koenigsegg Agera.
For the rest of the movie, the plot is very basic and literally only exists to get the characters from one race to the next, with very little focus on for ­Tobey’s vague revenge.
As for the characters, they are very one-­dimensional with no ­development whatsoever.
Paul is surprisingly flat and not very charismatic, with much better ­performances coming from his co-stars, especially Cooper and Poots.
I also enjoyed the ­interactions between the loyal team of mechanics that follow Tobey around on his journey.
One disappointment was Keaton. His excessive portrayal got annoying, pretty fast. Still, no one goes to watch these movies for the acting, right?
While it’s nowhere near as enjoyable as the Fast & Furious franchise, it’s still a pretty entertaining watch.
Just put your brain in ­neutral.