Search - Getaway on DVD

Getaway
Actors: Ethan Hawke, Selena Gomez, John Voight, Rebecca Budig, Paul Freeman
Director: Courtney Solomon

PG-13 2013 1hr 30min

It's kind of hard to tell what's going on in the stylized, kinetic mayhem of cutting and pasting that is Getaway. Except for one glaring, brilliant few moments of unbroken movement, the movie is made up of shots that can g... more »enerally be measured in microseconds. It fits the frantic nature of the silly tale being told, but the effect can be cause for virtual whiplash as we're stuck in a speeding sports car going 80 mph for most of the running time. Getaway may have gotten a budget break by filming in Bulgaria (a nicely utilized nighttime vision of the elegant streets of Sofia), but it didn't skimp on the car. Along with Ethan Hawke and Selena Gomez, Getaway stars a super-customized Ford Shelby GT500 Super Snake Mustang that's outfitted with multiple cameras inside and out. This isn't just so we can skip around between these wide-angle views at breakneck speed, it's also so the evil overlord who controls the car and its driver can keep his eye on what's happening. This omniscient presence (a secret star cameo who's pretty identifiable by his distinctive voice) has kidnapped Hawke's wife and keeps threatening to kill her unless he drives the Shelby like a madman, mowing down half the inhabitants of the city, destroying dozens of fruit carts and dumpsters, and laying waste to its fleet of police cars. Fortunately Hawke's character is an ex-professional racer so he has some measure of control. He has fallen on hard times because of some unexplained shady business from his past, which may or may not be related to this hair-raising adventure. He picks up Gomez as an unwilling passenger after she tries to carjack him, even though it turns out the car actually belongs to her (she's a serious gearhead as well as a computer whiz). The reason behind all the screeching through roundabouts and metallic smashy-smashy is utterly absurd and dependent on coincidences that pile up like wrecks in a demolition derby. But who cares? It's Ethan Hawke, a Mustang Super Snake, and one long chase scene fueled by high-octane adrenaline. In that one exceptional extended take captured from the front grille at sunrise in an expertly choreographed ballet of speeding machinery, we get a glimpse of Getaway's greatest conceit: unstoppable forward momentum and a near miss around every blind corner. --Ted Fry

Larger Image