Getaway

Brent Magna (Ethan Hawke), a once promising race car driver who flamed out now lives in Bulgaria with his wife, Leanne (Rebecca Budig). On Christmas Eve, he returns home to find his home in disarray with his wife missing. A mysterious voice (Jon Voight) calls Brent telling him that if he wishes to see his wife again he'll follow a series of instructions beginning with stealing a reinforced Shelby Mustang. Over the course of the evening Brent is told to cause mayhem and destruction across the city of Sofia and along the way must work with the Mustang's true owner (Selena Gomez) to try and survive.

Released in the late August dumping ground of 2013, the movie is a co-production between Courtney Solomon's After Dark Films and Joel Silver's Dark Castle Entertainment. Upon release the film was savaged by critics and drew comparisons to another poorly reviewed action flop Ballistic: Ecks vs Sever. Getaway is not as bad as Ballistic: Ecks vs Sever, but much like Ballistic Getaway is a series of chases and explosions barely held together with actors sleepwalking their way through a derivative exercise in c-level regurgitation.

The movie's leads consist of overly stoic Ethan Hawke and non-step repetitive complaining at the top of her lungs Selena Gomez and both have no chemistry. Both are given the barest minimum when it comes to character, and in Gomez' case she doesn't even get a name simply being credited as "the kid". Gomez was nominated for worst actress in this role and while it's not good, I don't think Gomez is entirely to blame as she played a similar character type in The Fundamentals of Caring and was better suited to the material in that movie. But easily the worst performance in the film is Jon Voight who's absolutely Seagal-esque in how little movement he's called on to do and spends most of the movie literally phoning it in as the movie's villain "the voice" with occasional breaks to show close-ups of Voight's mouth engulfing foodstuffs or slurping coffee and maybe sneering at computer screens. Voight's basically a diet Simon-Peter Gruber from Die Hard with a Vengeance down to the fact he's sporting an inconsistently applied German-ish accent.

The Simon-Peter Gruber comparison isn't unfounded as the movie basically crimps from 90s action thrillers including Die Hard with a Vengeance, The Chase, and Speed (including recycling the looped footage plot point). The movie crimping plot developments from other action movies could be forgiven if the action were well planned and staged, but despite having wall to wall action your average viewer will be lucky to make out fractions of it. Courtney Solomon's direction hasn't improved much from his work on Dungeons & Dragons or An American Haunting as he stages action sequences by cramming as many car crashes as possible with no thought given to establishing spatial geography or flow of action. While the action is present it's a mess of crash zooms, quick cuts, and shaky cam that makes the action more annoying than engaging. What praise I can give is at least the action is done practically with real cars crashing and being destroyed, but that's about it.

Getaway might've made for a serviceable b-level action thriller had it been directed by an experienced action director and played with more character and/or humor, but as is, it's an empty mindless string of vehicular stunts held together by sticky tape made from superior action films from 20 years ago.

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.

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

Bad script, bad story, unbelievable scenes! What do you call it, I think it's second hand embarrassment or shame. Within the first 20 minutes, I saw 2 people walk out of this show, and I kid you not when I say I swear there were lots of people who slept all throughout. How could they even release this movie? I'm all for Ethan Hawke but c'mon! Bad chemistry between Ethan and Selena. Unbelievable scenes where you might be wondering if this was all a joke or not. All throughout the movie my mind was floating else where. This was so painful to watch. I'd save money and just watch another movie if I were you. I still can't believe this movie was actually released. Who were they kidding?!

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.