For starters, don’t race to see it. Need for Speed is based on a racing video-game franchise that has sold 150 million copies. It stars Aaron Paul (Jesse on the immortal Breaking Bad). Paul is a good actor, with two Emmys to prove it, but he’s not a screen-filling star presence in the muscle-bound mold of Vin Diesel (The Fast and the Furious). This stings because there’s nothing to distract you from a plot so tired there are tire tracks from other racing movies all over it.

Apart from the race stunts and the car porn, there is nothing particular to harp about here. It is like a Rohit Shetty film, but in English of course. And the cars are much more expensive. Clocking over two hours, the length is also an issue – such kind of action flicks should be short, sweet and to the point. Nevertheless, those who have the need for speed, will have a good time but that doesn’t necessarily make it a good film.

…does differentiate itself pretty well from the Fast and Furious movies. The latter actually borrowed heavily from NFS Underground but this movie uses real cars even in the crashes and big stunts to look more visceral. There are a couple of saucy action scenes, and the final race is fun. If only the film were a bit self-aware, or at least humorous to keep itself entertaining.

I would like to look at the movie as silly fun and it can be in places, but largely it fails and falls flat on it’s face because it simply tries to hard to be fast and furious, which despite not being much itself is still a few notches above this pile of junk. Plus the whole movie comes off as an advertisement for the Ford Mustang.