Overdrive (2017)

This felt like a cross between 'Need for Speed' and 'Fast and the Furious' with a touch of 'The Transporter' thrown in the mix. It was loaded with great music, and I absolutely loved the cars. The acting and dialogue was very cheesy, though, but the actors were likable enough. It was much better than 'Need for Speed', but not nearly as good as the first 'Fast and the Furious'. It seemed more aimed at a teenage demographic and not really for a mature audience. There were also way too many characters involved who did not really have roles. I found Clemens Schick rather good as Max Klemp. The action sequences were great, as well.

Earlier this year, Scott Eastwood was in one of The Fast and the Furious flicks (The Fate of the Furious). He now appears in Overdrive (my latest review). Bottom line: Overdrive is strangely akin to a straight-to-video version of The Fast and the Furious. So OK, it's crazy. When you see Scott Eastwood on screen, you'd swear it was his legendary dad circa 1960. In Overdrive, Scott dodges bullets, smirks, bungee jumps off a bridge, and drives intimidating Ferrari automobiles.Anyway, the opening sequence in Overdrive involves a heist of a car that's tucked in the back of a semi-trailer truck. Said sequence is so outlandish and overwrought, it almost disregards the notion of basic physics. Heck, you wonder if someone got severely injured or even killed during filming.The story of Overdrive incorporates two half brothers named Garret and Andrew Foster (played by Eastwood and Freddie Thorp). They steal top-end cars internationally and then flip them for major profit. When the Foster boys pilfer a Bugatti from an unrevealed, nasty crime boss, all chaos ensues with at least three groups of villains included (I stopped trying to identify all of Overdrive's antagonists within the first half hour). Overdrive, with its galloped car chases, its slick cars and its even slicker locales (be on the lookout for lots of aerial shots via the country of France), is dangerous and invariably intriguing. It's also far from uneventful and certainly doesn't shy away from violence (I was surprised by the restrained, PG-13 rating).Most scenes in Overdrive are of the double-crossing, smash mouth, and slam-bang variety. At times, the pic looks like it cost a lot of money to make. There are stunts that defy logic, hot babes, far-fetched criminality scenarios, and characters that constantly get themselves in and out of trouble.Yeah Overdrive could probably qualify as a decent companion to a Fast and the Furious endeavor or even 2000's Gone in 60 Seconds. Just watch for a hike down in the acting department and a hike up in the cheesiness factor. Rating: 2 and a half stars.

"Overdrive" is a pretty new movie from this year, European/American co-production with many French guys working on it. For many of the crew, it is certainly their most known work now and this includes Colombian director Antonio Negret. For the writing duo perhaps not as Brandt and Haas have worked on other blockbuster films together with one of them being part of the F&F franchise and this somewhat explains this film too. The lead actor is Scott Eastwood and once again I am not convinced by him. His striking similarity to his dad may be there, but the aura certainly isn't and I don't really see him being famous without Clint. I have seen three different face expressions max in here. His co-lead Freddie Thorp does what was asked from him, bring in some comic relief and act like a fool often enough that Eastwood looks more like the competent quietly convincing bad-ass guy. The biggest female character is played by Ana de Armas, who is currently enjoying a breakthrough year with the new Blade Runner film. Her Steph in here also really works to some extent and despite the runtime I found it difficult to perceive her as an equal member of the team. Good for them giving significance to her character and attempting to have more to her than a generic stereotypical girlfriend performance, but it's not really working.The supporting characters were a big problem here. That fat bomb guy is never as funny as he was intended to be, the thief chick was so irrelevant that she never was memorable enough to help turning the other brother's love life struggles into something relevant and the rest of the team we simply don't find out about at all. The villain actors weren't bad. The Indian guy did not have too much to work with in terms of both material and screen time, but Abkarian does a good job and Schick I know very well being from Germany and he is a much better actor than he is allowed to show us here, even with that final plot twists. And honestly, it's hard enough to believe already these goofball brothers and their posse are gifted enough to trick 2 crime bosses, but 3? Maybe the filmmakers realized this too and that's why they turned him into one of the good guys. Near the end, the movie gets its spectacular car chase scene too of course, but as I have pretty much zero interest in (race) cars, that one was the most forgettable sequence of the entire film perhaps. It is a movie that is made for those who enjoy great cars more than great movies, so like I wrote in the title: If the F&F franchise is for you or stuff like Gone in 60 Seconds, then probably you can enjoy this one here too. And hope for the sequel that is hinted at at the very end. Otherwise, I strongly suggest you skip this one. It's not a failure really, but due to insufficient love to detail in story-telling and character writing and acting, it's far from the level where I'd give it a thumbs-up. Watch something else instead.

A lot has been covered by other reviewers so I'll just add the two things that bothered me the most.You can't go and steal extremely rare cars. A random Ferrari; sure you can steal it and sell it in another country. But every Ferrari 250 GTO is numbered and known about. You can't just go and steal Nick Mason's 250 GTO and sell it to someone random. Interpol will be on you in no time.Also, was Kemp a bad guy or a good guy? Did he kill the pilot? Did Andrew just think that was ay-okay? And how did they end up with the GTO in the end? Steal it from the guy that played along? Very confusing.