By Ian Rapoport
Executuive Arts Editor
Forget what everyone else says, the third time is not the charm.
It’s been eight years since Courtney Solomon’s last directorial film, and unfortunately, not long enough. While his first film, “Dungeons and Dragons,” dabbled in fantasy and his second, “An American Haunting,” in horror, Solomon’s latest, “Getaway,” is a straightforward high octane action film. It carries on Solomon’s apparent tradition of poor film, with its lackluster characters and incredibly tedious action sequences which drown out the few blips of talent and creativity.
“Getaway” follows former racecar driver Brent Magra (Ethan Hawke) living in an unnamed French city. One day upon returning home, his wife, Leanne (Rebecca Budig), is kidnapped by a mysterious man (Jon Voight). Magra is forced to complete a series of tasks like creating roadblocks and causing havoc with a modified sports car in order to see his wife again. Along the way, he is accompanied by the cars original owner, (Selena Gomez) who uses her talent with computers to help track down Leanne.
While Magra himself is a generic action movie hero, complete with a leather jacket and a morally ambiguous past, Hawke actually shows a surprising amount of talent towards the character. Although he sports an annoyingly gruff voice to give the protagonist more of a rugged vibe, the way in which Hawke chokes up or freezes in fear when the subject of his wife’s safety is brought up to balances out his character’s cliche rogue-style personality.
Yet, while Hawke actually makes his character work, Gomez succeeds in making hers horrible. The unnamed girl, that is supposed to assist Magra, tends to do nothing more than make rude comments towards him and ask repeated questions that have already been addressed multiple times. Gomez makes this significantly worse by being constantly stuck in a frustrating fit of anger and annoyance. The very fact that her character does not even have a name raises the question of why she was even included in the first place.
Unsurprisingly, a majority of the film is a series of high speed car chases, and while initially these moments are exhilarating, they are so ever present that the film quickly becomes a blur of car crashes. Solomon takes every opportunity to create a scenario in which the protagonists are chased by police officers, like turning a corner and finding a patrol car, then evading it only to run into another one at an intersection. This seeming need to put in as many action scenes as possible illustrates Solomon’s inability to realize when enough is enough.
Even with the constant nature of these car chases, there is next to no variation. The majority of the diversity boils down to replacing police cars with motorcycles, and city streets with rail yards and warehouses. However, there is some creativity. Early on there is an instance where Magra is forced to drive through a park filled with Christmas decorations and smash as many things as possible. In the climactic showdown of the film, the camera is set at a first person perspective from Magra’s Shelby, creating a sense of immersion not felt throughout the rest of the film. Yet these unfortunately take up no more than five minutes of the 90 minute run time.
“Getaway” is a horrible film. Although Hawke’s performance saves his dull character, Gomez’s lack of talent only makes her one note character worse. Yet, the entirety of the film’s acting (both good and bad) is completely overshadowed by the exhausting monotony of car chase after car chase.
“Getaway” is rated PG-13 and is currently playing nationwide.
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