Director: Courtney Solomon.
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Selena Gomez, Jon Voight, Rebecca Budig, Paul Freeman, Bruce Payne.
Certificate: 15.
Running Time: 90 minutes.
Synopsis: Former race car driver Brent Magna (Ethan Hawke) is pitted against the clock when his wife is kidnapped by a mysterious villain. He commandeers a young woman’s car and takes her on a high-speed race against time.
Since his awful directorial debut DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS, Courtney Solomon has only one directing effort to his name prior to GETAWAY – the equally woeful horror AN AMERICAN HAUNTING. Instead, for the majority of his film career he’s chosen to stay in the background, producing independent straight-to-DVD genre sequels in the likes of THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT and UNIVERSAL SOLDIER franchises, which perhaps speaks volumes.
Being released at this time of year may seem perfect with its Christmas setting and GETAWAY feels very much like a ripoff DIE HARD entry, without the intricacies and enjoyment. If there is a plus side to this decision, it’s that Solomon’s actioner is a damn sight better than this year’s A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD. The simple opening may be a touch ambiguous at first, but it doesn’t take much to realise Ethan Hawke’s ridiculously named former professional race car driver Brent Magna is up shit creek. Coming home from a hard day’s work to find no sign of his beloved and beautiful wife, one quick phone call leads to a mission through the narrow streets of Bulgaria in a stolen, suped-up Shelby Mustang while taking orders from Jon Voight’s mysterious kidnapper, who is once again hamming it up with another OTT accent.
Where the film falls flat is with the introduction of SPRING BREAKERS stunner Selena Gomez. The former Disney princess and pop pixie may well be easy on the eye, but she doesn’t half grate when bitching and moaning and trying to act cool – women, eh? She’s conveniently thrown into the mix as a significant part of the plot and to assure Hawke has a pretty face to bounce off, with her young computer hacker coming in handy and filling in the conversational blanks for a clueless Magna. However, her hi-tech savvy geek never once convinces with some truly cringeworthy dialogue between her and Hawke.
While a number of crushing car chases are very well-choreographed, there is nothing that remains memorable or epic. Though it may have a lot to do with GETAWAY’s weak script, there is no beauty in the same way something like BULLITT, THE FRENCH CONNECTION or even William Friedkin’s other stunning chase from the much derided JADE is forever ingrained. The bonus is, at ninety minutes, it’s only a short trip and this throwaway action fluff will be forgotten as soon as you’ve dropped the popcorn bag in the bin on the way out.
Still, it’s not all bad. Run-of-the-mill rather than just plain rubbish, Hawke is committed enough – just as he was earlier this year with the surprisingly decent home invasion horror THE PURGE and of course romantic closer BEFORE MIDNIGHT – in showing us why we shouldn’t write him off just yet.
GETAWAY is released in UK cinemas on Friday 6th December.
