Movie Review - Need For Speed

Friday, March 21, 2014


Need For Speed Movie Poster

I was super excited to catch Need For Speed mainly because of 2 reasons:

1. The newly revamped GV Bishan installed Singapore's first D-Box Motion Seats, and Need For Speed is the first film to make its D-Box debut. Which means that I will be one of the first few people in Singapore to experience it!

2. It's Aaron Paul from BREAKING BAD! 

Evilbean's Movie Trivia: Aaron Paul was supposed to play the villain in this movie, but executive producer Steven Spielberg, who was binge-watching Breaking Bad, decided that Aaron Paul should play the lead instead! Whoohoo!

Need For Speed Movie Still
"GUYS! GUYS! FINALLY MY MCDONALD ORDER IS HERE!"


Movie Title - Need For Speed

Genre: 
  + (Car-Porn Drama. What an intriguing genre!)

Synopsis: Seriously, this kind of movie is just like you go watch 300 - don't expect awesome plots. If you are expecting clever plots and character development, you are expecting too much out of a street car racing movie that is adapted from the video game. 

Basically, the movie is about how Tobey (Aaron Paul) plans to take revenge on the bad guy, after he was framed of murdering his own friend in a street car match. Of course, instead of settling their scores by hiring investigators and lawyers to unearth the truth, Tobey plans to let the whole world know about the truth by... participating in a converted racing tourney. 

Review: This particular movie review is SUPER special because not only will you get to see how D-box motion seats look like, you will also see the debut of CATBUG! You will start to see Catbug more often in my Instagram (@Evilbean) as well as in my blog posts. Don't you think Catbug looks REALLY CUTE? =D


Catbug with D-Box motion seats
"Catbug watching movie on D-Box motion seat"

Catbug with D-Box motion seats
"Catbug with D-Box motion seats"

I will start by reviewing about D-Box first. D-Box tickets are an additional $2 ($11.50) on Monday to Thursday, and an additional $3 ($15.50) on Friday to Sunday. If you want the full experience of D-Box+3D, it is gonna cost you $14 on Monday to Thursday and $20 on Friday to Sunday. But I am guessing the burning question in your mind is: "Worth it or not AR EVILBEAN?"

Let me first start off with the seat placements. If you have read my awesome movie tips to maximise your movie experience, you will know that the optimal seats are actually towards 2/3 towards the back because of the sound and picture quality. However, for the D-Box seats, they are installed at the very back of the theatre.

D-Box Seats Placement

Therefore, your movie experience is not MAXIMISED, especially when the screen is small. The D-Box is supposed to immerse you in the movie, but you see pigu (in chinese it means you can't see anything) when you sit so far back. This point alone subtracts 2evilbeans from the D-Box score.


Catbug with D-Box motion levels
"Catbug with D-Box motion levels"

What is good about D-Box is that the movie is perfectly synchronised with the movements on screen. If the car knocks onto another from the left, you will feel that force and vibration from the left. If the helicopter is swerving right, your seat will be slightly tilted towards the right. 

The picture that you see above is actually the control for you to adjust how "powerful" you want the vibrations and movements to be. In my honest opinion, even at the maximum level, you would not feel much. If you are expecting D-Box to be like the Transformer Ride in Universal Studios (which is super awesome by the way), it is not that kind. The movements for D-Box are quite subtle for me. In terms of making you feel more immersed in the movie, it adds just 0.5 evilbean to the overall experience. I feel that it is not worth the extra $3. If they price it at just an additional $1 or $1.50, then it will definitely be worth it to D-Box action movies like the upcoming Captain America.



On the movie itself, Need For Speed is quite a ride! Firstly, this movie has no CGI or fake cars. This is real cars getting smashed, so the explosions and car races feel very real. Secondly, paying homage to the video game where players get to experience speeding down the roads from the driver's perspective, the movie films a lot of scenes in this perspective as well, making you feel like you are actually in the car. The D-box movements definitely helped a little towards the experience, so you could actually feel the rush in some of the scenes.

The plot is predictable, no doubt. However, like I said, it is a street-racing movie. No normal person wants to get revenge on his enemy by beating him in a car race. Normal people will just want to kill him or something. There are also lots of silly jokes and stunts that the other characters pull off, and if you are wondering about the SOME NUDITY rating, it is because there was this one ridiculously funny character who decided he should just strip naked because he is quitting his job. It was silly, but hilarious. All in all, if you decide to put your brain and expectations aside, you will definitely enjoy the movie.

One thing which really bothered me was the fact that Walter White (Co-star in Breaking Bad) never make any special guest appearance in this movie. I was so expecting him to pop out from somewhere, even for just a scene! 

Stay back for: There is a scene where Benny (he is the one that kept insisting people to call him Maverick) shows his cell mates how to do the Miley Cyrus aka twerking. LOL. 

Rating (out of 5 Evilbeans):

  (2) D-Box Rating

 
 (3.5) Movie Rating

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