GETAWAY directed by Courtney Solomon, written by Sean Finegan and Gregg Maxwell Parker, with Ethan Hawke, Selena Gomez, Rebecca Budig and Jon Voight. A Warner Bros. release. 90 minutes. Opens Friday (August 30). For venues and times, see Movies. Rating: NNN
At a fleet 90 minutes, Getaway feels like the opposite of the increasingly over-complicated Fast & Furious features. It’s nothing but essential parts, barrelling from one chase sequence to another with no time for distractions.
Ethan Hawke stars as Brent Magna, a former race car driver sent speeding around Sofia, Bulgaria, at the behest of the all-seeing villain (Jon Voight) who’s taken his wife hostage. That’s basically the entire story. Magna goes where he’s told at high speed, while the entire Sofia police force tries to run him off the road.
Oh, and that teenage girl (Selena Gomez) whom Magna is forced to bring along? Turns out she has more to do with the master plot than she knows.
Director Courtney Solomon makes sure the pace never flags, holding our attention with complex multi-camera coverage, and Hawke does just the tiniest bit more acting than necessary for a genre piece.
As a great man once said, people who like this sort of thing will like this sort of thing.
