“First I’m coming for my wife; then I’m coming for you.” So says Ethan Hawke in the latest Getaway trailer and I guess that we’re meant to take him very very seriously. He is, after all, very serious. But do you get the sense that maybe you’ve seen this movie before? Maybe a dozen times or so, in different iterations?
This particular iteration has a peculiar brand of WTF, however, and that might have been a good thing with a leading man like Nicolas Cage or even Jason Statham. As it stands, Getaway looks as rote and dull as an explosive car chase movie is likely to be.
Hawke plays our hero, a race car driver whose wife is kidnapped (like ya do) by a shadowy figure with a nefarious and vaguely foreign accent (German? I’m going with German). Said shadowy figure may or may not be Jon Voight. Anyways, Hawke has to rush around town in a cool Mustang, doing various tasks that said nefarious gentleman sets him, otherwise his wife will be killed. For some reason, Selena Gomez shows up, as the youthful owner of the vehicle. I don’t know why director Courtney Solomon (An American Haunting) felt it was a good idea to cast Ethan Hawke and Selena Gomez in the same film, but I’m sure that I’ll find out at some point.
I can see the plot working, even though it is so rote, if the madness were ramped up to the nth degree by a director like Robert Rodriguez. As of right now – and unless Getaway is hiding something very clever up its sleeve – I think that I’ll give this one a pass.
But you don’t have to give it a pass! You can watch the trailer below and decide for yourself if you think this film is worth the price of admission. Who knows? I’ve been wrong before.
Getaway will hit theatres August 30.
