Everybody gets taken for a ride in "Dungeons & Dragons" director Courtney Solomon's "Getaway," co-starring Ethan Hawke, Selena Gomez, and Jon Voight. Spectacularly staged car chase sequences and slam-bang stunts cannot compensate for the scarcity of suspense and dearth of characterization in this lackluster vehicular evasion thriller. Undoubtedly, whether they would admit it or not, Solomon and freshman scribes Sean Finegan and Gregg Maxwell Parker drew inspiration for their cinematic demolition derby from cult 1970s era automotive epics such as "Vanishing Point" and "Gone in 60 Seconds" as well as the recent trilogy of "Transporter" films. Other movies swirled into the soup for the derivative "Getaway" are abduction opuses like "Taken 2" and "Ransom." "Getaway" concerns the characters as much as much the car. Oscar nominated lead Ethan Hawke spends most of his screen time ensconced behind the wheel of a 2008 Shelby Super Snake Mustang. Eventually, Gomez joins him, but these two develop little camaraderie. Oscar winner Jon Voight appears primarily in close-ups of his mouth and eyes as an anonymous villain reminiscent of James Bond's arch nemesis Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Voight spends virtually all his time on the phone droning on interminably with an ersatz Teutonic accent. Occasionally, actors are ridiculed for giving performances with all the spontaneity of a telephone conversation, but this is precisely what Voight does. He furnishes our hero with his marching orders. None of these characters possess a shred of sympathy. The cast does little to enliven them with either traits or signature lines of dialogue. Meantime, Ryan Dufrene's snappy editing; the CGI-free car and motorcycle crashes, and the amoral ending which provides an excuse for a sequel make the implausible "Getaway" palatable. Although it coined less than five million dollars at the box office during its opening weekend, "Getaway" could still break even. Solomon and company produced it for $18 million. Sofia, Bulgaria, served as the setting, and the film producers were able to get more out of their budget.
Essentially, "Getaway" amounts to little more than a tire-screeching Shelby Mustang commercial. Our protagonist, Brent Magna (Ethan Hawke of "Training Day"), is a washed-up professional NASCAR race car driver who has lost his nerve. The villains abduct his wife, Leanne (Rebecca Budig of "Batman Forever"), during Christmas and compel him to hijack the tricked out Mustang and then drive it wherever they say. No, Brent doesn't know these guys, but he knows that his wife's life hangs in the balance so he goes along with them. The Voice (Jon Voight) orders him to careen through a crowded public skating rink in downtown Sofia. Although our hero does considerable damage to the premises, he doesn't kill anybody like the crazy Venice Beach maniac did not long ago. Once he has trashed the area and stampeded the pedestrians, he receives orders to cruise elsewhere. Repeatedly, the Voice warns him that if he doesn't follow orders that his heavily armed henchmen will murder his wife. Along the way, our beleaguered protagonist picks up the Mustang's owner, cherub-faced Selena Gomez, and this unlikely pair struggles to save the kidnapped wife. The Gomez character has no name, but she is referred to officially in the end credits as simply 'the Kid.' She isn't happy with all the cameras that the villains have attached on her car, and her relationship with Brent gets off onto the wrong foot. The minute that she jumps into the Shelby, the Kid brandished a gun and tried to force Brent to vacate the car. It seems that the Voice knows everything that Brent and the Kid are doing because of those cameras that festoon the vehicle. When our heroes aren't trying to figure out how to outwit the Voice, they have their hands full trying to evade the local authorities. Of course, Brent doesn't have much trouble eluding the police in their small prowl cars, but he faces stiffer opposition when the Voice's men in cars and on motorcycles come after him with bazookas and submachine guns. The Voice is out to rob an investment bank where money is kept in the form of computer files and not even the bank's small army of guards can dissuade him from his objective.
Everything in "Getaway" has been carefully scripted. Brent serves as a decoy to draw the cops away from the Voice's real goal. Later, we learn the Voice has admired Brent from afar and is giving the ex-NASCAR driver a chance to prove to himself that he is still a top-notch driver. Brent as well as the army of stunt car drivers pulls off some pretty amazing, gear-grinding maneuvers. The Kid isn't just as kid. She is a computer nerd who totes a bag of electronics equipment, including a tablet. She relies on her technical skills to thwart the constant surveillance that the cameras provide the Voice so he will always know where they are. As it turns out, the Kid's father runs the bank where the millions that the Voice wants are stored. "Getaway" is like a modular narrative. Everything serves a purpose, but none of it is remotely credible. Indeed, the filmmakers shun subtlety in favor of speed. Ironically, despite all the mayhem both real and imagined, this 90-minute, PG-13-rated nonsense stalls out. Occasionally, something cool happens. The henchmen at an intersection with a bazooka aimed at Brent get the surprise of the lives just as we do when the Voice pulls off his own amazing stunt. The cars and the stunt drivers qualify as the real stars of "Getaway." Presumably, Solomon and his 21 producers sought to make the stunts as genuine as possible because the script is largely a superficial, damsel-in-distress, crime thriller with one-dimensional characters. The filmmakers smashed up 130 cars, and seven Shelby Mustangs were built specifically for the film. Unfortunately, despite all the fascinating, behind-the-scenes, automotive trivia, "Getaway" provides little get-up and go. Stay away from "Getaway!"
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