Getaway is often cheap, loud and airheaded in its execution but I found things to like about it anyway. The premise mixes cars, chase and action and throws in a squarely rendered relationship. The score is incessant and dreadful, pounding scenes and senses and inducing headaches, and the whole movie is ridiculously over the top with more smashups than a day on the 405. Its setup defies description but here goes. An American race car driver (Ethan Hawke) who’s lost his mojo is forced into extreme driving by a mysterious voice (Jon Voight) who has apparently equipped a souped up Ford Mustang Shelby Super Snake, which was stolen from a rich kid tomboy (Selena Gomez), who tries to take it back, to achieve some nefarious scheme.
The villain and his gang force Hawke’s redemption-themed ace driver by kidnapping his wife and holding her hostage. That’s the whole movie, except for the Gomez character. The writing is thin but fine in general – some of it borders on camp – and the directing is not fine because watching Getaway feels like being strapped into a Fox News control room with nothing but car chases on the monitors. Half the movie’s spent running down Christmas trees, people and cheap Euro-cop cars in this light knockoff of the Bourne, Die Hard and Fast and Furious pictures rolled into one. Did I mention it takes place in Bulgaria but everyone speaks English and listens to classic American Christmas songs?
Curiously, I found myself amused every time Voight’s villain opened his mouth to utter some smart ass comment into the armored car as it speeds through Sofia mowing down extras that act like extras not Bulgarians being mowed down.The Ford ends up going down stairs, through subways, explosions and gauntlets with Hawke’s desperate husband at the wheel and Gomez’s smart-mouthed whiz kid deconstructing the enemy’s agenda. Of course, man and child become allies in spite of the nasty car master’s increasingly outrageous demands and one of the most appealing aspects of Getaway is the friendship that develops between the girl who loves her custom Mustang and the man who loves his wife and there’s nothing creepy about it; the white male is portrayed as neither dolt nor predator for a change. Mr. Voight brings his usual relish to the role. Hawke and Gomez are refreshingly and surprisingly good in their roles. It’s especially good to see Ethan Hawke in an action movie. He’s got the chops if not exactly the action movie. Count on lots of explosions – even the martini glasses burst – noise and nonsense, as well as one long car chase take that’s very well done but wasted, in an action movie that’s powered more by the cast than by the cars.