- Title: Overdrive
- IMDb: link
An obvious attempt to take advantage of the popularity of the Fast & Furious franchise, 2017’s Overdrive offers a tale of car thieves in over their head. Aside from the short opening heist, which provides a look at the skills of brothers Andrew (Scott Eastwood) and Garrett (Freddie Thorp), the film races in fits and starts continuing pushing off the promised big heist with various subplots that are constantly mucking up the story. While we eventually get the heist we’re promised, by the time it happens does anyone still care?
Stealing from the wrong man (Simon Abkarian), Andrew and Garrett are forced to put together a crew to steal from an even more dangerous man (Clemens Schick). Rather than just move forward with that plot we get the pair making deals with the second target, facing retribution from old enemies, dealing with romantic entanglements, being investigated by Interpol, and on and on.
The script by Michael Brandt and Derek Haas wants the long-promised big climax to be a surprise to the audience so it keeps putting off the job with these various other stories and using misdirection about what the brothers’ true plans entail. That means for a film that needs to be pushing 200 MPH the entire way, Overdrive is over stuck cruising at 35 MPH. While the plot often lets the film down, the film’s driving sequences are pretty good (except when they defy all logic and timing in all-too-convenient ways) set against some pretty spectacular Marseille locations.
Eastwood and Thorp are your typical bland B-movie leading men. They’re fine when the plot calls for action, less so when it asks more of them. Along for the ride are Andrew’s girlfriend (Ana de Armas), her friend and local thief (Gaia Weiss), and a pack of other drivers who no one thought worth naming. While the women earn far smaller roles than either of the men, they manage to showcase a series of skills integral in pulling off the heist. Overdrive is your typical throwaway action film with delusions of being more but lacking the smarts to know how to get there.
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