Need for Speed VS Fast and The Furious 6

    VS.  
FAST AND FURIOUS VI VS NEED FOR SPEED: 2013, 2104, ACT: +-:
The moment I finished watching Need for Speed, I immediately wanted to compare it to Fast and the Furious 6.  I was initially going to just review FF6, but then I heard that Need for Speed was coming out soon (based on one of my favorite racing games for both XBOX 360 and PS3) so I wanted to wait.

Much has changed in the world of Fast and the Furious and it had to because it was the 6th iteration of the movies and to prevent the story from becoming stale, Justin Lin had to infuse new elements like secret organizations and covert ops.  This made for a movie with many new dynamics but at times they conflicted with the overall point of a racing movie.


Many new elements were included in FF6 with the addition of the DDS.

Don't get me wrong, the whole DDS element with the Rock, oh I'm sorry, Dwayne Johnson, made for a compelling storyline, but at times it diluted the plot.  Need for Speed didn't have to reinvent the wheel, just put a new spin on the genre (sorry for the puns).  

In some ways that gave Need for Speed a bit of an edge because it focused on the cars, which were truly exotic as opposed to the cars in Fast and the Furious, which draw upon the Classic American class of vehicles.

   
A big difference in the car choices for the two movies.  I prefer the new exotics like this Agera R.

Because Need for Speed was inspired by the video game which dealt with various police encounters, car take-downs and exotic race locations, this movie had it all with regard to the racing genre and didn't waste time with fluff.  I hit the throttle and kept on moving with a frantic pace.  No plot lag here.  I felt some boredom in Fast and some of the comedy was cheesy between Tyrese Gibson and Ludicrous.


One of the cheesier moments in Fast...can I have some gravy with my cheese fries?

Another thing that I noticed with Fast was that it was trying to get into new genres like James Bond secret agent type elements with the lab and the research.  These movies don't need too much of that.  I would have rather had more detail on the driving techniques like in Initial D, a great racing movie based on drifting in Japan. 

   
Initial D is definitely a movie I recommend and dealt with many racing techniques such as heal and toe and drifting with E brakes.  Just don't try at your local race track!

Back to these two movies. The plot in Need for Speed wasn't ground breaking but it was intriguing enough that you wanted to watch it and it didn't get boring.  It had about three parts to it that changed the flow, so it kept moving.  Also, there was some love chemistry between the lead, played very well by Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul, and Imogen Poots, who actually grew on me in the movie.


The two love birds having a moment with the cops.  How Sweet!

Need for Speed definitely borrowed some elements from Fast and the Furious, but how could it not?  Fast has had 6 movies so far and a seventh on the way.  Some of these elements were the loss of a friend racer who motivates the star to beat the opposing racer in the movie.  In this case, it worked because it was pretty well done with a spectacular crash which really resembled the video game crashes quite well.  

   
Can you tell which is the movie and which is the video game?  Not so east, is it?

The final race in Need for Speed was excellent with all the top cars involved. I loved that part and replayed it a couple of times just to hear the cars accelerate.  Everything was captured with awesome authenticity.


All the cars you would ever dream about race at the end of Speed.


Look at this stunt!  Just from the video game!

Ok so Fast had a tank and some other outrageous stunts but it felt forced while Need for Speed flowed naturally.  

I give the edge to Need for Speed  here and I know some will disagree.  Write me a post and we can discuss:
Need for Speed: 79% 
Fast and the Furious 74% RIP PAUL WALKER

Cold Comes the Night: Bryan Cranston Breaks from Bad

COLD COMES THE NIGHT: 2014: +-:THR:  Bryan Cranston from "Breaking Bad" stars in this thriller and has a Russian accent!  Is the movie worth watching?


I had some high hopes for this movie and I'm a fan of his show, but overall it was hard to got hot and steamy over it.  The acting was decent and the story line started to show promise, but then it became predictable and somewhat derivative at the end. 


Alice Eve did a fairly good job with the acting and was on par with Cranston, who as you will imagine acted well.  It was definitely odd seeing him in another role than Breaking Bad.  This movie has to be important to him because it breaks the mold and could prevent him from being type cast.



In most of the movie, Cranston has the cheesy glasses.


The characters have excellent chemistry and their lines flow fairly well.  Above all else, this is one of the redeeming qualities of the movie.  I'm starting to become a fan of Alice Eve.  There isn't really a jarring part of the movie until you get to the ex-boyfriend, who is crass and very obnoxious as a character.  Perhaps that was the intent.



One of the more entertaining parts of the movie. 


I enjoyed the parts where Alice drives Cranston and when they first fight.  Love at first sight.  Actually, Cranston is blind in this movie.  That's the reason for the cheesy sun glasses. 


I also liked the part when the wife and Alice brawl in the house.  Nice use of the bat!  Finally, when Cranston wastes all the hit men in the car I began to laugh.  When it's a knocking, don't come...well you know.



As bad as he wants to be


Overall the movie had some high marks, particularly with the chemistry between the two leads, but was predictable in the end.  There is a twist, but the it's declared in the movie, so it's not really a twist.  A movie to watch if you want to see the Breaking Bad lead in another role:77%