One: One of the scenes from Need for Speed features one muscle car-chase after another. (AP/DreamWorks II)

On the back of other movies adapted from video games such as Resident Evil, Tomb Raider and Mortal Kombat, DreamWorks Pictures has released Need for Speed to cater to a young adrenaline-loving audience.

The movie'€™s title says it all. Despite the surprisingly complicated plot, the movie offers a unique theatrical portrayal of a cross-country trip in a refurbished Ford Mustang.

With one car-chase after another, featuring metal monsters with shiny gears, the impossible stunt work and vehicular mayhem accomplished without computer-generated imagery (CGI) makes the movie '€” which was directed by Scott Waugh '€” a blast, even though it has less explosions than films like the Fast and Furious series.

The original Need for Speed game, released by Electronic Arts, which has already had 20 installments since the first in 1994, offers no character or story development. Sibling screenwriters George and John Gatins therefore had to start from scratch for the movie.

They took the safe road by using the typical formula of car movies, which are concocted of revenge and redemption, with the final showdown involving to-die-for muscle cars. And the underdogs always come out as the winners.

The movie features Tobey Marshall (Aaron Paul), a mechanic by day and underground street racer by night, in the uptown state of Mount Kisco, New York.

In a deal gone bad with archrival Dino (Dominic Cooper), a professional racer and businessman, Tobey'€™s best friend Little Pete (Harrison Gilbertson) dies and Tobey has to serve two years behind bars.

Thirsty for revenge, Tobey and his crew of grease monkeys join an underground race called the DeLeon, organized by the mysterious Monarch (Michael Keaton).

Dominic Cooper (left) and Dakota Johnson in a scene from Need for Speed.
Dino also joins the race to save his business, fully confident that no opponent could claim his luxurious car as the winning prize.

The first thing Tobey needs to do is get from New York to the starting line in San Francisco in a little over a day, while dodging a police chase as well as a group of street thugs after the bounty put on Tobey by Dino.

Tobey is accompanied by Julia (Imogen Poots), who keeps Tobey'€™s dream machine safe while he is in prison, and the Marshall Motors crew, comprising expert engine tuner Finn (Rami Malek), Joe (Ramon Rodriguez) who drives the support truck and Benny (Scott Mescudi) who flies a Cessna.

Mescudi, better known as hip-hop artist Kid Cudi, did most of the stunts himself after learning how to fly a plane for the movie.

With a duration of 2 hours and 10 minutes, there is rarely time for viewers to wrongly predict the next scene in this movie. And for a movie with the title Need for Speed, the story takes too long to reach its
destination.

Distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, the movie is rated PG 13, deeming it safe for young viewers to watch.

However, Need for Speed does not fall into a family film category, because it would be too hard for parents to explain why a Cessna could fly that far without running out of gas.

Need for Speed
(130 minutes; DreamWorks Pictures)

Director: Scott Waugh
Screenwriters: George Gatins and John Gatins
Cast: Aaron Paul, Dominic Cooper, Kid Cudi, Imogen Poots, Ramon Rodriguez, Michael Keaton