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Mario Bautista, has been with the entertainment industry for more than 4 decades. He writes regular columns for People's Journal and Malaya.

Jul 9, 2017

Overdrive Movie Review: B Movie Version Of The Hit "Fast And Furious" Franchise

SCOTT EASTWOOD is the fourth child of actor-director Clint Eastwood’s seven kids with different moms. His mom is a flight attendant, he grew up in Hawaii and he’s now also following in the footsteps of his dad. He is the one his dad most closely resembles. He made his film debut in the 2006 film, “Flags of Our Fathers”, which was helmed by his dad.

He has since played supporting roles in films like “Trouble with the Curve”, “Gran Torino”, “Invictus” (all also directed by his dad), and in “Fury”, “Snowden” and “Suicide Squad”. We last saw him playing a supporting role in “Fast & the Furious, Fate of the Furious”. He now plays the lead role in “Overdrive”, which seems to be trying to be a new version of the “Fast & Furious” franchise with its obsession on vintage sports cars.

He plays Andrew Foster. He and his half brother Garrett (Freddie Thorp) are carnappers. They specialize on vintage luxury cars. They go to the south of France to steal a rare Bugatti 1937 worth several million euros and owned by Jacomo Morier (Simon Abkarian), a local crime boss. They perform the daring heist while their target car is inside a moving container truck.


They succeed to get their target, but they get caught and Morier threatens to kill them if they would not do another job for him. They are ordered to steal an even more expensive car, a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO, the most prized possession of another kingpin who is Morier’s longtime arch rival, Max Klemp (Fabian Wolfrom.) The brothers then assemble a top team for their mission, composed of a demolition expert, a pickpocket and several expert drivers to help them do the job.

The problem with the movie is that it’s a mish-mash of ideas that you’ve seen from other movies about fast cars and reckless guys who are forced to do a job for a rich kingpin, with beautiful locations, fantastic car chases and beautiful sexy women. Then there’s absolutely no endearing chemistry between the two lead actors who simply failed to convince us that they’re brothers who care for each other.

The script is also badly written, peppered with stupid lines of dialogue and even the action scenes are not that brightly staged. The direction by Antonio Negret is really nothing special. Maybe they should have called Luc Besson.

We did enjoy the sexy girls (especially Ana de Armas as Scott’s love interest), the beautiful cars (we’re more concerned that they might get damaged during the shoot) and the beautiful panoramic landscapes shot on location in France but sadly, overall, this movie really looks like a poor man’s version of “The Fast and Furious” franchise. Pity for Clint Eastwood’s son that this European-made action flick is actually of B movie caliber that never succeeds in making our adrenaline go on overdrive.

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