Other set pieces, like the opening heist scene or a lengthy foot chase through Marseille’s city centre, are so boringly staged they fade from memory the moment they’re over. The closest the film comes to having a memorable action scene is the climactic car chase, which makes pretty good use of the excellent scenery the setting of Marseille provides, but quickly becomes confusing thanks to the high number of participants. Not that they’re especially interesting to begin with. However, when it comes to utilizing those cars, we’re on rockier ground again.ĭirector Antiono Negret utilizes the kind of choppy camerawork and editing that plagues a lot of these PG-13 action vehicles, which ultimately runs the action scenes into the ground.
CLEMENS SCHICK OVERDRIVE FULL
The product placement gets a bit ridiculous – there are scenes concerning a Ferrari that constitute the most shameless piece of advertising in a film like this since Kurt Russell magically conjured up a bucket full of Corona’s in Furious 7. There’s also a scene in a garage where Thorp and Eastwood just rattle off a full list of brand names – but if you like seeing lots of big, beautiful cars you are definitely in the right place here. Ultimately, the main thing this film is trying to be is car-porn and it fares slightly better in that respect. Des Armas’ feisty Steph fares best, but she’s ultimately just side-lined and reduced to a damsel in distress.
One of the other things Overdrivetries desperately to be is a Ocean’s 11 style heist movie, but to put it mildly, Eastwood and Thorp are no Clooney and Pitt, and the crew they assemble isn’t exactly a murderer’s row of talent either. This is never more apparent than in the scenes where he sulks and moans about Andrew’s plans to marry his girlfriend Steph (Ana des Armas, doing the best she can with a thankless role), since he doesn’t want his brother to leave him on his own. It doesn’t help that Thorp’s relentless mugging makes Garett feel more like a petulant child than the charming rogue he’s clearly meant to be. It wants to be about the relationship between two brothers, but since Eastwood and Thorp have zero chemistry between each other that flag never flies. Overdrive’s biggest flaw is that it wants to be a lot of things, but isn’t particularly good at any of them. If that sounds simple enough on paper, Haas and Brandt throw in so many double crosses and rug-pulls that it doesn’t take long to become nigh incomprehensible, not to mention a bit of a chore. A plot that revolves around Andrew and his brother Garett (Freddie Thorp, wide-eyed and annoying), two car thieves who steal from the wrong guy ( Casino Royale’s Simon Abkarian) and have to make it up to him by stealing a Ferrari from a billionaire (Clemens Schick, who was in Casino Royaletoo, in a bit part as Le Chiffre’s bodyguard). Instead, he just looks like he’s sleepwalking through the films’ plot. Though Derek Haas and Michael Brandt’s ( 2 Fast 2 Furious, Wanted) script seems to try to paint Eastwood’s character Andrew Foster as a strong but silent leader type character, the actor simply isn’t magnetic enough for that to come across as believable. Unfortunately, he fares less well in Overdrive, the actor’s second go at a car-focused action flick this year. The only time he’s actually kind of stood out in something is The Fate of the Furious, which at least had the good sense to use his charisma-less husk of a character as a foil for Dominic Toretto’s insanely charismatic “family”. A man who exudes about as much charisma as the rock his face appears to be chiselled out of, Eastwood has been in quite a few films I’ve seen – Snowden and Suicide Squad, to name a few – but I wouldn’t be able to tell you anything about his roles there with a gun to my head. In an industry dominated by bland, white leading men, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who’s blander than Scott Eastwood.
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