The Title is the Only Thing Right About This Film

Author: Michael_Elliott from Louisville, KY
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Getaway (2013)
BOMB (out of 4)

What on Earth could Ethan Hawke have done that caused the producers of this thing to be able to blackmail him into appearing in this film? In the film, Hawke plays a former NASCAR driver whose wife is kidnapped by some maniac on a phone (Jon Voight). This maniac forces Hawke to drive all over the place, cause large amounts of damage and it's up to the poor viewer to figure out why. GETAWAY is without question one of the worst movies of the year. It takes elements of SAW, TAKEN and DRIVE and puts them in a blender but the end result is just downright horrid. The most shocking thing is the fact that director Courtney Solomon has made one of the ugliest, more boring action pictures in the history of cinema. He has bragged that no CGI was used in the car stunts but it really doesn't matter if it's true because the scenes are so poorly shot and many times it's just one second clips with quick editing, which is just annoying.

The entire visual style of this picture seems like some kid got ahold of some editing equipment and didn't know what he was doing. While watching the picture I couldn't help but think of the director and editor in the editing room giving each other high fives and saying "awesome" non-stop. Another problem is the dialogue, which is just downright horrid and it's amazing that actors like Hawke and Voight can keep a straight face while saying it. The performances are even worse with Hawke sleep-walking through the role and every scene just seems like he's wanting to walk away from the camera and go home. Voight pretty much gets to do nothing except talk with a funny accent and this adds nothing to the picture. As for Selena Gomez, I've seen her acting ability before and it's the time I saw a dead goldfish sitting at the bottom of its bowl. GETAWAY doesn't have a single thing going for it but my expectations were low going in. I just never could have imagined that a major studio would release a picture like this into theaters. I'm sure even the low-standards of Cinemax would have turned this thing down.

Not bad for a low end movie

Author: toddrobinson-350-467838 from United States
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the acting is not too...bad, a bit more emotion, a little less dumb-a$$/redneck stereo typing and some back-story would be helpful. the camera work is adequate but depending on the shooting conditions it seemed they the must have had a very limited amount of space to film the battle scenes in. with a little more thought and camera work i feel that the limited space used could be made to look like a lot more... it reminded me of shooting in someones backyard. one way or the other that's falls back on the producer for choosing the spot and the DP for not using what he had to its fullest.

as for the battle scenes, if the intent was to show overwhelming orc forces than they should have hired more extras, recycling eight people in rubber masks at a time throughout the movie just didn't work for me.

I am unsure what they spent the 1.5 mil on for the production, I have seen better production value for about a quarter mil. I could always nickel and dime it further but I really don't see a reason. Overall I liked what I saw and with so much poorly filmed/acted trash out there this was a nice change.
As a lower level film maker myself I see many small issues that are distracting from an otherwise entertaining low budget movie. (the "after effects" gunshots/muzzle flashes/ejecting cartridges) coming from air soft style or resin prop guns. this can be distracting as its done way too much, and if they would have rented an armorer, a few real weapons and given more training to the actors on the use of them (for example you don't fire a barrett .50 from the hip while kneeling on a rooftop and actually expect to hit something) it would have helped keep the distractions down. and people watching the movie rather than questioning what they just saw.