This is a solid B-movie. It won't reinvent the wheel, but it's fast paced and fun and has some great action sequences. And Ben Kingsley and Anthony Hopkins both turn in deliciously campy performances. Felicity Jones is completely wasted though. B

A decent, modestly scaled American-Chinese-German action-crime movie. First and foremost, it delivers on its genre's core promise: involving, kinetic, well-staged sequences of chaos, pursuit, and violence, from a foot chase through a medieval town to the demolition-derby centerpiece set on the Autobahn. The action is frenetic, loud, and credulity straining without ever becoming so over-the-top (or computer-generated) as to defuse the tension. Another highlight: a pair of knighted, Academy Award-winning actors delivering absurdly over-the-top performances as dueling gangsters. Anthony Hopkins plays an outwardly tasteful, poetry-quoting magnate-sadist in a powder-blue suit, and Ben Kingsley counters as a gold-plated, half-lucid, ultra-vulgar drug lord. Neither archetype is new to either prolific actor, but they push the envelope further than usual here, and the destabilizing, scenery-devouring, almost vaudevillian result will sate aficionados of Pacino- or Cage-style emphasis. Nicholas Hoult delivers a competent, straightforward performance as the car-thief hero, his photogenic blue eyes conveying the right amount of anxiety and cunning. Felicity Jones, though, however gorgeously photographed, is extremely overqualified for her thin, mostly-absent-from-the-action love-interest role (this film sat on the shelf for a while, a victim of prior distributor Relativity's financial collapse, and was shot before the release of The Theory of Everything, let alone Rogue One).

B

The love-story framing device mostly lands with a corny thud, yet I don't mind it, either. I broadly respect the film trying for a left-field, A Life Less Ordinary-style vibe. It gives it a dose of personality and charm even if the conceit is not entirely effective.

I'm all for mindless, dumb action films, but aside from two decent action sequences this flick was so fucking empty. Maybe you guys got more out of it than me, but even watching this at home I got bored pretty fast. It's a shame too because for some reason Anthony Hopkins and Ben Kingsley agreed to be in this, and are there to do nothing else but be over the top or camp it up. I really like both of them as actors, but I didn't give a shit about their characters. The same applies to Hoult/Jones who have zero chemistry and I never cared for their forced romance.

I thought it was a pretty entertaining action movie. It looked great and had some fun car action.

7/10 (B-)

It had a couple of good car chases but overall it just wastes the talented actors in here. There is just no chemistry between Jones and Hoult but I believe that wasn't the point here anyways. As for mindless action movie it could be watched once if its on TV.

4/10