Road to nowhere

Sloppy thriller stalls from the beginning.

Selena Gomez, left, and Ethan Hawke in a scene from Getaway. Simon Varsano / AP / Warner Bros. Pictures

Getaway
Director: Courtney Solomon
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Selena Gomez
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Ethan Hawke is behind the wheel in this thriller, playing Brent, a former ­racing car driver who must tear through the city streets obeying the orders of The Voice (Jon Voight), a mysterious man who holds Brent's wife hostage. Selena Gomez plays a young hacker who may be able to help him out of this life-or-death situation.
Simply clutching on to the least original of modern thriller devices (an innocent man forced through a series of obstacles by a disembodied voice), Getaway would have been better served if it had been, as some observers have mistakenly assumed, a remake of the Steve McQueen film which shares its title, as at least there would be a borrowed plot instead of no plot whatsoever.
As if assuming its audience has little to no intelligence, the action storms along, throwing a variety of images at you that make little sense but all feel like they should be urgent.
Sloppy editing and poor direction from Courtney Solomon will leave even the casual cinemagoer looking at their watch, as Hawke and Gomez speed towards the silly and inevitable showdown that will only be welcome because it means the film is close to an end. With none of the abandon of the similarly pitched Crank or Drive Angry, Getaway only truly satisfies if you enjoy cars going very, very fast, and little else.
Hawke is enjoying something of a ­revival in the horror genre thanks to the sleeper hit The Purge and although he has a charm to him in the lead, he is not required to do much. What he does a lot, however, is clash with his co-star Gomez, again out of her depth in her continuing quest to grow up on screen after making her name as a teenage idol.
The pair make for a decidedly mismatched pair who are awkwardly brought together not through artistic endeavour, but simply because the producers could make it happen.
Voight adds little to proceedings other than a voice and an impressive name at the start of the credits, although one suspects if he keeps making films of this quality that grandeur may begin to ­dissolve.
Floundering on a number of ­levels, ­Getaway slumps onto the screen, ­offering only the basest of B-movie thrills and the most brainless of entertainment. Shambolic casting, an absent plot and hilarious scripting make this feature a standout disappointment even in such an unfulfilling summer of ­cinema as this.
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