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Blu-ray Review: “Overdrive” Is Entertaining Eye Candy

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Two car thief brothers, who journey to the south of France for new opportunities, wind up in the crosshairs of the local crime boss.

“Overdrive” is a generic, by-the-book action flick that employs a bevy of pretty actors and unremarkable action set pieces. However, having said all that, the film is elevated above mediocre simply because it takes place in beautiful Marseille in the South of France. These days, the majority of action movies transpire in the United States so when a film does leave North America and the story unfolds in other locales around the world, it heightens that movie, even if the overall story is ridiculous.

Andrew Foster (Scott Eastwood) and his half-brother Garrett (Freddie Thorp) are international car thieves who operate throughout Europe. After stealing a rare Bugatti in transit after having been auctioned, they soon come to discover that the vehicle belongs to none other than Marseille crime boss Jacomo Morier (Simon Abkarian). Wanting to kill them for what they did, they make a deal with him: they had been planning on stealing a rare Ferrari from his rival, the ruthless Max Klemp (Clemens Schick), a vehicle that Morier has been wanting to add to his collection of high-end cars for a long time so, in exchange for their lives, they agree to go ahead with their plan and deliver the Ferrari to him instead. Naturally, Morier places his cousin, Laurent (Abraham Belaga) into the group, to make sure that everything runs smoothly but when Klemp finds out about their plan, the group must come up with a new strategy before it is too late.

There is absolutely nothing original about “Overdrive” and as much as I thought I would hate it, the charisma of its three leads, especially Scott Eastwood, a dead ringer for his father, help to make the overall experience pure fun. The car chases are well-choreographed and most of the focus throughout is placed squarely on them, thankfully, the filmmakers knew exactly what to concentrate on because in a movie of this ilk, character development and story exposition are non-existent. “Overdrive” opened in limited release the exact same weekend as “Blade Runner 2049” so it’s no surprise that it quickly disappeared from theaters within a week. The film was written by the guys who wrote “2 Fast 2 Furious,” probably the worst entry in the “Fast & Furious” series so that should give you an indication of what to expect. If flashy high-end vehicles and slick car chases are your thing, you may just enjoy “Overdrive.”

Available on Blu-ray and DVD November 7th

 

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James McDonald

Originally from Dublin, Ireland, James is a Movie Critic with 40 years of experience in the film industry as an Award-Winning Filmmaker. He is also a member of the Critics Choice Association and the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association.