If you have high hopes for Aaron Paul becoming a legit movie star after Breaking Bad, then you might not want to watch this new trailer for Need for Speed (why is Aaron Paul always typecast as a guy who loves speed??!). Paul stars opposite Dominic Cooper as Vroom Car Driver #1, in the video game adaptation from Act of Valor director Scott Waugh. It looks like Fast and Furious if you replaced the cars with actual Hot Wheels, and the plot was about guys actually throwing their Hot Wheels cars at each other (incidentally, we’re also getting a separate Hot Wheels movie).
On the plus side, it also has Michael Keaton, and the above scene gets way more interesting if you pretend Aaron Paul is getting a handjob during it. “Grrr, we’ll settle this behind the wheel.”
I think Aaron Paul’s acting actually works against him in this kind of plot. He’s too committed and it comes off vaguely porny. Something so ridiculous really needs a dopey surfer dude who’s just sort of surprised and confused by everything, a la Keanu in Point Break or Paul Walker in Point Break: Cars, to offer a nice contrast to all the ridiculousness. You watch Keanu or Paul Walker, and it’s like they never saw their lines until five seconds before the cameras started rolling, the way it should be.
Opens March 4th, 2014.
[hat tip: FirstShowing]