Star Rating:

Getaway

Directors: Courtney Solomon, Yaron Levy

Actors: Ethan Hawke

Release Date: Monday 30th November -0001

Genre(s): Thriller

Running time: Bulgaria minutes

Has Ethan Hawke succumbed to the same financial woes that have rumoured to beset Nicolas Cage? Allegedly it's money troubles that have forced the Leaving Las Vegas star to appear in awful drivel like Drive Angry and Bangkok Dangerous; Hawke is doing a Cage here in this thoroughly rotten actioner.

Hawke plays a former American race car driver now living with wife Rebecca Budig in Sofia, Bulgaria for some reason. She's kidnapped by a bad guy for some reason who, for some reason, now demands that Hawke obey his every instruction or he'll kill Hawke's wife. First up, he tells Hawke to steal a car that's adorned with mini cameras (in fairness, there's a reason for that) and then forces the panicked driver into suicidal turns and stunts that he barks via the car phone. When Gomez, another American living in Bulgaria for some reason, tries to jack the car, Hawke is informed that Gomez be now part of the 'game'. Or he'll kill Hawke's wife. The reason for Gomez' involvement, as you can already guess, is unclear.

And on it goes in that fashion. Don't go to see this movie and not because it's bad - and it is bad, so very very bad - but because you've seen it already. We have bits of Taken, the first half of Die Hard With A Vengeance (the good half), Drive (the short scenes where he's actually behind the wheel of a car) and 12 Rounds (did you know they made a sequel to that nonsense?) as they crash about the Bulgarian capital in what is essentially a non-participating video game. One of the 'missions' even has a timer. It would be a ninety minute car chase if not for a short bike chase at one point. All the while we get variations on this dialogue:

Hawke: 'Where's my wife?'

Bad Guy: 'Do as I say.'

Gomez: 'Look out!'

Bar an admittedly cool extended POV chase sequence right at the death - the possibility of pulling off you can only imagine is what attracted American Haunting director Courtney Solomon to the project - Getaway is utterly hopeless. Please don't go see this. They'll only make a sequel. Starring John Cena. Or Nicolas Cage.