I Loved Need for Speed and I'm not Afraid to Admit It

I'm not a gamer. The last console I owned was a Game Cube, and I loved it. And I still love video games, but there comes a time in a man's life when he has to prioritize what he spends time on. The last game I remember playing religiously was one where you souped up a car, got it painted with racing stripes and installed ground effects, and then raced it against outlaws and cops through city streets. It was called Need for Speed. It's a Top Gun reference.

It was kind of like a racing-game-cum-role-playing-game themed after the Fast and Furious movies. I love the Fast and Furious movies. Their chase scenes make the one in Bullit and the French Connection look like grandpas on go-karts. They make the Dukes of Hazzard look like Grumpy Old Men.They play it fast and loose with the laws of physics and even faster and looser with the laws of man and the sanctity of human life, all while playing up a fantasy world filled with exotic cars and exotic women who are hot, sassy, dangerous, and in desperate need of a good man to steer them straight. These films aren't the basest form of entertainment, but they come close, and I have very low tastes... especially when it comes to pure escapism reminiscent of what I loved as as kid.

Aaron Paul is a good actor. Everyone loves him from Breaking Bad, and if you loved him there, you'll love him here. He has to be good because the story here is ridiculous. It's basically Top Gun with super-cars. But it's no more ridiculous than Game of Thrones, and everyone's eating that crap up, so turn off your brain and watch the cars fly. Basically, I laughed, tensed up during the chases/races, cracked up laughing again, and had a great time with this movie. I wish they'd somehow write Aaron Paul into Fast 7 to take the late Paul Walker's spot. I wish the filmmakers would disregard the critical reviews of this movie and make ten more right in a row. I wish I had an Xbox or something so I could play Need for Speed right now!