After the Mustang is built and the sale is done, he challenges Tobey and Pete to a winner-takes-all road race in three identical, street-illegal Swedish Koenigsegg supercars. But Dino has a few dirtier tricks up his sleeve, too. He has a British buyer on the line for a cool $3 million, and he proposes to hire Tobey and company to finish building the car in exchange for a cut of the sale. Dino has come into possession of the prototype 50th-anniversary Ford Mustang that legendary designer Carroll Shelby was working on at the time of his death in 2012. With his slick pompadour and cocksure strut, Dominic Cooper is nearly a caricature of wanton privilege as Dino Brewster, the hometown boy turned NASCAR pro, newly back in town with Pete’s sister Anita (Dakota Johnson), who happens to be Tobey’s former high-school flame, on his arm. (File his performance under “a little goes a long way.”) They include the wiry, bug-eyed Rami Malek (as a mechanic who gives his cubicle-dwelling day job an exuberant kiss-off), and hip-hop star Scott Mescudi as a wise-cracking Army Reserve pilot who improbably pops up in a variety of civilian and military aircraft throughout the movie, lending the racers eagle-eyed air support whenever they seem to require it. In a mildly refreshing change-up from the American action-movie norm, Paul is surrounded by an ensemble of similarly small-to-medium-sized gearheads who, collectively, might equal one Vin Diesel or the Rock. There’s something of the young James Cagney in him, and he’s by far the best thing “Need for Speed” has going for it. Tobey, by contrast, is built Ford-tough, and Paul plays the part with the flinty, tightly wound charisma of a small man who makes up in moxie what he lacks in stature. With his loyal crew and the surprisingly resourceful Julia as allies, Tobey defies odds at every turn and proves that even in the flashy world of exotic supercars, the underdog can still finish first.One half expects James Dean and Sal Mineo to enter at any moment, but instead we get Tobey Marshall ( Aaron Paul), a youth stock-car prodigy who now runs a local custom auto shop, and his best bud, Pete (Harrison Gilbertson), who’s also called “Little Pete,” and whose sensitive, childlike demeanor tells us from the start that he’s doomed to meet an untimely end. To get there in time, Tobey must run a high-octane, action-packed gauntlet, dodging cops coast-to-coast and dealing with fallout from a dangerous bounty Dino put on his car. Two years later and fresh out of prison, Tobey is set on revenge with plans to take down Dino in the high-stakes De Leon race?the Super Bowl of underground racing. Just as a major sale to car broker Julia Bonet (Imogen Poots) looks like it will save the business, a disastrous, unsanctioned race results in Dino framing Tobey for manslaughter. In a last attempt to save his struggling garage, blue-collar mechanic Tobey Marshall (Aaron Paul)?who with his team skillfully builds and races muscle cars on the side?reluctantly partners with wealthy, arrogant ex-NASCAR driver Dino Brewster (Dominic Cooper). The story chronicles a near-impossible cross-country race against time?one that begins as a mission for revenge, but proves to be one of redemption. The action film stars Aaron Paul, Imogen Poots, Dominic Cooper, Ramon Rodriguez, Rami Malek, Harrison Gilbertson, Scott ‘Kid Cudi’ Mescudi, Michael Keaton and Dakota Johnson. DreamWorks Pictures has revealed the poster for director Scott Waugh’s Need for Speed, racing into theaters on March 14, 2014.
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