The Fast and Furious franchise has inspired several car-centric action movies, but this one is unique in that one of the writers worked on 2 Fast 2 Furious – though that isn't saying much, since it's considered the worst film in the franchise. Out of nowhere, a trailer for the French action thriller Overdrive has been released. Directed by Antonio Negret, whose credits include the Lethal Weapon TV remake, the flick stars Scott Eastwood and within the first few seconds, it looks like a Fast and Furious film with a lower budget and even worse acting.
The excuse for a plot sounds as cliched and disposable as it gets. Scott Eastwood and Freddie Thorp play two brothers who work as car thieves specializing in stealing luxury cars. We see them steal a rare Bugatti from a moving truck in the trailer, which happens to belong to a local crime boss who hunts them down.
In exchange for their lives, the thieves are forced to steal a Ferrari 250 GTO which belongs to the evil crime boss's arch rival. They assemble a crew together to do the job, and of course there's a damsel in distress who gets caught in the crossfire. Sound familiar? It all sounds like a mash-up of Fast Five and Gone in 60 Seconds. Overdrive won't be the most original film you'll watch this year, but to the film's credit the action scenes look moderately more realistic than some of the physics-defying stunts in Fast and Furious – there are no submarines or car hacking scenes here, just cars crashing, exploding and burning rubber. This isn't a film you'll watch for the plot or acting, but there's plenty of eye candy for car enthusiasts.
Some unique cars you don't often see in movies get put through their paces in the trailer, including an AC Cobra, Maserati Quattroporte, and a vintage Bugatti Type 57 S Atlantic which we can only presume is a replica, as well as brief glimpses of auto antiques such as a Porsche 356 Speedster, Alfa Romeo 158 and Jaguar E-Type. Overdrive will be racing into French cinemas on June 14, but no release date has been announced for the US yet. It looks like an entertaining ride, but it's arriving in a surprisingly crowded year for car movies. We can't see it being better than Baby Driver, somehow.