I have seen “Double Dragon,” “Super Mario Brothers” and “Mortal Kombat,” but “Need for Speed” is really the best film that the video game industry has put out, even though that is not saying much.

Video games and movies should be a no brainer, right? Two forms of media that ought to go hand and hand like peanut butter and chocolate, or in my opinion, pretzels and strawberry yogurt. Alas, film adaptations based on the video game medium have gone over like a lead balloon.

What is ever so slightly different about “Need for Speed” is that it has a nice bit of edge to it. It also does not completely pander to a youthful crowd, as many of these movies tend to do. While making the press rounds, Aaron Paul has been parroting the studio line that most of the car sequences and stunt work were done in real life and with minimal use of computer trickery (think “Fast and Furious”). It shows the racing sequences, especially one really awesome police chase that leads to Paul’s Tobey Marshall literally jumping his car over several others looking like a human grasshopper. Aside from that, there really were some problems with this movie.

First off, George Gatins: I realize screenwriters get blamed a majority of the time when a movie does not come out well, but man, you deserve to be blacklisted from Hollywood.

This seems harsh, but hear me out: there is a character in the film who utters the line “I saw this in a vision, man,” and then one of his mates says, “Oh man, him and his visions.” Then the prophetic character says that he sees Tobey rising like a phoenix and beating Dino Brewster in DeLeon. 

Too bad the prophetic character has to be the one who dies in order to motivate Tobey to seek revenge.

Lastly, it has been said to death by everyone, but Aaron Paul deserves better. One last note if you are even remotely tempted by this film, watch it for the absolutely weird performance put on by Michael Keaton. He is in a completely different movie than all the actors present and it is glorious to watch.