Hollywood seems to struggle to make even the best written games into quality films. Now we have Need for Speed, the long running racing game, which has no real story to speak of making the silver screen transition.

Thankfully it has a couple things on it’s side. First it fills the void left by the unfortunate delay to the supremely popular Fast and the Furious franchise due to star Paul Walker’s death. Secondly it has a big up and coming star in Aaron Paul, fresh from the amazing Breaking Bad.

Story wise it’s nothing remarkable, heck, it’s even laughable at times. I’ve seen a lot worse in big action films though. It’s par for the course in the genre. Really, you don’t go to a film like this for the story anyways.

Where Need for Speed really shines is in the action and racing scenes themselves. Not a single bit of CGI was used in any of the car scenes in the film. Traditional, practical filming and stunt work all across the board and it really shines. Also unlike recent entries in the Fast and Furious series the movie spends 80% behind the wheel which is a big plus for the car enthusiasts out there.

Aaron Paul is a great leading man with charisma and confidence. Sadly they didn’t throw one utterance of Jesse Pinkman’s favourite word into the script. Shame. Imogen Poots is the love interest and almost shines more than Aaron does. They’re a fun pairing with good chemistry.

All in all this is a big, silly action film with some terrific driving and stunt work. Switch off the old noggin and enjoy the ride.

Need for Speed is in cinemas today, so go check it out.