Overdrive

Watching Scott Eastwood attempt to inherit his father’s legendary squint while power-sliding a vintage Ferrari through the streets of Marseille is a very specific kind of 2010s cinematic experience. It’s the era of the "diet" blockbuster—films that look like they cost a hundred million dollars but were actually cobbled together with European tax incentives and a dream of becoming the next Fast & Furious. I caught this one on a Tuesday afternoon while my neighbor was power-washing his driveway, and the rhythmic drone of the water strangely synced up with the high-revving engine noises coming from my speakers, creating a sort of 4D suburban immersion I didn't ask for.

Overdrive is a film that exists because the mid-budget action movie hadn't yet been fully swallowed by the Netflix "Original" maw in 2017. It’s a sleek, sun-drenched heist flick that feels like it was born in a laboratory where the scientists were only allowed to watch the first three Transporter movies and look at Architectural Digest photos of the French Riviera.

The Eastwood Uncanny Valley

The central hook here is the brotherhood between Andrew (Scott Eastwood) and Garrett Foster (Freddie Thorp). They are world-class car thieves who specialize in the kind of high-end vintage hardware that makes insurance adjusters weep. Scott Eastwood is a fascinating figure in this contemporary landscape; he has the DNA of a legend but the energy of a guy who really wants to sell you a high-end gym membership. He’s perfectly fine here, but the movie suffers from a lack of "family" chemistry that its bigger-budget cousins rely on.

Beside him, we get an early-career Ana de Armas as Stephanie. This was before she was an Oscar nominee or a holographic dream girl in Blade Runner 2049 (released the same year, funnily enough), and you can see her doing a lot of the heavy lifting with a role that is, frankly, beneath her. She and Gaia Weiss (of Vikings fame) play the "tough girlfriends/partners," but the script mostly treats them like high-end accessories to the cars. It’s a movie that thinks wearing a slim-fit suit and looking pensive near a harbor makes you a master criminal.

The villains, played by Clemens Schick (the terrifying guy from Casino Royale) and Simon Abkarian, are peak "Euro-trash antagonist." They have private islands, excessive security details, and a penchant for making the protagonists do "one last job" to save their lives. It’s a formula so well-worn you could find your way through the plot in a pitch-black room.

Marseille Muscle and Practical Paint Jobs

Where Overdrive actually earns its keep is in the garage. If you’re a gearhead, this is essentially car pornography with a light dusting of plot. We’re talking 1937 Bugatti Type 57S Atlantics and 1962 Ferrari 250 GTOs. Director Antonio Negret and cinematographer Laurent Barès clearly know that the cars are the real stars, filming them with a reverence usually reserved for religious icons.

The action choreography is surprisingly competent, largely because they leaned into practical stunt work. In an era where the MCU was turning every fight into a purple CGI mush, seeing actual cars burning rubber on actual French pavement feels refreshing. The opening truck heist is a genuine highlight, echoing the practical stunts of Pierre Morel’s Taken (Morel produced this, which explains the "Action-Europe" vibe). It’s not revolutionary, but there’s a physical weight to the metal-on-metal violence that keeps you from checking your phone for at least twenty minutes at a time.

However, the pacing is a bit of a rollercoaster. It tries to be "clever" with a series of double-crosses and "I-knew-you-knew" reveals that feel more like a homework assignment than a natural progression. It’s the kind of screenplay (written by Michael Brandt and Derek Haas, who also wrote 2 Fast 2 Furious) that thinks complexity is the same thing as depth.

The Last of a Dying Breed

Released right as the theatrical market for non-franchise action was collapsing, Overdrive is a fascinating artifact. It’s a movie that was clearly designed for a global theatrical release but ended up feeling like the most expensive "Straight-to-VOD" movie ever made. In the current era of streaming dominance, a movie like this would be the #1 trending title on a Friday night and forgotten by Monday morning.

The film lacks the self-aware absurdity that makes the later Fast movies work, but it also lacks the gritty realism of the Bourne series. It’s caught in a middle ground—a beautiful, shiny, 90-minute distraction that has the nutritional value of a single macaron. It’s a "vibe" movie before that term became a marketing buzzword. If you want to see Marseille looking gorgeous and hear the scream of an Italian V12, it delivers. If you want a story that stays with you longer than the time it takes to walk to the kitchen for a refill, you might be disappointed.

Turns out, the production was stuck in development hell for years. At various points, Matthew Goode, Alex Pettyfer, Karl Urban, and Ben Barnes were all attached to the Foster brothers' roles. The fact that it got made at all is a testament to the enduring power of the "cars and heists" pitch deck. It’s a movie built on the bones of better films, but it wears those hand-me-downs with just enough swagger to be watchable.

Overdrive is the cinematic equivalent of a high-end rental car: it looks great in the parking lot, it’s fun for a quick spin down the coast, but you aren't going to be heartbroken when you have to turn the keys back in. It’s a relic of a moment when we still thought Scott Eastwood could be the next big action lead and when the South of France was the default setting for any thriller involving a leather jacket. Watch it for the Bugatti; stay for Ana de Armas trying her best to make the dialogue sound like human speech.