A monotonous movie that stalls when away from the track
Tensions run high in this sporting drama, both on and off the track. Unfortunately, when director Kelly Blatz’s camera isn’t focused on the motorcycle racing, the movie veers off course and has a near-miss with mediocrity.
One Fast Move stars K.J. Apa (Riverdale) as a troubled young man who ends up in military prison after taking part in an illegal street race. Following his release, he decides to turn his life around by pursuing his dream of becoming a professional motorcycle racer.
To this end, Wes tracks down his father, Dean, who 20 years earlier had made a name for himself on the racing circuit. Despite never having met one another, the two men are surprisingly quick to connect. Dean takes on the role of mentor to his son and trains him up to be the next big thing on the track.
Wes also gets support from Abel (Edward James Olmos), the owner of a motorcycle shop who gives the young man a job in his store. With his help, the love of his girlfriend Camila (Maia Reficco), and the training from his father, Wes builds in confidence as he prepares to enter his first legal race.
The movie is at its best when it’s on the race track as the scenes of bikers going head-to-head with one another are fairly exciting. With overhead camera work and the occasional first-person perspective, Blatz manages to get the adrenaline flowing as we watch the riders compete.
Sadly, the racing is secondary to the domestic drama revolving around Wes and his various relationships. These scenes are unimaginatively written, a problem that is exacerbated by the one-note characters who we don’t have much cause to care about. We’d care more if we knew more about their backgrounds but aside from a few throwaway lines of dialogue, we know very little about them.
The movie’s central relationship is that between Wes and Dean, two characters who largely adhere to stereotypes. Wes is a typically brooding young man who’s resentful of his father for having left him and his mom years before. Dean, on the other hand, is angry, cantankerous, and a little self-absorbed, being a man who capitalizes on his son’s ambitions for his own selfish purposes.
We have seen such characters before, and while there’s a little more going on in the heads of Wes and Dean than we have suggested, there’s not much about their character arcs that will surprise you. At least the actors playing these parts have something to do. The same cannot be said for Olmos and Reficco who do little more than stand around while the father-son drama happens around them. I’m guessing the only reason their thinly-written characters are in the film is so Wes has somebody to complain to when he’s not getting on with his pops.
Thank goodness for the racing scenes that bring the movie to life. Without them, One Fast Move would be little more than a poorly written soap opera with a capable cast of actors doing what they can with the corny dialogue they have been handed. The movie drags when it’s not on the track, with some scenes, including those that depict Wes and Camila’s blossoming romance, that might make you hit the fast-forward button to skip past the tiresome chatter.
A more apt title for this film would have been One Boring Movie if it wasn’t for the racing scenes that add a spark of excitement. It’s these scenes that make One Fast Move worth watching. Outside of the on-track action, this is a superficial and monotonous tale that doesn’t warrant your time or attention.
Read More: One Fast Move Ending Explained
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