I’m not interested in cars, or car movies, or car culture. Nothing against people who are interested in that stuff, it’s just not for me. So I went into Need for Speed expecting something terrible. Color me surprised, because Need for Speed is one of the better “dumb movies” I’ve seen.

Based very loosely on the Electronic Arts video game series, Need for Speed is the story of Tobey Marshall (Aaron Paul) who is the strong, silent type—and also a master mechanic and a master driver. There’s nothing this kid can’t do! EXCEPT not go to jail, because he ends up going away for two years after he is framed for involuntary manslaughter. You see, during a street race, Tobey, his best buddy Pete (Harrison Gilbertson), and total douche bag Dino (Dominic Cooper) are on a bridge. Dino taps the back of Pete’s car with his, and Pete’s car then defies the laws of physics and gravity: spinning incredibly high into the air, flipping about 377 times across the bridge, and then falling OFF the bridge, where it then explodes—because, I mean, how could it not? Because Dino is a scumbag, he drives away. Tobey stays and gets busted, and even though he tells everyone Dino did it, there are no witnesses.

Now Tobey is out of jail and out for REVENGE. So this is sort of like The Count of Monte Cristo, but with cars and a Linkin Park song at the end.

So how “good” is this movie? On the level of “good movies,” the answer probably would be: “eh!” For one thing, it’s way too long. The movie is 2 hours and 10 minutes, and a half-hour could’ve easily been cut. For another, as good of an actor as Aaron Paul is, he’s not really given much to do.

Paul’s character is a bit of a void; there’s really nothing to him. He wants revenge for Pete’s death, or so he says. But we never really get that he wants revenge THAT badly. Really it just seems like he wants to drive cars really fast while frowning. There is one kind of unintentionally hilarious scene at the end where Tobey is about to start the big final race: he rolls up his sleeve and reveals a small tattoo on his inner arm that just says PETE. It’s never mentioned before or again. It’s just there, this big block letter tattoo that says PETE. This scene feels like at the last minute the studio was like, “Better throw something in there to remind everyone he wants revenge for Pete!” and this was the best they could think of.

Mostly all of the other characters are the same as Tobey: they don’t really have much going for them, they are just there to further Tobey’s journey and occasionally say “YEAH, THAT’S MY BOY!” and “YOU GOT THIS!”

Tobey’s big plan for revenge is to race against Dino in this big secret illegal car race called the De Leon, where the winner gets to take home ALL OF THE CARS. Even though the De Leon is super secret and illegal, it’s also broadcast all over the internet and apparently everyone can easily access this to watch it. The race is run by a mysterious DJ named The Monarch, and he is played by Michael Keaton. I love Michael Keaton, and I want him to have a comeback, but holy shit is he chewing the scenery here. I guess this is the type of movie and role where you should be chewing scenery, but Keaton’s character seems like not only is he from a different movie, but also a different planet. He spends the entire film sitting down and podcasting, and shouting weird things into the microphone while clapping his hands together loudly. Basically it feels like he’s playing Beetlejuice without the makeup.

And yet, for all its flaws (and they are legion), Need for Speed is not the type of movie I can hate on. For one thing, it’s a lot of fun. For another, director Scott Waugh went to great lengths to have as many practical effects as possible. That means all of the car chases, and all of the crashes, are done with real cars, not CGI. And it shows; even though the cars sometimes do illogical thing (see my summation of Pete’s death above), it all looks real, and that’s pretty impressive.

Cars and car chases aside, the surprisingly best part of the movie is Imogen Poots (and yes, let’s all giggle at her name right now and get out of the way). Poots (tee-hee!) plays Julia, a car dealer who is helping Tobey get his revenge. The last thing I expected from this movie was a well-rounded, strong female character, but Julia is just that. She’s not just there to be “the girl in the movie who sits next to Aaron Paul.” And Paul and Poots (ha ha ha!) have pretty great chemistry together. Of course the plot requires them to fall in love, and with two lesser actors it would feel forced, but they are able to pull it off.

There are a lot of plot-threads in the film that feel like they have no reason to be there. There’s an entire subplot about Pete’s sister being engaged to Dino that could’ve been cut completely. There’s also a pointless subplot where Dino sends out bounty hunters to stop Tobey before he can get to the race, but this subplot actually results in one of the best scenes of the film, where Julia’s character gets to drive the car and show she knows her stuff.

Need for Speed is stupid. It’s a big, loud, dumb movie. But it’s fun, and with a little rewriting it might actually have become a really good movie. For now we’ll have to settle with a “not bad” one.