What is most surprising about Need For Speed is how badly it starts off. With too much exposition and not enough spark between the characters, it's as if the overlong 130-minute film will live up to its title for all of the wrong reasons.
AV Club
March 14, 2014
Though later sequences lean a little too heavily on contemporary car flick clichés ... they are all nonetheless informed by a gee-whiz appreciation for gleaming cars and stunt driving ingenuity.
If Need For Speed was 15% less overtly dumb and 15% less pandering to the stereotypical boy audience, it might have been a completely enjoyable B-movie romp.