Our take
Between Overhaul’s frequently nonsensical blend of truck racing and vehicular heists, and its focus on found families, the comparisons to the Fast & Furious series are undeniable. This also means that this Brazilian blockbuster is also much less engaging than it thinks it is; the stakes don’t feel particularly urgent, and the near indifference of the rest of the world to all this criminal activity means these characters may as well be fantasy heroes. It does, however, have more significantly more color to it than its Hollywood role model, thanks to the gorgeous vistas of Brazil and the unique physical attributes of the big rigs the main characters drive. All things considered, it’s pretty novel to have these high-speed chases through more cumbersome vehicles—less flashiness, more brute power.
The story
When truck racer Roger loses everything, he receives a tempting but dangerous offer: to work as the getaway driver for a gang of thieves.
A professional truck racer takes on a job working as a getaway driver for a gang.
The vehicular heist scenes sort of run out of ideas after a couple of times, so the racing sequences are really where the heart of this movie lies. It's actually quite cool to see these large, decked-out vehicles in bright colors turning corners and trying to overtake one another. Even if you aren't a fan of racing (or the Fast & Furious movies), there's a sort of underdog factor that comes with seeing stereotypically "uncool" cars using their own unique characteristics to make a chasedown just as exciting as it might be with smaller sports cars.
Not as fast, not that furious.
The details
Streaming arrival
Who picked it
Emil Hofileña is a curator at A Good Movie to Watch. He also writes as a theater critic, with work published in Rogue and Out of Print, among others. He’s probably crying over a movie or an episode as we speak.
