WILD RIDE

A joyride turns into a madcap, world-saving scramble after a group of kids discovers a kidnapped accountant in the trunk of a car.

The rare 1964 Mustang convertible his mom’s fiance left in the garage proves too much temptation for 18-year-old Greg Decker—but a date night with his girlfriend, Marisa Ng, quickly takes a nightmarish turn when the car is towed. First, he has to call on his smart-mouthed 12-year-old sister, Charley, for funds, and she brings friends to the rescue party. Then the car comes out of impoundment with groggy Mitch Rosenfeld trapped inside by a pair of dimwitted hired thugs. It seems that Mitch not only stumbled upon a trove of evidence that media giant Pangea’s unscrupulous billionaire CEO, Alton Peck, has been a bad boy, but also that Pangea’s about-to-be-released household “digital life assistant” is pure, privacy-busting spyware. The chase is on. But while events careen along at a gratifyingly manic clip, it’s the smart, surprising cast (most evidently White, with names cueing some ethnic diversity) that really puts the shine on this epic romp: As the story unfolds, each reveals hidden depths of heart, courage, self-knowledge, conscience, or character. Even the thoroughly villainous Peck comes off in the end as more pathetically flawed than evil.

Pedal-to-the-metal fun, with moments both scary and triumphant to go with plenty of laugh-out-loud left turns.