Rush (2013)
I'm definitely not a racing fan myself and so I was excited to see "Rush" as an interesting peek into that world. I'll put aside the fact that "I don't get it" and see if the movie depiction of Formula 1 racing can communicate the excitement of the sport, the adrenaline-pumping speed and the reason it stirs so much passion in the fans. The obvious equivalent is "Days of Thunder", of course. I can't stand NASCAR but still really enjoy watching that movie.
But the definitive movie about indie car racing doesn't really focus on indie car racing (or focus enough for my taste). The movie is a true story about two rival drivers (James Hunt and Niki Lauda) from the seventies. In the first half of the movie we see them attracting women, we see them wooing women, we see them getting married, we see things go badly and the divorce that follows. Why should we care about any of this? Show us the racing, show us what makes these people special, show us why they're the best. On that front, the movie is content to resort to exposition - they just put "James wins" on the screen in nice titles.
The second half of the movie steps it up a little bit with some nice racing sequences but overall I don't care about either of these characters, I don't care how many women they've been with and, even going into it with no knowledge of the sport, I really didn't learn anything about Formula One. It made it into the Top 250 though. So, like Formula One itself, certainly some people out there must be enjoying it but I don't get it at all.
4/10.
Total "Top 250" Movies Seen: 378.
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half shake, half bake?
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