Ford v Ferrari

Knowing the full history of the event, this movie is more about American pride and heroism than cars. As an huge racing fan and a Formula 1 fan whom enjoyed the original Grand Prix and Rush, this movie does not hit the spot, rather childish.

Well at thirty years of age this was the first time my partner and I had ever walked out of a cinema before the movie had finished... As a petrolhead I should have loved this film. I know the story, I have seen the documentaries, I have watched the old films. An actor I had been working with mentioned it to me a year previously as he had landed a supporting role, I was excited by the prospect of a new film for motorsport fans such as myself. After seeing the trailer I remained excited, and yet slightly nervous about the handling of it. After the first twenty minutes I turned to my fiance and stated "this had better improve"....after 45 minutes, I was ready to leave. We stayed for an hour as we had bought drinks and hoped things would improve. But there was simply no way I was going to make it through the full runtime of this movie. The writing and direction is just so cliche and cheesy, it wreaks of hamfisted Americanism, how people are claiming this will be up for awards is beyond me. It could have been written by a high school drama student. There were moments that were pure cringeworthy. I am deeply disappointed by this movie, I expected far more from everybody involved. Visually it's okay to look at, as it has the budget of a Hollywood Blockbuster. But beyond that, you'll be watching much of it through gritted teeth.

If you know bugger all about racing and don't care about an avalanche of Hollywood cliches, I'm sure you will love this. It's beautiful, Bale and Damon are wonderful as always, the sound it wonderful and there are more than one funny scene that made me laugh. However, if you are interested in racing and Le Mans, you will find this toe curling. First of all because of all the cliches are just standing in line for the full length of the movie. Most of all the ever-present protagonist-driver-changes-gear-and-reveals-that-he-hadn't-floored-the-accelerator-until-now stupidity. In fact they repeat this once every five minutes. And of course the drivers' ability to look over at other drivers for seconds at a time while they sit in a race car that does 974 km/h! Oh and of course the Hollywood cliche that never fails: Le Mans drivers that drive like it's stock car racing. Slamming into each other, going off the road intentionally, spinning and crashing out in epic fireballs ... they are all there in their vomit inducing glory. There's the totally unrealistic racing environment, handling of the race cars, driver and pit crew behaviour, a totally unbelievable person gallery and a farcical historical depiction. And of course there is the oh-so-evil suit and tie wearing villains and the oh-so-good heroes, which we are supposed to believe actually existed. Sigh! I felt absolutely nothing for any of the people at the end. Neither for the good guys nor the bad. If you are a racing fan, don't go watch this garbage.