Fairly watchable is the most adapt halfhearted compliment I have heard you give a film.

6:57 Djimon is a solid character actor. Should get more credit.

Fighting with my Family is another example of a brand version of its own history. A hardcore fan can easily nitpick that film, but at a glance it is entertaining enough.

It sounds like The Last Starfighter (1984): Expert teen gamer gets highest score on space fighter plane game, and is recruited by aliens to do it for real!

I had pretty mixed feelings about the Nurburgring fatality being in the film. I agree about the timeline fudging from early 2010's to 2023 being a choice made so that Sony and Polyphony Digital can promote the latest version of Gran Turismo, and that it doesn't really make sense for the story given that Nissan fired Darren Cox in 2016 and nixed GT Academy at the same time. However, I do think the crash is an effective and shocking moment since the film doesn't foreshadow or telegraph it beforehand (Other than Jann telling Jack Salter to open his gift after the race, or the early dialogue where Salter tries to scare the GT Academy contestants by telling them: "If you make a mistake you could kill yourself, or even worse, somebody else") I was worried they would be much more exploitative about the spectator's death than they were, but the film never names the man who died and we're not shown the other spectators that were also involved and survived with minor injuries. I agree that Archie Madekwe is mostly pretty flat in the film, but his performance when he wakes up and is distraught and horrified at what happened I found to be really effective and sympathetic. (Although I agree that Gerri Halliwell is trying WAY too hard in her crying scene to the point that it becomes comical, especially when the film cuts to Djimon Honsou in the same moment who gets the quiet shock and terror of that situation across so well in a much more subtle and powerful way.) I can kind of understand not following the chronological order of events, because if you have the Nurburgring accident after Le Mans then you end up with a similar issue that Le Mans '66 had (And I think Film Brain also bought this up in his review at the time) where they depict the fatal accident of Ken Miles (Christian Bale's character) right at the end of the film in a way that felt a bit too rushed and ended the story on a downbeat note. In the case of Gran Turismo I wonder if maybe it was too dark of a moment to include in the film, especially because they show Jann suffering PTSD from it during the final race at Le Mans, (Which I did appreciate because it wasn't just a case of Salter giving an inspirational speech and then he instantly gets over it, which would have been too crass IMHO) and I think including it unintentionally overshadows Jann's Le Mans podium in the movie when obviously it didn't in real life. My biggest issue was the scene when Jack Salter tries to relate to Jann after the crash by opening up about his own career-ending crash at Le Mans where he got another driver and personal friend of his killed. Jack Salter is a composite character of several people who mentored Jann, but this whole tragic backstory is completely made up, and the film treating it as equivalent to a real life fatality felt incredibly manipulative. A big shame because David Harbour is very good as Salter and makes the script work in spite of its shortcomings, and his dynamic and chemistry with Jann feels convincing and works. I think the filmmakers could have really helped alleviate some of these issues by asking the family for permission to dedicate the film to the deceased spectator during the montage at the end of the real Jann and his family. I do think Jann made the right choice to push for it to be in the film, because realistically he'll only get one chance to make a film about his life and career, and it's more honest to include it and show how truly dangerous the sport is. I think without that Nurburgring scene the danger in the film never quite feels real; there's a big wreck that happens in the Dubai scene just before that Jann avoids, and that to me felt more like something out of Stallone's Driven, where the villain totals the car and flips a billion times and comes out unscathed. I like the way they did the Nurburgring scene but in a fairly lighthearted feature length Sony/Playstation advertisement it perhaps felt a bit too dark tonally.

Great review! It's genuinely sad to see the continuing downward spiral of Neil Blomkamp's career. To think this guy started with District 9 and he's reduced to doing this kind of thing...

@davidjames579

11 ай бұрын

Last I heard he was writing District 10

@jamesatkinsonja

11 ай бұрын

He lost a lot of momentum with the 'development hell' projects as well as the only film he got out in that period, Chappie, not being a hit [he was planning a sequel to that which didn't happen after it underperformed].

@Blackhawk19892

10 ай бұрын

It seems like he keeps being on the cusp of being handed a big franchise that will make him bankable enough to make films forever then it all falls through at the last second. He's almost had his hands on Halo and Alien and it wouldn't surprise me if he had a potential Marvel of DC project that never materialized. You just get the sense he wants to move beyond being the guy who showed low budget sci fi could look great but life keeps smacking him down to take mediocre projects.

I'm a big motor racing fan and I really enjoyed 'Rush' [Hunt+ Lauda] and 'Le Mans 66/Ford Vs Ferrari' where the real life history+ people effectively wrote the story/created the characters for the film makers [with some artistic licence] as when your making something mostly fictional [like Driven which you reviewed back in the day] it often ends up full of cliches and crashes.

@matthewdekker6064

11 ай бұрын

Yes, both Rush and Ford v Ferrari were pretty great. If anyone here hasn't seen those, definitely check those out before Gran Turismo, because they're much better. I'm not a racing fan by any means, but I loved both of them.

Shocked they didn't have a Nissan with a PlayStation built in the movie

I really don't comment much which I should do to help the algorithm but thank you for another very entertaining review. I remember your reviews from ages ago and it's been good to find you again over the last couple years and see you're still putting out really good work.

@FilmBrain

11 ай бұрын

Thank you, I try to keep the standard up and keep improving!

They should have made the first half hour be someone remortgaging their house to buy a car fast enough to win the Sunday Cup, only to win a Demio

Oddly enough I was wondering when your next review was out earlier today and here it is! Thanks for the entertainment and a great job as always.

@FilmBrain

11 ай бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it!

I enjoyed the film fine enough as a by-the-numbers sports racing movie, but I don't think it will ever be the one I gravitate towards when I'm in the mood for that kind of story. Speed Racer would be my choice for that, since it's able to go more ridiculous with it, and I find the races more actioned pact because of its exaggerated nature.

@GeriatricFan1963

11 ай бұрын

Yeah, and if you want a biopic about motorsport then both Rush and Le Mans '66 focus on more interesting (and really well-cast and acted) real life characters. Whilst they both definitely have their cheesy moments, the dialogue feels way more adult and engaging than in Gran Turismo; as someone who does a lot of work in sim-racing it's great that we have a big budget blockbuster about it, but the need to "gamify" other moments of Jann's life such as adding in the police chase sequence near the beginning are kind of cringeworthy and fall into negative stereotypes that you hear ignorant people spouting about gaming and esports. "Driving racing games makes you a reckless driver on the roads in real life," etc. For the most part the racing scenes are solid even if they're a little over reliant on the graphics to support the action; I also felt like the villain gets away with the kind of driving that would get you banned in real life. When Will Buxton in his ADR commentary says: "Mardenborough was too naive" when Kappa just blatantly punts him around from behind, and the film treats it like it was somehow Jann's fault, I rolled my eyes. You can't really get away with a guy driving like a saturday morning cartoon villain when it's supposed to be depicting real motorsport.

@davidjames579

11 ай бұрын

@@GeriatricFan1963 "Achievement Unlocked: You just evaded the Cops" sounds like it turned into Grand Theft Auto: The Movie

When I saw the trailer for this movie I was like: “I’m sorry what?”

I might vary on some of the specifics, but overall, yeah, the movie was just kinda "meh" as a film. But to change the order of things, especially around the death, that's pretty messed up.

The Classist angle is also a big difference between (US) American and "Old World" motor-racing caultures: NASCAR is rooted in mostly rural, mostly working poor people suping up cars in their homes to do crimes, instead of rich men paying people to supe up cars to show off. This movie made no sense to Americans because to this day you only need to be solidly middle class to break into Stockcar racing (and its lower amatuer circuits) as a teen

4:34 I’m assuming the closeup on the cook when the protagonist said “this is good, this is really good”. Why not just put him in that exact role? I thought that was really him but it was an actor….

I had a far more negative reaction to Air than you as a paid American Dream advertisement for Nike. Of course my reaction is predicated on outside knowledge as Air stills works as a movie. Grand Turismo doesn’t have that luxury.

Great movie

Days of Thunder as a Daytona USA movie worked better

Ha ha! They had it to set it in 2023 so as to sell Playstation 5's off of the movie. Would have been embarrassing to inc Playstation 3 graphics even if it would be factually accurate.

This movie missed the mark because there was no Moon over the Castle.

No interest in seeing this movie, but enjoyed your review!

Are you going to review a haunting in Venice???

@FilmBrain

10 ай бұрын

I'm not likely to, but I did review Murder on the Orient Express.

@SJPMlover4ever

10 ай бұрын

@@FilmBrain fair enough! I think we have similar taste and value in movies so I always hope I'll have your opinion. I'll definitely check out the last video tho!! Thank you

@FilmBrain

10 ай бұрын

I will probably see it and review it on my social media, but I got to be selective as I can't do everything as a video, much as I want to.

@SJPMlover4ever

10 ай бұрын

@@FilmBrain excellent!! Thanks for the heads up and fantastic work ☺️

5:45 I assume this was an allusion to F1 champion Lewis Hamilton who's father-Anthony-was employed by the railways among other jobs supporting his son. Money is certainly a big factor in the sport. There's been a bit push to get more female drivers recently but unless you get a sponsor/onto a manufactures junior scheme your going to struggle. 9:52 Geri Halliwell is the wife of Red Bull F1 boss Christian Horner but unfortunately I got flashbacks to you 'Fat Slag's' review!

@GeriatricFan1963

11 ай бұрын

Funnily enough, Jann's Dad Steve Mardenborough was actually a fairly successful professional footballer in the 80's and 90's, but back in those days there wasn't anywhere near as much money in the sport as today. There are certainly parallels between Jann and Lewis Hamilton in that Lewis' parents were also mixed race, Lewis was a working class kid from Stevenage whereas Jann was born in Darlington before moving to Cardiff, and Lewis got his start as a kid racing RC cars professionally before he went to go-karts and eventually got on the McLaren young driver scheme, whereas Jann started much later in racing after dropping out of Uni, and whilst he never made it to Formula One he's done incredibly well in GT's in Japan as well as Japanese open wheel categories like Super Formula considering that he's not been racing for anywhere near as long as his competitors. I do think there is a amazing movie about Lewis Hamilton's career to be made, since he's a very compelling and complex character, but that can probably wait until after he retires from the top level. I do get the impression that Gerri Halliwell was cast because one of the producers saw her in the Netflix F1 documentary Drive to Survive, which follows the real F1 season and gives her more screen time than many of the actual drivers. Her best performance was easily as Ginger Spice in Spice World. (which oddly enough is about as old as the original Gran Turismo game!)

@jamesatkinsonja

11 ай бұрын

@@GeriatricFan1963 Thanks for the additional context. I imagine 'Drive to Survive' was an influence given it's widely seen as key to F1 finally breaking America.

Isn't complaining about advertising in a movie like this, is like complaining about McDonald's being featured in a docufilm about the creator of the restaurant?

@FilmBrain

11 ай бұрын

Well, if you know the story of McDonald's, that wouldn't be a very positive history... (As seen in Michael Keaton's The Founder, which no one would confuse for a McDs ad)

You know what is the most laughable thing about this? The film is not called Assetto Corsa or RFactor 2. Gran turismo is not a sim comparatively speaking. Why didn’t they do a film about Jimmy Broadbent in the Praga?

I miss BAD MOVIE BEATDOWN!

Protagonist was a good actor but mfer is too tall. 6’4” compared to the real person being 5’10”.

Please stop saying “actually” so much! 😂

@FilmBrain

11 ай бұрын

Yeah, I'm trying to work on my word fillers. I have to edit it, so believe me, I notice them.

This seems like a terrible movie to be given a 2+ hour runtime.

@justinhunt4767

11 ай бұрын

It's great