Gran Turismo (2023)
August 27, 2023 10:13 PM - Subscribe
The ultimate wish fulfillment tale of a teenage Gran Turismo player (Archie Madekwe) whose gaming skills won him a series of Nissan competitions to become an actual professional racecar driver.
If you were wondering if Neill Blomkamp might be able to elevate this material...he wasn't. It's just how it appears in the trailer, a glossy ad for the game and Nissan. It's hard to fault the actors, as it was completely paint-by-numbers material, inoffensively and expensively done. (There is but a whisper of a class dynamic, and we're pretending there's no such thing as race in the racing world, I guess.) Your ten-year-old gaming nerd may enjoy. I hope David Harbour and Djimon Hounsou both got nice checks out of it.
If you were wondering if Neill Blomkamp might be able to elevate this material...he wasn't. It's just how it appears in the trailer, a glossy ad for the game and Nissan. It's hard to fault the actors, as it was completely paint-by-numbers material, inoffensively and expensively done. (There is but a whisper of a class dynamic, and we're pretending there's no such thing as race in the racing world, I guess.) Your ten-year-old gaming nerd may enjoy. I hope David Harbour and Djimon Hounsou both got nice checks out of it.
I'll be honest, the audience in my theater seemed to enjoy it, with applause at the climax and the end.
In the end, it's a very very standard sports movie, and that genre seems to endure. Or you might think of it as Top Gun, if Maverick and Iceman had no homoerotic chemistry. Or Ender's Game, if the kid never realizes that he's being exploited by the establishment. In other words, it's built on a sturdy chassis.
Mostly it just made me think of other, more interesting ways you could treat the material.
posted by praemunire at 8:12 AM on August 29, 2023 [3 favorites]
In the end, it's a very very standard sports movie, and that genre seems to endure. Or you might think of it as Top Gun, if Maverick and Iceman had no homoerotic chemistry. Or Ender's Game, if the kid never realizes that he's being exploited by the establishment. In other words, it's built on a sturdy chassis.
Mostly it just made me think of other, more interesting ways you could treat the material.
posted by praemunire at 8:12 AM on August 29, 2023 [3 favorites]
I loved it. Then again, I played Gran Turismo compulsively all through grad school and I love car movies so *waves hand* target audience here.
Yeah, it glossed over a lot of the process of learning to drive a race car. It also got the timeline slightly out of order and they Hollywooded the story in spots, but overall it was a good story and I'm glad it worked out.
posted by teleri025 at 6:24 AM on August 30, 2023
Yeah, it glossed over a lot of the process of learning to drive a race car. It also got the timeline slightly out of order and they Hollywooded the story in spots, but overall it was a good story and I'm glad it worked out.
posted by teleri025 at 6:24 AM on August 30, 2023
Who was asking for this movie?
I haven't seen it yet, but I am looking forward to it because it's directed by Neill Blomkamp (District 9, Elysium, Chappie, and the intriguing Oats Studios short films).
I suspect that the studios are testing him to see if he can make a commercially viable movie in the current marketplace, before letting him loose on another self-written big budget sci-fi movie (such as the long rumored District 10).
FWIW, the buzz I've been hearing about Gran Turismo echoes teleri025's comment above.
Here's a positive review.
posted by fairmettle at 10:13 PM on August 30, 2023
I haven't seen it yet, but I am looking forward to it because it's directed by Neill Blomkamp (District 9, Elysium, Chappie, and the intriguing Oats Studios short films).
I suspect that the studios are testing him to see if he can make a commercially viable movie in the current marketplace, before letting him loose on another self-written big budget sci-fi movie (such as the long rumored District 10).
FWIW, the buzz I've been hearing about Gran Turismo echoes teleri025's comment above.
Here's a positive review.
posted by fairmettle at 10:13 PM on August 30, 2023
I love Neil Blomkamp. I love underdog stories. And my kid loves video games, so I am disinclined to turn up my nose at other aficionados.
AND YET, every time "the bad guys" in the trailer would say something along the lines of "Just because you can drive a dangerous, high speed, precision vehicle in a console video game, that doesn't mean you can do it in real life!" I found myself thinking, "Mmm-hmm, yes. Hard agree."
I kept thinking of the AITA lady whose spouse was a flight simulator aficionado mad that she wouldn't introduce him as a "pilot" at parties.
I mean, I guess it all worked out in the real life version. And the three mitigating factors I cited up-top still hold. So I will try and let go and see this with an open mind.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:42 AM on September 1, 2023
AND YET, every time "the bad guys" in the trailer would say something along the lines of "Just because you can drive a dangerous, high speed, precision vehicle in a console video game, that doesn't mean you can do it in real life!" I found myself thinking, "Mmm-hmm, yes. Hard agree."
I kept thinking of the AITA lady whose spouse was a flight simulator aficionado mad that she wouldn't introduce him as a "pilot" at parties.
I mean, I guess it all worked out in the real life version. And the three mitigating factors I cited up-top still hold. So I will try and let go and see this with an open mind.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:42 AM on September 1, 2023
AND YET, every time "the bad guys" in the trailer would say something along the lines of "Just because you can drive a dangerous, high speed, precision vehicle in a console video game, that doesn't mean you can do it in real life!" I found myself thinking, "Mmm-hmm, yes. Hard agree."
Yep...that is one of the several ways I was thinking this material could get a more interesting treatment. If I was this kid's parents, my reaction would have been less "racing is an unrealistic dreeeeeeeeeeeeam" and more "getting into racing via a few months (?) real-life training for a PR stunt seems incredibly dangerous!"
(Mardenborough did crash and kill a spectator, but it is generally agreed to have been a freak accident.)
posted by praemunire at 10:04 AM on September 1, 2023
Yep...that is one of the several ways I was thinking this material could get a more interesting treatment. If I was this kid's parents, my reaction would have been less "racing is an unrealistic dreeeeeeeeeeeeam" and more "getting into racing via a few months (?) real-life training for a PR stunt seems incredibly dangerous!"
(Mardenborough did crash and kill a spectator, but it is generally agreed to have been a freak accident.)
posted by praemunire at 10:04 AM on September 1, 2023
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posted by Ben Trismegistus at 7:56 AM on August 29, 2023 [3 favorites]