32 replies to this topic

[JG]

The new Gran Turismo movie looking more promising after watching the trailer, and it's directed by Neill Blomkamp (great director).

[FirstnameLastname]

Gran Turismo movie is apparently not awful

https://youtu.be/-b9Cc-Jnz8U

[Beri]

Its blatant advertisement ofcourse. But I reckon its a good film none the less. 

[Stephane]

i know the story too well. 

[PayasYouRace]

Should have been a film about an aspiring racer going from Sunday Cups in a hatchback to winning the GT World Championship, not a “biopic” of Jann Mardenborough. 

[noikeee]

As a simracer (which seems to be like 90% of the population these days) I'm slightly baffled a biopic of Jann Mardenborough is interesting enough on its own to deserve a movie lol

Guys wins a competition gets a seat keeps going up the ranks and is fairly good. Yeah ok?

Didn't he do karting when he was a kid too?

[AustinF1]

Man, this premise could have made for a decent movie, but it just looks sooooo bad. The trailers with the guy having to push the drivers to go fast is just mind-numbingly over the top and idiotic, as if he's some sort of 'racing drill sergeant' or something. If they didn't want to go as fast as possible, they wouldn't be there. It's not as if they were drafted for racing service or something, against their will lol. If anything, he'd have to reign them in and keep them from killing themselves going too fast.

Edited by AustinF1, 13 August 2023 - 17:05.

[LolaB0860]

Top youtube comment:

"Imagine, giving the audience the movie is targeting exactly what they want. What a novel concept."

 

Did the audience really want (surely overly dramatized anyway) biopic of Jann Mardenborough? A person that was "okay I guess" and so bland I actually first thought they were talking about Lucas Ordóñez

 

As for Neill Blomkamp, he did District 9 which was pretty good, but everything afterwards has been on sliding downscale. And Demonic was utter trash

Edited by LolaB0860, 13 August 2023 - 15:26.

[messy]

Reviews I’ve seen of this look pretty bad, and a biopic of Jann Mardenborough just seems to be slightly….weird. With Geri Halliwell playing his mother? Um, maybe endless episodes of Peppa Pig aren’t so bad after all.

That said, I suspect the Brad Pitt film will be far worse than this.

[PayasYouRace]

Initially saw a bunch of bad reviews, followed by better reviews. I think the bad reviews tended to come from more car or gaming orientated media, while the better reviews seemingly coming from more "filmy" media. But that's just a hunch.

 

From what I've seen, I'm putting in the "Might watch on TV" category. Mrs P has already stated we're not going to see it in the cinema.

[P123]

As a simracer (which seems to be like 90% of the population these days) I'm slightly baffled a biopic of Jann Mardenborough is interesting enough on its own to deserve a movie lol

Guys wins a competition gets a seat keeps going up the ranks and is fairly good. Yeah ok?

Didn't he do karting when he was a kid too?

 

Deserves a movie because Sony and Nissan were no doubt willing to bankroll it, and it's a story 99% of those 90% probably wish was theirs.    

[Proto402]

So, I was able to catch a sneak preview (a.k.a. early screening) of the movie last night at a nearby movie theater.  Here are my thoughts  (WARNING: SOME SPOILERS):

 

 

Spoiler

- The move overall was good, but don't expect anything Oscar winning. 

 

- The pacing was decent.  It didn't feel like anything dragged along.

 

- The story is nothing new, although as expected, they did take a lot of liberties with the real life story.

 

- The special effects, especially the camera work, was impressive.  They were able to get some impressive camera shots at speed, and the in car shots were fantastic as you're able to see the full cockpit of the actual cars and even close up shots of their faces in the cars.

 

- In terms of acting, the standouts were Orlando Bloom as Danny Moore, and David Harbour as Jack Salter.

 

- Favorite Scene: The pre-race build up to Le Mans.  They nailed how a pre race should feel.

 

- Stuff that annoyed me (as a race fan):  They took some liberties with the real life track designs, especially Silverstone and Le Mans.  Also, they did have some liberties with the "alternate" line Jann used for overtaking (It probably could work if tire wear and track grip wasn't a factor   )  Also, it is possible to do a sub 3:20 lap at Le Mans with a P2 car?  Probably not, but they did change up to so called class format for that race.  I'm sure anyone who follows

 

- Once scene in particular will most likely have some controversy.  The infamous Nurburgring crash in which his GTR got airborne, flipped over the catch fence, and killed a spectator was featured, and the consequences were kept (including the spectator death).  This is huge in the movie, as it is a reality check that motorsport is dangerous and that anyone can get hurt, even if you're a spectator, and it not the driver's fault.

 

 

Overall, I would give this move a 7/10.  Good, entertaining, but don't expect it to win awards for realism.

 

 

Hope you all enjoy it once it's out everywhere

 

 

 

 

[highdownforce]

So, I was able to catch a sneak preview (a.k.a. early screening) of the movie last night at a nearby movie theater. Here are my thoughts (WARNING: SOME SPOILERS):

Spoiler

- The move overall was good, but don't expect anything Oscar winning.

- The pacing was decent. It didn't feel like anything dragged along.

- The story is nothing new, although as expected, they did take a lot of liberties with the real life story.

- The special effects, especially the camera work, was impressive. They were able to get some impressive camera shots at speed, and the in car shots were fantastic as you're able to see the full cockpit of the actual cars and even close up shots of their faces in the cars.

- In terms of acting, the standouts were Orlando Bloom as Danny Moore, and David Harbour as Jack Salter.

- Favorite Scene: The pre-race build up to Le Mans. They nailed how a pre race should feel.

- Stuff that annoyed me (as a race fan): They took some liberties with the real life track designs, especially Silverstone and Le Mans. Also, they did have some liberties with the "alternate" line Jann used for overtaking (It probably could work if tire wear and track grip wasn't a factor ) Also, it is possible to do a sub 3:20 lap at Le Mans with a P2 car? Probably not, but they did change up to so called class format for that race. I'm sure anyone who follows

- Once scene in particular will most likely have some controversy. The infamous Nurburgring crash in which his GTR got airborne, flipped over the catch fence, and killed a spectator was featured, and the consequences were kept (including the spectator death). This is huge in the movie, as it is a reality check that motorsport is dangerous and that anyone can get hurt, even if you're a spectator, and it not the driver's fault.


Overall, I would give this move a 7/10. Good, entertaining, but don't expect it to win awards for realism.

Hope you all enjoy it once it's out everywhere

Is the Ligier really replacing the GTR Nismo LM ?

Edited by highdownforce, 14 August 2023 - 01:01.

[Dan333SP]

Is the Ligier really replacing the GTR Nismo LM ?

 

Yes, and apparently it's not even the Nissan DPi version, it's whatever they called their trackday only special based on the P2 car. Weird choice. 

[flatlandsman]

The Mardenborough story is truthfully sightly misleading anyway.  I recall some talking to or reading posts about some people who got to the final stages and by no way was this lad the quickest driver, but the people running it knew he fitted a certain profile that would benefit their programme. there were quicker drivers online and in real cars, that missed out sadly. 

[Fastcake]

Initially saw a bunch of bad reviews, followed by better reviews. I think the bad reviews tended to come from more car or gaming orientated media, while the better reviews seemingly coming from more "filmy" media. But that's just a hunch.

From what I've seen, I'm putting in the "Might watch on TV" category. Mrs P has already stated we're not going to see it in the cinema.

I’m sure they have a few “this is what really happened takes, but I’m not too concerned about the motorsport media’s view on Gran Turismo’s artistic merits - there were a few people who genuinely seemed a bit outraged the scenes at Suzuka in Rush were clearly filmed at Brands Hatch.

In any case, I was reading a few reviews at the weekend when I saw it was out at my local cinema, and they seem passably average. A rotten tomatoes rating of 60% and 4.5 out of 10 on metacritic, for people who appreciate aggregators. I heavily suspect this quote from Mark Kermode’s review in the graun hits on the truth of it, “What follows is a formulaic, against-the-odds sporting story that hits all the genre cliches (on-track rivalries, outsiders making inroads, tensions between private lives and public personae, ecstatic highs, tragic lows and inevitable third act resurrections) while still retaining a spark of invention, thanks to the peculiar virtual/physical dichotomies of Mardenborough’s story.”

[PayasYouRace]

I’m sure they have a few “this is what really happened takes, but I’m not too concerned about the motorsport media’s view on Gran Turismo’s artistic merits - there were a few people who genuinely seemed a bit outraged the scenes at Suzuka in Rush were clearly filmed at Brands Hatch.

 

Artistic merit is such a copout metric. What's more important to a motorsport, and racing game fan to myself, is that it's fun to watch and doesn't annoy me.

 

The Fuji scenes in Rush weren't annoying because it was directed well enough that you got sucked into the story and didn't really notice. Though it was more annoying seeing Brands masquerading as Paul Ricard and Monza.

 

Of course, bad films can be fun to watch too. See Driven. But a bad film isn't worth wasting money at the cinema for.

[Fastcake]

Artistic merit is such a copout metric. What's more important to a motorsport, and racing game fan to myself, is that it's fun to watch and doesn't annoy me.

 

The Fuji scenes in Rush weren't annoying because it was directed well enough that you got sucked into the story and didn't really notice. Though it was more annoying seeing Brands masquerading as Paul Ricard and Monza.

 

Of course, bad films can be fun to watch too. See Driven. But a bad film isn't worth wasting money at the cinema for.

That's highly irritating. I know it was Fuji, I even saw the film at the new year for pete's sake.

 

Up to what you want to watch innit. I'm sure there's going to be things about this (like Rush or Driven) that will bother me as a motorsport fan that will go over the head of others. I just try and avoid nitpicking an otherwise passable film.

[LolaB0860]

TBH in this day and age I'd always rather take something outstandingly awesome or horribly terrible over "ehh it was fine I guess" that gets forgotten in a week.

Edited by LolaB0860, 15 August 2023 - 08:09.

[Dunc]

I saw it at the weekend and I really, really enjoyed it. The premise of it isn't great, the product placement is way too blatant and it's not going to trouble any of the major awards but it's a very good example of a Saturday night popcorn film. The acting is very good, even Geri is convincing (thankfully she doesn't have a lot of screen time, which probably helps this fact) and the characters are all both likeable and relatable. The direction is very good, Blomkamp makes excellent use of simulator-style graphics and a lot of the racing footage is excellent. Perhaps most notably it doesn't attempt to make trite social commentary or political messaging - save a few comments on how a lot of racing drivers are rich kid w****rs, which we all know to be true - which is very refreshing in modern commercial cinema.

 

One of my favourite critics refers to this kind of film as a 'cheeseburger movie' - it's nothing new and it doesn't challenge you, it's a just a well-worn kind of story told really well, and there's nothing wrong with that!

 

I would heartily recommend seeing it on the big screen and going in with an open mind.

[RekF1]

Should have been a film about an aspiring racer going from Sunday Cups in a hatchback to winning the GT World Championship, not a “biopic” of Jann Mardenborough.

Campervan around the Top Gear test track would've been amazing.

[Afterburner]

Reading about it in this thread I'm now splitj over whether or not I want to see it.

[RekF1]

Reading about it in this thread I'm now splitj over whether or not I want to see it.

watch it, Sunshine!!

I mean. Why don't you watch it an then cast judgement, Sunshine

[chdphd]

Saw it last nigh. I enjoyed it. A few eye-rolling moments, but nothing like the level of Driven.

 

Not a particularly charismatic lead actor but David Harbour was entertaining as always. Geri Halliwell was OK I guess    Djimon Hounsou seemed underused.

 

They gave the impression Jann was the first person to go from Gran Turismo to racing real cars. That's not true.

 

There were a couple of cartoon villains. One rival even ate an apple to reinforce their arrogance.

 

The usual racing movie clichés were there. The Hungaroring was both Le Mans and Silverstone, but fair enough.

 

They also did the thing where it looked as if he went straight from the academy to the Red Bull Ring for a race with no testing or even practice/qualifying. Same about Le Mans. "Here's a new LMP2 car which is a massive step from your normal car, but you'll get used to it fine". Off you go.

 

For once the screen I was in had the volume up and it sounded great.

 

I felt there wasn't a massive amount of CGI but I'm pretty sure they copied/adapted Ant Davidson's 2012 Le Mans crash.

 

Well worth the £6.94 I paid to see it at Cineworld.

Edited by chdphd, 23 August 2023 - 07:24.

[oli4]

Saw the movie with my son, for me it was not good at all. It was just a Sony/Nissan commercial.

And annoying that when they want to pass someone they shift and step on the gas 

[flatlandsman]

Let's face it the entire thing about Gt Academy was a huge PR deal.

 

Remember the challenges on the PS4, the first one I think was driving a Leaf!! I spent days chopping tenths and hundredths off my time and was still about a quarter of a second off the freaks that led and somewhere in the top 500 or so, that is about exploits and little hacks that people know about, not really much else as all gaming is.

 

yes there is a certain amount of skill involved aswell, but once you get to a level like that they were all brilliant, amazing sim racers, the best around back then, but the reason Jann was chosen was a multitude of things, not just speed. AS I know for sure he was not the quickest driver selected!

[gerry nassar]

I went in with low expectations and enjoyed it immensely. So did my boys and shockingly my wife too. 

 

Considering the gaming to racing aspect Neil Blomkamp pulled it off as it works as both a racing and video game film. Sure it's nothing new but it is well realized. 

 

David Harbour is also very good in this.

[goldenboy]

I just can't watch any racing related movie without cringing.

 

Can. Not. Do. It. 

 

Senna was a good doc, even though exaggerated, but not cringey. But I can't even bring myself to watch Ford v Ferrari for more than a minute. 

[Huffer]

It's a terrible movie, not just in respect to how it portrays racing ( drivers bashing into other without penalties, driving getting on the radio to male a big statement as to how he's going to driver a different line on the track etc.) but chaos how it portrays the accuracy of video games and the curacy of racing sims ( GT7 being soooo accurate that it simulates glazed brakes...).

 

If you ignore all of that crap, it's a semi-decent flick. It was my daughters idea to go and see it, and she loved every minute of it. 

[AncientLurker]

My wife took me to see this last night for an easy-going movie we could both watch. I went in not expecting any realism in the racing and knowing very little about Jan and the GT Academy other than the accident at Nordschleife. It was entertaining and a nice evening out. The accident definitely makes the middle of the movie heavy, but I think they handle it relatively well. Was not disappointed because I was not expecting Grand Prix or Le Mans.

 

My biggest gripe with the movie are the racing scenes. Not because of accuracy, or they were using the wrong body kit, or the bumping. It was the terrible angles and super fast cuts. Did not get the sense of speed, or really working to make a pass. They must have had the FIA TV directors consulting.

[jensfan09]

My wife took me to see this last night for an easy-going movie we could both watch. I went in not expecting any realism in the racing and knowing very little about Jan and the GT Academy other than the accident at Nordschleife. It was entertaining and a nice evening out. The accident definitely makes the middle of the movie heavy, but I think they handle it relatively well. Was not disappointed because I was not expecting Grand Prix or Le Mans.

 

My biggest gripe with the movie are the racing scenes. Not because of accuracy, or they were using the wrong body kit, or the bumping. It was the terrible angles and super fast cuts. Did not get the sense of speed, or really working to make a pass. They must have had the FIA TV directors consulting.

The angles was probably because they used the Hungaroring to stand in for most of the circuits! lol

[AncientLurker]

The angles was probably because they used the Hungaroring to stand in for most of the circuits! lol

You could definitely tell they were swapping circuits. I don't recall the forest at Silverstone. 

 

The angles were just really, really tight and at very severe angles. Best way I can describe it is the fight scenes in those shitty transformers movies. Lots of close ups of coloured metal and sparks flashing everywhere with very fast cuts from clip to clip. Thankfully the race scenes were very short though so it did not get tedious. I assume this is on purpose to appeal to non race fans.

[PayasYouRace]

Had a quiet night in and watched it last night. Review in spoilers below.

Spoiler

It’s so bad. The story seems to have no tension or real drama. Whole thing comes across as both an advert for Gran Turismo and a bit of self promotion for Mardenborough. Every step of his journey just happens as you’d expect. Everything works out for him. He qualified when he needs to, gets the girl, and the only bump along the way is him having to get over his Nurburgring blow-over crash, which given his character seems to be a supreme technical expert, he’d know it wasn’t his fault.

Was amused by how the Hungaroring did so much heavy lifting as Silverstone, Le Mans, “England Speedway”, etc. I finished the film impressed that they used Red Bull Ring and Dubai Autodrome. I was rather confused about when suddenly he was working in a European railway yard, though apparently that was meant to be in Cardiff (the trains were all wrong). Did Steve Mardenborough really end up working on the railways after his football career?

I wasn’t too fussed about the casting. I like David Harbour but he plays “Jack Salter” very much in his wheelhouse. Most performances seemed adequate for the story the film was trying to tell.

What really annoyed me was the portrayal of motor racing in general. All the motor racing movie cliches were there. The idea that nobody else at Le Mans was taking the best racing line until Jann goes into “gamer mode” in the last hour was laughable. Then again, the racing sequence at the Red Bull Ring saw the cars leaving two car widths available on the entry to Rindt corner. These are sub-Driven level mistakes in portaying the sport.

For a film that spends all its runtime telling you how accurate Gran Turismo is, you’d think they’d have tried to portray racing a bit more accurately. Jann’s career progression doesn’t appear to mirror either real life or the game either. It’s just plot driven, whatever he needs to achieve next type of stuff. Like he’s doing a whole season in GTs against professional racers before earning his “FIA Licence”.

And the script for the racing stuff was dire. Jann wins one race in the entirely of the film, the GT Academy final. Of course, that and every other key result for Jann is a photo finish. And those key results? He spends much of the movie trying to achieve a fourth place race finish, and the final showdown is to finish third. I get that they’re depicting his LMP2 podium at Le Mans, but they portray it as him winning a world championship.

His GT3 rivals, Capa and Schulin, who never meet any consequences for their unsportsmanlike driving, are two of the cockiest characters you’d ever see. But they never back up their attitude with results. They seem to be perpetually fighting just outside the podium where Jann is. Oh and then when Jann gets the Nissan LMP2 driver for Le Mans, both these rivals are now suddenly move with their teams to LMP2 too.

And his GT Academy rivals are a stock selection of movie rivals in any sort of competition. It looked for a while like there might be drama with Matty, his main rival, who might have not been eligible for doing some real racing already, or something, but there was no drama. Jann just beats him in a photo finish. And then he and Jann are randomly friends when they’re paired for Le Mans.

I think if I’d never played a Gran Turismo game, based on this film I’d think it was arcade rubbish like Need for Speed.

Overall I’d avoid. No drama, tension, realism or authenticity. Just a bad advert for GT.

Cleanse yourself with Le Mans ‘66 and Rush afterwards.