It’s been a while since I’ve written a pure old classic movie review. And let me start by asking or stating, rather, that it looks like all the movies from the last few months/years have started to jump pass the 2-hour runtime. And I don’t know if I’m enjoying this. Don’t get me wrong, if the movie is truly magical, then give me 5 hours, I’m good. But the vast majority don’t really make sense to run for so long. Anyhow. Let’s talk about something currently in cinemas (that is also more than 2 hours long): Gran Turismo.
Based on a true life story, Gran Turismo follows Jann Mardenborough (played by Archie Madekwe) who went from playing a car driving simulator game in his room, to win a competition that allowed him to train and become a professional race car driver. I love me some good old inspirational movie. I wouldn’t say Gran Turismo was perfect, but it was very good indeed. I really liked the way it was edited and I would recommend seeing it in IMAX if possible, there are a few moments that really move you especially on a giant screen like the IMAX one.
Please note this is not a gaming movie, but a biographical sports movie – making this clear as I’ve seen some opinions online about how this movie let people down because it was not really about the game.
It is not about the game. It was not intended to be about the game.
Gran Turismo gives the audience a chance to see David Harbour in a completely different character than Jim Hopper whom we all love from Stranger Things (both Jim Hopper and David Harbour). And I promise you’ll love him more after watching him as Jack Salter, Jann’s trainer. I don’t have a driving licence, but his performance was kind of making me want one. 🤭
Orlando Bloom is Danny Moore, one of the main characters that is not real person, but based on a real person. In this case, Orlando Bloom’s character was based on Darren Cox who was the GT Academy founder. I actually quite like Bloom in this role, made me slightly hate him and admire him as a fierce business man.
A co-production between Columbia Pictures and PlayStation, Gran Turismo doesn’t fail to deliver some very cool racing scenes and an even cooler story, however much was or wasn’t dramatized for the sake of the script, I didn’t care. It was a fun time and I did find myself tearing up a few times, especially in the end. Smiling and crying at the same time at the end, actually. Stay in your seats, there are a few real life photographs before the end credit scene and a fun fact – the real Jann Mardenborough served as a stund double for the actor playing him which I thought was pretty cool.
I’m sorry. Do you really think you’re going to take a kid who plays video games in their bedroom, and you’re going to strap them to a two hundred mile an hour rocket? It’ll tear them to pieces.
Trailer:
Gran Turismo is now in cinemas, distributed in Romania by InterComFilm.
