Reviews

"Based on the unbelievable, inspiring true story of a team of underdogs".

Well, they did use some of the real life character's names and made up the rest. With so many good to excellent racing movies out there to draw inspiration from they chose to make a CGI cartoon along with a fantasy storyline that morphs the actual real life events.

Am I being too harsh? I don't think so, I will not go into the details but it didn't take long for me to ferret out the real story from credible online sources.

Take the racing movies 'Grand Prix', 'Le Mans', 'Driven', 'Rush' and 'Ford v Ferrari' all of which were produced in the $90M to $97M in 2023 dollar budget numbers.

'Gran Turismo' is what you get for $60M.

As I said...a cartoon, check out the percentages of the CGI used throughout. That didn't take me long either.

"I know this track. I've raced it a thousand times". Yeah right...

Anyone familiar with the original 'Twilight Zone' series may see some familiarity to the 1964 Season 5 - Episode 32 - 'Mr. Garrity and the Graves' which was a reheat of an actual event. That story was based on an 1873 incident in Alta, Utah.

Beyond that is was a fairly enjoyable movie, I can see how it is more popular now than at its original release as it circulates out on cable and streaming services.With a cast (partial list of notables) like this the movie works well.

Steve Buscemi as the phobic, off kilter Ed Chilton, Ned Beatty as Uncle Benny with his one liners, John Glover as the consummate salesman A. J. Pattle, Sam Jenkins as Storm Reynolds, (all 5'-11" of her), Jon Gries as psycho Rob Sundheimer and Gary Farmer as the unflappable, stoic Big Lar.

I thought that the last scene fell flat but maybe they were in a hurry to wrap it up in the 1:33 runtime.

Marc Maron scored the film. The Blues guitar solos heard throughout were played by him. Perhaps the only thing that was consistently good throughout the film. Some of the dialog was good. The value of family woven into the end was a plus.

I'm sorry, Wyatt Russell is a "one trick pony" and his trick is not that good or entertaining. I saw him in the movie "Table 19" and that was nearly painful. Was he the "Blue Light Special" at casting? Someone with some natural abilities and wit, (Zach Braff or Dax Shepard come to mind), might have been able to save Dud instead of being a dud such as what Wyatt Russell offers up. I belong to a fraternal order similar to Lodge 49 and have for about (22) years. The concept has some potential, the other characters are cast well but they are stuck in Wyatt's quagmire now. There are some that will say "Dud has been through so much, he's not supposed to be radiant", that is my point, there is no depth to his character and that sits squarely on Wyatt's shoulders and not the script.

The reference to "three-finger Poi" has nothing to do with one of the scenes from the movie. I gave it (3) stars for Anna Kendrick's ability to dumb herself down sufficiently for this stinker and constantly covering up her midsection whenever it was slightly visible in the flesh. The funniest person in the movie is the father of the bride who should have received more lines. Continuous slapstick comedy cannot resurrect this stringer of dead fish but they try.