Do you remember the Sylvester Stallone movie Driven? Well, I do. It sucked. It was just wall to wall unbelievable story and CG cars and explosions. It was all about an aging Formula One driver and his competition with an upstart teammate. I feared Rush would be too much like it.
Well, Rush was certainly not as bad as that movie. For starters, it's based on a true story, and that story is simply more believable. One of the things I hate about racing movies is that they always make it seem like the person who doesn't win every damn race is ready to be fired at any time. You know who came in second in the Sprint Cup last year? Matt Kenseth. You know how many people got fired for only coming in second? Not a one. It was, instead, a success.
This movie was directed by Ron Howard, and he did a very good job. Honestly, though, I hoped for more. The general pace and camera shots - even the points of tension - were all fairly boilerplate. Ron Howard's boilerplate, though, is a very good one.
Chris Hemsworth plays the brash and exuberant James Hunt who parties too hard, talks too much, and is just too damn pretty. He has a marriage with Olivia Wilde for a while, but it is set up so that you don't get too attached to her - this is a racing movie. Chris does an excellent job with his character; I don't know if it is acting or being himself, but it works.
Olivia is tanned. I don't think I've ever seen her with a tan before. It's not like she's always stark white like Nichole Kidman or something, but she is usually pretty pale, even when she is supposed to be living in a desert in Cowboys and Aliens. She doesn't look bad - like she could - but it's a bit off-putting for some reason.
Daniel Brühl Plays Niki Lauda, the Austrian who comes up from Formula Three at the same time as Hunt to take over Formula One and compete for the world championship. Daniel does an impressive job as the stoic and calculating racer who has no feelings until he has feelings like it says he's supposed to.
The effects were a bit of a letdown. They went through a lot of efforts to get very nice replicas and some original race cars for this movie, and the result is that most of the time, it is clear that the cars are not going particularly fast. Then there are the crashes - CG hell. They tried, and I compliment them for that, but I want to see a crash that doesn't look computer generated, and these were not them. A shame.
Directing was very good
Acting was exceptional
Effects were just okay
Cinematography was very good
Story was very good
4.0/5