Anyone seen these trailers? Looks good, so far. I'm down to see it in theaters.




Tony.

Review F1 Link

The first real trailer for Brad Pitt’s long-awaited Formula 1 movie—titled F1, appropriately—just dropped this Thursday afternoon. It’s three minutes long and, dare I say, left an impression on at least one racing fan. I have absolutely no expectations that this film will be good or even memorable, but I’ll give it to Pitt and Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski: They’ve done their homework.

The movie’s general setup is that Pitt’s an established racing driver who seems to have made a career for himself, albeit not in Formula 1. The trailer begins with him competing in the 24 Hours of Daytona, which prompted me to start paying attention sooner than I planned. You just don’t see sports car racing on the silver screen much, and when you do—in, say, Gran Turismo—you get the Hungaroring made to look like Le Mans. It’s silly. This is the real deal, but then it should be because Apple was willing to spend the cash on Brad Pitt to make it.

What we later learn is that Pitt’s character, Sonny Hayes, actually won his class at Daytona. Unfortunately, everyone around him, including the younger driver he’s been brought in to train played by Damson Idris, considers him a failure because he never made it in F1. Yes, that offends me as much as it’d offend anyone else aware that there are other, better forms of motorsport than Formula 1, but that’s beside the point. Rewinding a bit, we hear Fleetwood Mac’s iconic “The Chain.”

Yeah, Fleetwood Mac’s had a bit of a moment with the youths, but this is a bigger deal than it might seem to newer F1 fans or longtime followers who nevertheless didn’t grow up watching the sport on the BBC. “The Chain” was the theme song to the network’s F1 broadcasts for decades, from the 1970s through the ’90s and again when the series briefly returned to the BBC in the late aughts. Apparently, those later intros incorporated narration from Sir Patrick Stewart. Now that’s good casting.

Anyway, “The Chain” was a smart pull. As is a clip where we can see Hayes leading crew members running up Spa-Francorchamps’ Eau Rouge, and scenes at Silverstone and Abu Dhabi. There could be other tracks in there I didn’t catch; none immediately stood out to me, because F1’s bored me too much to watch over the last four years. I’m thinking I’ll give it another shot this weekend, mostly to try to internalize the image of Lewis Hamilton in a Ferrari.

I don’t tend to like most racing movies. I found Gran Turismo intolerable when pretty much everyone I know who saw it liked it. I didn’t dig Rush either for reasons I can barely recall at this point. Ford v. Ferrari was pretty solid, I thought, so if F1 is at least that good, I’ll be content. It’s got pretty much the same plot as Top Gun: Maverick or 2001’s Driven starring Sylvester Stallone—though let’s be real, few movies match the sheer elation Driven offers per each of its 117 minutes. It’s shot like everyone involved was on coke and makes you feel like you are, too.

Brad Pitt and company have a lot to live up to! But let’s be honest: Even if F1 is bad, it’ll be pretty mesmerizing in IMAX. It hits theaters June 27 in the United States.

Cautiously optimistic, but the pessimist in me says we know how it will end.

Will let a few reviews come out before deciding if I'll see it in the theater.