nascar, not F1

Rating: Null/10 (30 October 2009)

Car racing and films. Sports and films. Of you let go your imagination, these are powerful mixtures. Sport is about movement, it's like a dance, and that's cinematic, indeed it is one of the most rich cinematic fields. It has live emotion, which means you will not no what to expect, despite taking sides. There is a strong aspect of suspense that surrounds every game, every sport, and racing isn't an exception. But than there is a huge catch: no one (supposedly) knows where it will go. Anything can happen in sports, it lives on the moment, more than any live or filmed performance, musical theatrical or any other else. So, this means that in order to keep the fuel of sports emotion true and alive, you can't stage it. And you can't make a feature film without having nearly everything staged. So that's the difference. Dance, music, theatre, it's all a performance, it's all about delivering something that has been preestablished. Cinema inherited this. That's why we need interesting minds to have interesting art, where the most talented of the sportsmen can perfectly be an intellectual schmuck. And it's also because of this that i personally find it impossible, at least with the tools we have so far, to successfully create a film (not documentary) that binds together sports (any sport) and film. That's probably why the Wachovsky explored racing relying on technology, because they knew the ordinary tools were useless (i haven't seen 'speed racer' yet). And yes, we have Chariots of Fire, but sport is only incidental there, and works as a frozen performance, which the music enhances. Pure sports films, i don't know any that is remotely interesting.
Even less when we have the attitude of this film. This is such a mess, way beyond the problems of sports and film together. So here we have Reynolds, playing a crippled ex macho racing hero, which is probably the only role he ever played. We have Stallone, playing the old war hero, coming back to action, to save the day where he is needed. And we have a couple of other cliché characters, uprising stars, guys struggling to be themselves, and to feel free. Anyway, check this: every pseudo dramatic arc that is intended here exists in a different world of relationships. Love over Success, Pride, personal affirmation. Dull, vulgar, done below the watchable. Not even a single try at filming the races in an interesting way. All explosion and injuries, coins grabbed by the tires, spectacular collisions, boring, useless.
Oh, the rescuing scene by the two leaders of the championship still can look ridiculous in the middle of this ridiculous film
My opinion: 1/5
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