Any Given Sunday - with cars! *Spoilers (but only some)*

Rating: 5/10 (31 January 2002)

After avoiding this film for ages, I finally got around to see it yesterday -and instantly wondered why the hell I didn't get my ass to the theatre to see it on the big screen. This movie has a completely engrossing way of presenting itself, that even I (no fan of motor"sport") was sucked in and cheered for my favourite drivers. It does what Any Given Sunday did to football films - it shows the people in and around the sports arena. How their lives off the track/pitch affect their performance on it. How there really is no "good" or "evil", but only people wanting the same thing: to win and excel at their sport.
I know WHY I avoided it. I blame Days of Thunder and other crap car movies. They create small fanasy worlds, where one driver is totally evil, the hero is so much better than everybody else and where the girl will only love him if he wins.
This is a very unfair attitude towards this movie. It is refreshingly unlike Days of Thunder. It shows ordinary people, driven to win, but not necessarily at all costs. We have the rookie, who is completely dominated by his brother/manager and falling apart from the pressure of being famous. We have the German Champion, who dumps his girlfriend the better to focus on his driving - only to discover, that driving ISN'T everything. We have the Support Driver, who naturally isn't ateam player but craves personal fame and the former Star turned Support Driver, who has been changed by a past accident and now tries to see the bigger picture. Combined with the extremely well shot action sequences, that leave you on the edge of your seat (and even got me caring for motor sport for 2 hours), this is quite a solid movie. And it is well worth spending two hours with. Its fun and the races are fantastic.
7/10 (maybe 8, I really was entertained).