A Stylish Sports Cliché

Rating: 5/10 (1 January 2014)

5.1 of 10. It's as if they're trying to make this the Semi-Tough (1977) with a little Brian's Story of racing films. Stylistically, it's impressive. Howard clearly has a passion for sports competition and wants to make a film comparable to the best sports films. In that, he succeeds. Beyond that, it's little more than typical sports propaganda, complete with product placement as if the film itself sold out ad space.
It's clearly designed to promote racing and persuade some to become fans and racers, trying to make it seem like a sexy outlet for rule breakers and full of something other than physically talented morons sniffing too many fuel fumes. The screenwriter and Howard do that by giving the characters more depth and faults than usual.
Amongst other failures, the Formula 1 scoring system is never explained, so it feels as if there's some sort of back-room manipulation going on like in "pro" wrestling. That and the leader board mishaps might make for a more interesting story.
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby is still the racing, and maybe all sports, film of choice.