Gran Turismo on Netflix.

I love racing and racing movies particularly when the later is based on a true story which GT is. However, GT completely fell flat for me. Below I will copy TulaneLSU's review from earlier this year and from a movie perspective he might be a little harsh but I can't really argue with any of his points.

From a car racing and historical accuracy perspective the movie was just a mess. While it is true Jann Mardenborough did go from a sim racer to Nissan's GT Academy win and go on to be a professional driver the movie took a ton of liberties with the process.

A lot of the races and and his wreck at the N'Ring were out of sequence sometimes several years out of sequence. I am fine with doing lots of things in movies for drama and dealing with time constraints but this is only Jann Mardenborough's story in a very vague way.

Car dynamics and control inputs were very F&F level. Cars don't act like they were portrayed, it always happens even in the best car race movies but it was horrendous in GT.

Jan's "signature" pass on the outside has been around since the first intrepid racers fired up their horseless carriages and set out to win the Paris–Bordeaux–Paris in the 1890s. While I won't break down all the other issues I will say I hate the down-shift and floor-it moments in racing movies when the protagonist is on a straight. Why the hell were you not at wide open throttle before that? Were you taking your grandmother to church on Sunday morning? shite that never happens in a race car for 100 Alex. Also when this happened they showed footwork to indicate a clutch, all the cars he drove in the movie have sequential manual gearboxes so you aren't using a clutch when you downshift.

You don't make up 6 seconds in a lap even at Le Mans unless the other car is wounded. He also didn't get into 3rd place by 2 thousandths of a second but actually 2 full laps.

I can enjoy a movie with bad car physics when the story is told well or vice versa (because I like cars) but this movie fails in both aspects. I suppose it could be a fun ride for some but it just fell on its face for me especially when the actual story is quite intriguing and while Jan never became a great racer he did go from racing sims to being a fully competent professional driver.

3.5 outta 10 for me based mostly on an intriguing story, I enjoyed it even less than that because I followed the actual story in real time and it just doesn't do it justice.



TulaneLSU's thoughts on GT as a movie:

Gran Turismo

It is rare when a movie’s credits are more entertaining than the movie itself and perhaps that is the only remarkable aspect of Grand Turismo. The director does his best to try to denude the audience of its emotions with predictably impassioned, overly dramatic music throughout but the movie is an utter disgrace. Not even attempts at tapping into age-old themes like the underdog beating the establishment, poverty triumphing over wealth, paternal satisfaction, or overcoming tragedy can cause the heart to flutter when there are such bad actors who have an equally bad script.

Beloved LSU basketball legend Ben Simmons makes his acting debut as the main character, a loser video game player living with his parents in the UK. He spends his days wasting his life on a video game console. At night, he does the same thing. He apparently has a relationship with his parents and brother, but none of these relationships is ever developed in any significant way. His parents are notably absent throughout his training and early racing career, and only reappear in a stultifying, anodyne scene at the end, replete with crocodile tears, awkward laughter, and the use of God’s name in vain.

Simmons efforts translate as well on the silver screen as his play on the hardwood. It is an immature performance lacking emotion and passion. His eyes banal, his affect flat, how on Earth did he land a leading role in a major production? David Harbour, with a U we assume because he wants to be British, may indeed be a Teetotaler in life, but his performance is equally execrable. He and Simmons share no chemistry. The casting was simply awful except for Ginger Spice, who gives us her best performance since 1997’s Spice Girls.

Racing movies usually have engrossing and compelling rivalries. I think particularly of Days of Thunder, Ford v Ferrari, and Rush. But there is no such rivalry here. There are superficial rivalries between the old guard and the “sims” as well as Simmons versus the pampered rich kid, Capa. These rivalries are as thick as a piece of sashimi at a cheap all-you-can-eat sushi buffet. The audience feels no particular animosity or hatred towards the establishment or the antagonist who is wholly undeveloped. What a waste.

The pace of this movie is frantic. We jump from video games to training to race after race after race to Le Mans. Each scene’s glibness underscores a production that tries to cram far too much into a two hour movie. The end result is action that lacks substance, meaning, and drama. No amount of engine noise and vibration, even on IMAX, or saccharine music will save it. 2/10