The Crow (2024)

 

So, once upon a time, back in the year of our lord 1989, a comic rose from the earth and went on to become an underground success. As the comics' influence grew, stronger forces were drawn to it. All that gazed upon its dark glory were beholden to its splendour. In time, these stronger opulent and imaginative forces combined to create an even greater story, a mesmerising dark fable of love and revenge, one that had never been told in such manner. Despite the gallant hero tragically slain, over the years, the fable grew even stronger and gained cult status, slaying all in its path. With nothing to stand in its path, the comic was truly omnipotent. And so the comic became legend, set in stone for all eternity.

It was to no surprise at all that Hollywood would try to expand on the 'Crow' franchise, and thusly we were given three further stories. All of which completely failed, despite the second movie actually being okay in my humble opinion. Nevertheless, Hollywood is a ravenous beast that doesn't let anything go if there is any inkling of money to be made. So it was inevitable that eventually, they would try the impossible; they would try to completely reboot the original iconic Crow movie. 

So what have we got here? Eric is a troubled recovering drug addict, of course, and Shelly is now Black, of course. In the beginning, they don't know each other. Shelly is sent some incriminating footage (from a sketchy friend) on her phone and ends up getting pursued by a crime lord and his henchmen. The crime lord has now made a pact with the Devil to supply souls in exchange for eternal life, sure. Shelly ends up getting arrested for possession and sent to rehab, where Eric is. They both fall in love, escape, and then get murdered by the crime lord. And now we have our revenge story.

Yup, they made up a whole new load of guff for this movie. For reasons unbeknowst to most, the folks behind this movie thought the original story wasn't expanded enough, so they fixed it with extra padding. This now means almost the first half hour or so of the movie is all about Eric and Shelly falling in love...and it's boring! They really dig into these two characters to try and make us care, but this fails, mostly because the casting is so bad. Bill Skarsgard as Eric isn't too bad a choice, but his look just feels like Jared Leto's Joker take. They just tried too hard with this character's look. Whilst the connection between Skarsgard and FKA Twigs (eh?) is just poor, they just don't match at all.

I also disliked the main villain here, Roeg played by Danny Huston. This guy has nothing unique about him; he's just a rich suit with a bunch of faceless goons. All the goons are naturally fodder for Eric to chew through, no characters, no originality, just plain goons. These guys could have been in any action flick, stick them in 'John Wick' and they'd be fine. I also felt the supernatural element to this guy was so cliched and unnecessary. I mean seriously, he made a deal with the Devil for eternal life?? Really? It also takes away from the mystique of the crow and its powers. We don't need to know that much about these supernatural forces, and the fact that the Devil exists just goes too far, this isn't 'Spawn'.

Another issue here is the lack of action. Now I'm not saying a movie needs to be balls-to-the-wall action sequences, but this franchise in particular needs action, and to be honest, there is very little here. Eric is mostly quite weak for the most part, even when he's dead, nothing much happens. It is revealed at one point that Shelley had been convinced to kill a woman, by the supernatural powers of Roeg, which puts doubt in Eric's mind. This action leads to Eric getting killed for a second time, and having to convince a spirit in the afterlife to give him another chance. Eh??

Yes, in this movie the power of the crow seems to be handed out, or decided on, by spirits in the afterlife, or this one specific spirit? The entire supernatural scenario is now some kind of deal or agreement between a spirit and the dead person in question. In this case, Eric and Shelley's love had to be pure, that was the deal. When Eric doubted Shelley, the deal was broken, and he lost his power (wut?). I dunno, the entire premise is just too complicated and unnecessary when the original was so simple.

Essentially, nothing much of interest happens until right at the end when Eric storms a theatre and kills all the bad guys. But even that isn't all that great. It's way too slick and relies on CGI blood. Again, it felt like a 'John Wick' movie. The big finale when Eric confronts Roeg in his massive mansion is a total anti-climax too. Obviously Roeg tries to use his Devil powers, but when transported into the afterlife he is easily defeated. The movie ends on such a whimper, then tries to give you something emotional with Shelly that fails, and then tries to leave you open for a sequel! Ugh!

I mean, there is an acorn of promise here, there is a neat idea buried deep within this mess that could have been pretty cool. I don't understand why they had to make this so complicated. I don't understand why they had to add so much unnecessary detail to the supernatural element. What's that famous saying? Less is more...right? We didn't need all this hocus pocus about supernatural deals, spirit guides, deals with the Devil, fight sequences in the afterlife etc...The comic is supposed to be a dark, gritty, gothic, satisfying tale of revenge; whereas this feels like a combination of 'Spawn', 'John Wick', and 'Constantine'.

So the real crime here is the overall lack of gothic visuals, or any decent visuals really. No solid characters, a really lame attempt at recreating a cult soundtrack, bad casting, and no stand-out action sequences. Such a wasted opportunity. The fact that this is the fourth attempt since the original is shameful frankly. It's amazing how the people behind these movies don't understand how or why the original was so good.

4/10

Invasion U.S.A. (1985)

 

So we all remember that poster, the one of a grizzled Chuck Norris, an Uzi in each hand, custom Uzi holsters, shirt open right down to his belt buckle, super tight jeans, looking like he's about to unleash hell. Well, was this movie really as good as that poster made out?

The title is provocative; it gets your imagination running wild. When I was younger I thought the movie was about an alien invasion. No, this movie is a bit deeper than a mere alien invasion; the story delves into the possibilities of a foreign terrorist invasion and turning people against each other. But let's not get carried away here, this isn't a thinking man's drama, this is a balls-to-the-wall action flick that makes no sense.

The bad guys, in this case Latino guerrillas led by Russian Rostov (Richard Lynch), plan to invade the US and let loose a siege of targeted terror attacks against various people to trigger an internal war. Presumably, their aim is to take control once enough chaos has been enacted. I guess their main goal is simply to take over America and make it a communist country? Anyway, you would think this would be hard enough, but their Russian leader is far more concerned about one man, that man being badass Chuck Norris...who plays badass Chuck Norris. No wait, he plays CIA agent Matt Hunter. 

So, when I said this movie makes no sense, I meant it. Right from the start, things don't make much sense. At the start the bad guys murder a boatload of Cuban refugees for no real reason other than to get some drugs stored on board. I'm not entirely sure who or where the drugs are supposed to have come from. We also don't get any information about these bad guys or their Russian leader. All we know is Rostov knows about Hunter and what he is capable of, so he wants to kill him, that's it. They obviously have history, maybe they should have made a prequel. Their evil plan isn't really fully explained either. It simply seems to be, get our small army to America, kill lots of innocent people, and hopefully this will trigger mass conflict which will allow them to take over.

When it comes to the killing, this movie doesn't mess around either, talk about nasty. I don't mean nasty as in lots of blood and gore, I mean nasty as in just senseless cruelty in the violence. Once on US soil, the bad guys waste no time. They try to blow up a mall during the peak Xmas shopping period. They try to blow up a church during a service. They go around blowing up suburban housing in residential areas. They attack a fun fair, try to blow up a school bus full of kids etc...These guys are merciless! You notice I said try, that's because Hunter manages to stop most of it, but the fact that they try is still hard viewing. It is funny how Hunter just conveniently pops up every time to foil these attacks, no matter where these terrorists try something.

The action itself is a mixed bag. There are moments of coolness such as seeing Hunter running around with his twin Uzis, clearly his trademark weapons. Sure, he should have died ten times over by the end of the movie, but we all know that. There are plenty of decent practical effects, including squibs, explosions, large, destructible sets, gun battles etc...The big finale set piece is an impressive sight showcasing tonnes of National Guard and tanks attacking the terrorists (think the finale in the 'Blues Brothers'). Norris himself doesn't do that much martial arts, he relies on the Uzis to do the talking. The main car chase was obviously filmed at a slow speed, bit cringeworthy.

The finale is somewhat comical because Rostov is so obsessed with getting Hunter, that he orders his entire army of terrorists to storm this government building, where he thinks he can get him. The military then surrounds the building and wipes them all out (in a sequence that could have come straight out of 'Commando'). Hunter stalks Rostov through the offices in this government building, gives him a bit of a beating, and then blows him away with a rocket launcher at point-blank range. The movie then ends right there, just like that, straight to credits. I mean, can you get more 80's than that? 

This is easily one Chuck Norris's most recognised movies from the 80's. We've established that with the poster. Back in the day, it was somewhat shocking due to the violence, if I remember correctly. It was looked upon as a bit more adult, or nastier, than other similar action flicks from other stars of the genre. Rewatching now, the violence is still quite nasty in a moral sense, not so much visually. But as for everything else, on the whole, this movie is actually pretty poor frankly. The story is just total nonsense, laden with plot conveniences, goofy action, and a main villain who is so evil that he actually killed Billy Drago in the first ten minutes! You can't do that!

5.5/10

Sidekicks (1992)

 

One could be forgiven for thinking this was a poor man's ' The Karate Kid' clone, or even knock-off, and you wouldn't be too far off. I mean, this isn't exactly the same obviously, but it comes close, the similarities are there.

This is a weird one truth be told. Essentially, what you have is a plot revolving around the standard troubles any young boy has when growing up. At school he has strict teachers, bullies, girl issues, and he can't concentrate in class. He also suffers from asthma which doesn't really cause as much trouble, plot-wise, as you think it would. Anyway, the root of his lack of concentration skills is a fixation with action star Chuck Norris. Like most of us growing up, we all had our movie star heroes, and we all had fantasies about being action stars with our heroes.

Thing is, this is pretty much the entire basis of the movie. Barry (Johnathan Brandis) worships Chuck Norris and constantly daydreams about being in action scenarios with him, where the bad guys are either teachers or bullies. I mean, we've all been there, we've had these types of fantasies when at school I'm sure. The idea is interesting, and I think a good movie idea is in here, deep down, but this ain't it.

So most of the movie is Barry daydreaming at awkward moments, about himself and Norris, which then leads to him waking up in an even more awkward situation. His teachers worry about him, his dad worries about him, his friend worries about him, you get the idea. At one point he tries to join a local martial arts dojo, which coincidentally is also where his school bully trains (Cobra Kai much?), but discovers the master, Kelly Stone (Joe Piscopo), to be a narcissistic wacko who mocks him instead (a play on John Kreese?). This leads to Barry having daydreams where Stone is always the arch-nemesis of himself and Norris.

Midway through, Barry is given the chance to be trained by a wise old martial arts master called Mr. Lee (a relation of Barry's teacher who also, awkwardly, happens to be seeing his dad), totally not in the same vein as Mr. Miyagi. From there on we get lots and lots of training montages accompanied by typical late 80's, early 90's music, with Barry learning the ropes and slowly getting better. Then, for no real reason whatsoever, Lee enters Barry in a local martial arts competition, which just so happens to also include the local dojo run by master Stone. Unfortunately, the rules state you need four people in a team; luckily, Chuck Norris is there to join Barry's team, because of course he is.

The last part of the movie revolves around this martial arts competition that does actually look like the production team shot during a real event, or got a lot of extras. So Stone gets to fight his real-life nemesis, Chuck Norris, and Barry must face off against his school bully in the big finale. Yeah, so definite 'Karate Kid' vibes from start to finish here. They were definitely trying to ride the coattails of that franchise. Heck, Stone's dojo even fights in black, just like Cobra Kai.

So, we can see what director Aaron Norris (Chuck's younger brother) was going for here, but he took a more lighthearted comedic route. There are scenes here that are taken in a more genuine light, and really want to be just like Daniel LaRusso's story. On the other hand, there are moments in this movie that are ridiculously stupid and goofy, most of which include Piscopo's character. The other weird angle here are the dream sequences that actually replay actual moments from Norris' real movies. The odd angle being, Chuck Norris's movies are totally adult fare, and yet here, in a kids' movie, they recreate some of the adult action sequences (very well I might add), minus the killing. That's like Arnie redoing famous action moments from say 'Predator', in a kids flick, but toned down with no actual killing. It's just a weird, meta, thing to do.

So without sounding like a broken record, yes, this movie does seem to be an attempt at making a more light-hearted version of 'The Karate Kid'. The comparisons are unavoidable. Alas, this offering really is a strange combination of a few ideas, of which none really shine. All in all its a very cliched, generic, and formulaic plot, with some heavily watered-down Chuck Norris action thrown in.

4/10

Best of the Best 4: Without Warning (1998)

 

And we're back, number four, Philip Rhee returns as Tommy Lee, and surprisingly, the casting keeps going well for this franchise. This sequel sees Ernie Hudson enter the mix as a hard-ass detective, what else? Paul Gleason has a small, rather unimportant role as a priest. Art LaFleur pops up, and gets killed. Arnie's muscular friend Sven-Ole Thorsen is a henchman, what else? And lastly, Tobin Bell is the main bad guy. It's not an A-list roster of course, but it's a pretty loaded list of B-list character actors.

This franchise continues to move into the action genre, leaving martial arts behind, and it is getting sillier. Although, truth be told, the third movie was pretty out there. This time, some dastardly Russians are running a money counterfeiting operation which Tommy Lee finds himself inadvertently involved in. Luckily, Lee is working for the cops as a martial arts instructor, so he's exactly the right man for the job (he rolls his eyes).

The plot is a typical action trope. A girl working for the Russians decides to betray them and steals a data disc (important to their counterfeit racket), which she hands over to...wait for it...Tommy Lee! Lee decides to go on the run (which seems like a really stupid decision that he wouldn't make), so the Russians kidnap his daughter (of course!). It then essentially boils down to a standard rescue operation with lots of generic action.

I would be lying if I said this was a good action flick, it just about stays afloat. Rhee puts in a standard action man performance with a side order of ham and cheese. There are two main action set pieces which see Lee fighting a group of baddies in a posh fencing salle, complete with foils. This is probably the best action in the movie with Rhee showcasing his solid martial arts skills plus weapon skills. Then there is a motorbike chopper chase sequence which isn't too bad, but ends with some iffy-looking CGI explosion. It should be said that there are some bad CGI effects used here, not lots, but they are very obvious (and cheap looking). But really, what do you expect? This ain't 'Die Hard'.

One thing did confuse me, the Russian villains appear to be wealthy, I mean seriously rich. They own multiple cars, motorbikes, choppers, a massive mansion etc...So why do they need to counterfeit money? It's quite obvious they are doing pretty well in whatever ventures, be it criminal or not. So why the need to go to so much trouble with this risky counterfeit operation? People are greedy, I get it, but these movie villains are often already super rich, so go live the good quiet life man.

As far as low-budget action movies go, this is a pretty good offering. Rhee has proven himself to be a good, likeable, action man hero with nice muscles when oiled up. The bad guys here are reasonable I guess. Bell as the big boss is fine, nothing special or particularly intimidating. German actor Thure Riefenstein as the younger brother of the boss, is a weak attempt at Jeremy Irons ' villain in 'Die Hard with a Vengeance' if you ask me. The problem is neither are that evil or intimidating, and their scheme is very dull. The action is by the numbers and Rhee doesn't give himself enough time to shine with his martial arts.

How many ways can I say this movie is a standard but acceptable action flick? The franchise has obviously run its course at this point, it's done. The move from martial arts to 'Lethal Weapon' style action may have been a mistake, as it lost its core heart. Understandable, but a 'Fast and Furious' U-turn was not the result here. They should have kept their action focused more around martial arts and less on cops and robbers. Rumours of a fifth movie would be a mistake and waste of everyone's time and money in my opinion. There's no need for it; Rhee is too old, and it wouldn't be anything original. At its core, this franchise was originally an all-out 80's martial arts vehicle, and that moment has now past.

5/10

Best of the Best 2 (1993)

 

This small franchise feels a lot like the 'Bloodsport' and 'Kickboxer' franchises, if you can call them that. All three started out with a solid original movie that became fan favourites over time. And all three followed on from that original with declining sequels that basically destroyed the franchise. The only key difference, this franchise managed to hold onto its main stars for at least one sequel, plus this franchise enhanced its cast for its sequel.

So Eric Roberts is back, along with Philip Rhee and Sean Penn! Heck, even the Korean martial arts team from the first movie turn up! Continuity bonus earned! The story follows on from the first movie with the boys setting up a martial arts studio in Vegas, Vegas? Thing is, Brickley (Penn) has been secretly competing in a violent underground MMA tournament (before MMA became mainstream) and promptly gets himself executed by the main end-of-level boss. It now falls on Grady (Roberts) and Lee (Rhee) to uncover what actually happened, because the bad guys made it look like an automobile accident.

So yeah, the plot is pretty darn generic to say the least. I mean, the whole secret underground fighting tournament where fighters get killed? That is one mega unoriginal plot right there. I also found it quite amusing that this is happening right in downtown Vegas, or so it seems. At a big venue, or underneath one, plenty of people and potential attention? Seems risky to me. I guess being in the desert makes it easier to dispose of bodies. Naturally the actual arena looks like your standard gladiator-type fare. Circular, flames around the edge, iron bar guarded entrances and exits, a baying mob of wealthy elites watching behind glass screens etc...The main end-of-level boss is, of course, an oversized man mountain called Goro...I mean Brakus. They even have their 'Running Man' style announcer and host in the form of Wayne Newton.

The story unfolds in highly predictable stages that we've all seen before. The good guys start snooping around and the bad guys don't like it. The good guys get too close, so the bad guys shoot up their home, of course. The good guys take their family to relatives outta town, who happen to be Native Americans, just so the movie can have some spiritual training montages. This also seems to be an excuse to cast Sonny Landham as the one and only person who knows how to beat Brakus. But first, he's gotta sober up, only then can he become a Native American Mr Miyagi. Am I complaining about this? No, no I'm not, the casting is action flick genius. Anyway, the bad guys find them, and shoot up their home, of course. The good guys then return to face the bad guys on their home turf, in the arena.

To be fair, despite the paint-by-numbers plot, the actual action sequences are pretty good. Nothing special, but good. When it comes to the meat and potatoes of the movie, the fights, again its pretty good. Rhee is a good martial artist and can hold his own. The other fighters in the arena are also good-looking fighters who can actually do the moves, not much trickery involved. Obviously its all in the same vein as a certain Jean Claude Van Damme classic, but it's still good. Heck, the final battles in the arena are a pretty good take on 'Street Fighter 2' truth be told, especially with the boxer. The final boss Brakus is played by German Arnie wannabe Ralf Moeller, who is actually a pretty good fit for this role.

End of the day this was actually a good little action martial arts flick. It's definitely better than I expected and the martial arts is still of a good quality. The only real drawback is the fact its a complete mish-mash of other movies. A little bit of 'Bloodsport', 'Kickboxer', 'The Running Man', and a whole host of cookie-cutter, straight-to-video-type action revenge movies. You could almost have any A or B-level action star in here, and it would still work fine. 

7/10

Best of the Best 3: No Turning Back (1995)

 

The original movie was a bit of a cult classic, a favourite for the martial arts fanbase. The second was definitely a straight-to-video type picture, but twas actually pretty good, keeping much of the original cast whilst boosting it further. We are now firmly entering the B-movie era of this franchise. Top shelf in the videoshop, but in the far corner where no one can quite see it.

Tommy Lee (Philip Rhee) is now the sole survivor in this franchise with all other cast members falling by the wayside. In this high-kicking adventure, Lee is visiting more family members, but this time in the small all-American apple pie town of Liberty, USA. Unfortunately, this town has a problem, and that problem is an ultra-religious church with ties to a group of neo Nazis. So obviously this ain't good for business, anyone's business, so leave it to Tommy Lee, and one righteous Sheriff, to have to clean up this town.

Yeah, so this plot is one big massive cliche bubble-wrapped in predictability. The entire angle of an ultra-religious church set within a small isolated US town is so corny, it's the basis for many horror movies. Ronald Ermey portrays the preacher who runs the church, which sounds good, but alas, he doesn't really do much here. Good casting wasted there. The neo Nazis are led by Hansen, played in a menacingly cornball fashion by Mark Rolston. Now Rolston really chews the scenery well here. His snarling over-the-top racist leadership is both comical and fun to watch. He is joined by a large platoon of your stereotypical skinhead and deep South hick types, plus one musclebound goon. There is even a small subplot surrounding a local lad who is discouraged by his humdrum life in the sticks, and finds solace with the Nazi group (despite not being entirely sure about their ethics).

I think you can probably guess what type of antics these Nazis get up to in this movie, and I think you can probably predict how it all goes down. The Nazis burn down a local African American-run church and kill the preacher. Tommy Lee comes to town and immediately crosses paths with the Nazis in the local diner (best place for it). Tensions are high, but Lee is stoic. The church is slowly getting stronger within the small community (via threats from the Nazis) and wants to expand by purchasing local land for its base. Lee's family get attacked by the Nazis, but he saves the day. The Nazis disrupt a local fair, but again Lee saves the day whilst meeting love interest Margo (Gina Gershon). The locals bravely reject sale of the land to the Nazis which angers them, heightening tensions. Margo and Lee's sister are then attacked by the Nazi (again!) which pushes Lee over the line. He proceeds to take matters into his own hands.

What follows is your standard covert operation to take down the bad guys' lair. Obviously this starts as covert, only to fall apart and end up in a full-blown conflict. I think the amusing thing is this church and the Nazis have this quite large military-style base all set up on this land they're trying to buy. I think they were supposed to be stockpiling weapons for a race war, but I'm not really quite sure how far they think they'd get with that. As if you'd be able to do this unnoticed. You might be able to bribe the local cops, but it wouldn't be hard to get other help from outta State. Anyway it doesn't matter because Lee and the local Sheriff wipe them all out 'Commando' style baby.

Turns out that Lee is so righteous and heroic that right at the end, he even manages to make all the Nazis change their ways and see the light. Just enough time to walk away from the baddies lair, striding across the tarmac, shirtless, muscles gleaming, with a bit of blood strategically placed to make him look just that bit cooler. They really went to town with the baby oil here. You still have the same issue with this movie, in that you could literally replace Rhee with any other action star. The franchise doesn't die without him basically.

This third entry marks the exit from the martial arts genre, and the entrance into the all-out action genre with guns ablazin'. Wise move? Well kinda, the martial arts genre in the early 90's was saturated, and there was far more quantity than quality that's for sure. I think this franchise had reached its peak with martial arts, the second movie rounded that off pretty well. So this movie delving into the Commando/Rambo genre is a smart move. The only problem is this franchise wasn't that big or successful in the first place, so the move feels empty; it didn't reenergize anything. Also, this type of flick was ten-a-penny back in the day too. Nonetheless, this is a better entry in the cheaper action genre. 

6/10

Gran Turismo (2023)

The life of the young bedroom-dwelling videogame nerd living at home with their parents. Let's take some really good car racing gamers and put them into actual real racing cars to see if they can actually really drive them. Because this is exactly how you recruit young talent these days, by their videogaming prowess. Wait, this is actually a true story??!! Well, I'll be a plumber's brother!

Yes, so in case you never knew (and I'm sure you probably didn't), there actually was a real videogame programme organised by Sony and Nissan called GT Academy, where actual gamers had the chance to compete to gain the opportunity to become real race car drivers. Who knew! No literally, who knew?? This competition was based on the Sony game Gran Turismo 5 and featured thousands of gamers competing in time trials, culminating in a final race to reach the next stage. The next stage was an actual racing camp to train for a track race in real (Nissan 370Z) cars. Whoever won got an actual racing contract with Nissan, no seriously.

So at first I'm watching this thinking, this is corny as hell and I know exactly how this is gonna go. The main character, Jann Mardenborough, is a young misunderstood Black kid who plays Gran Turismo all day, which understandably upsets his dad. It looks like he is throwing his life away until entering and wins this GT competition. At this point, everything changes and his dad starts to take notice. So far, so corny. At the academy things take another predictable twist as we get a very cheesy, over-the-top, militaristic 'Top Gun' with cars scenario. Heck, you could even throw some 'Days of Thunder' into the mix. This entire first half is an almost entirely different movie from the second half, one big cliched training montage.

I think David Harbour's cliched hard-ass training coach character, Jack, says it best at the start when he essentially rips apart the entire premise of the movie. Gamers into actual racers? Videogames aren't reality. We the audience are thinking exactly what he is saying. Honesty there is so much cheese in all this its hard to take anything seriously. The moment when Jann is telling Jack and his team how their cars are running, where the problems are, and that he (a videogamer) knows more than them, really made me scoff frankly. Obviously, in this movie Jann is proved correct, but come on!

The second half of this movie actually turns into a whole dramatic biopic about Mardenborough and his actual racing career. It's so weird, we go from stupid cliched videogame competition nonsense, to a proper biopic that even incorporates a real crash that saw one spectator killed! Talk a tale of two halves. The second half is actually quite good for a racing flick. For the most part, Mardenborough doesn't really do that well, but he's always just about competing. Jack (a former racer himself) stands behind him all the way as he just about manages to hold his own. Things take quite an emotional turn with the crash, but Jack motivates him to get back on the horse, so to speak, and they enter Le Mans with two other racers from back in the academy. A full team of videogame racers, competing in Le Mans! Honesty, this is all true, apparently.

It's at this point where you'd obviously expect Mardenborough and his team to win Le Mans in a rousing and emotional fashion. Proving all the doubters wrong, winning the complete trust of Nissan and all their backers etc...But no! In line with reality, the gamer team finished third at Le Mans, which was still a solid performance. We then find out more about Mardenborough's career in the end credits. Funnily enough, with a bit of Googling you'll see that despite this rags to riches tale of sorts, and despite Mardenborough legitimately proving people wrong and doing really well for himself, is actual racing record isn't all that good. He hasn't won very much at all, competed a lot, but not been that successful.

A strange and quite unbelievable story, and a strange combination of genres in this movie. Going by the title, you'd think this was just a silly racing flick, ala 'The Fast and the Furious', with flashy cars, sexy girls, and young people saying 'bro' all the time. It does indeed kinda start that way, and things don't look too good. But then the movie has a change in gear and becomes something much better. Don't get me wrong, there's still lots of hammy car porn with meaningless internal engine sequences and closeups of disc brakes and pads etc...You know, to make things a bit more 'cool'. Obviously, most of it is pointless and adds nothing.

There are some visuals taken from the videogame, but for anyone who hasn't played it, then this is all pointless. Luckily you don't need to have played the game, I mean, it's a racing simulator, so everyone can get on board. Truth be told, the movie didn't really need to be called Gran Turismo, but I get why they did that. But yeah, overall this did surprise me. I expected another dire videogame adaptation, but we actually got a biopic, and quite a fun one. If you can look past the videogame aspect, and ignore the terrible casting (Ginger Spice?), this is pretty solid entertainment, well, the second half is anyway.

6/10