Movie Review: F1: The Movie

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My first question about this film is why not just “F1”, rather than “F1: The Movie”, because we know it’s a movie, in this case about the dangerous sport of Formula 1 racing.

This film is mostly about an ongoing dialogue of watching incredibly expensive racecars, that cost between 12-15 million dollars, race at speeds over 200 miles an hour around an oval track, while the racing crew monitors every aspect of the car using impressive advanced technology. The problem with this movie is that there is too much showing of this technology and racing, and not enough of any noticeable story.

The acting starring Brad Pitt as Sonny Hayes and Damson Idris as Joshua Pearce, who play the two drivers, and Javier Bardem as Ruben Cervantes, who plays the CEO of the racing crew, is all very well done. With all racing movies like this one, it is at times hard to understand why any person would be willing to risk their life just to race a car, but like all professions like this one, you have to have it in your blood – you don’t have anything else you want to do.

It is impressive the work that went into this film, including risking the two main actors who actually drove their racecars at over 180 miles an hour. Given the risk, it does not make sense to risk lives like this when all of the dangerous driving could have been replaced with relatively simple special effects.

I agree with the middle-of-the-road 84% ratings for this movie, which could have been much better with an improved story and screenplay. This movie is also way too long at 2 hours and 35 minutes, and could have easily told the same story in less than two hours. Mainly for the great racecar driving effects, I do recommend this film.

Movie Review: 28 Years Later

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I have often wondered how the late director George A. Romero would have reacted to the hundreds of zombie movies and long-standing TV shows his original “Night of the Living Dead” (1968) has spawned since its release. This original zombie movie was about as disgusting, disturbing, and horrifying as any horror movie could be. However, 1968 was 57 long years ago, and by now, anyone would think that we have all had enough of the living dead, and the living dead eating living people, and the shooting or stabbing the dead in the head to kill them. Enough already.

The new movie “28 Years Later” is somewhat unique for two reasons. Number one, the movie trailer is one of the most annoying and overplayed of all time. Number two, by far the most used method for killing the zombies in this story is by using a bow and arrow.

This movie is mainly about two acts. Act one is about a father, Jamie, leaving the confines of a protected human camp and teaching his 11-year-old son Spike how to hunt and kill zombies with a bow and arrow. Obviously, this is an absurd idea, risking the life of a young boy like this, but for some unknown reason, this is the longest part of this movie. This first act consists of running, stopping, and shooting zombies in the head with a bow and arrow, resulting in repeated scenes that get old very quickly, in this remarkably bad movie.

The second act unfolds after a significant argument between Spike and his father. Following this conflict, Spike ventures out with his sick mother, Isla, into Zombieland for reasons that mostly lack clarity. By the end of the second act, they encounter Dr. Kelson, played by the film’s only well-known actor, Ralph Fiennes. To protect himself from the zombies, Dr. Kelson covers himself in iodine, which I found amusing, almost as if Fiennes was trying to disguise himself for participating in this surprisingly bad and boring movie.

It is anyone’s guess why the Rotten Tomatoes ratings for this film are as high as 90%, with a far more accurate audience rating of 67%. My rating for this waste of 2 hours is 30%, but only for the most die-hard zombie movie hobbyists.

Movie Review: The Life of Chuck

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The new movie “The Life of Chuck” is based on the Steven King book of the same name. This film successfully creates several new movie ideas that have never been seen before. There are three acts, with the acts told in reverse.

The third act is told as if the entire universe exists with the dying mind of the main character Charles ‘Chuck’ Krantz, played by Tom Hiddleston, and as Chuck slowly dies at age 39, there is an apocalypse that results in the end of the world. This idea is by far the riskiest of the three acts which also includes many billboards througout this act that show Chuck with a caption, “Thank you for 39 great years”.

In the second act, we find out that Chuck is a banker in his adulthood, and at age 39, he is diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor. In another unusual scene, while Chuck is walking to work, he sees a street musician playing the drums, and he starts dancing, eventually being joined by another woman. The dancing was well done, despite its highly unusual presence in this movie.

The first act is about Chuck’s tragic childhood, with Chuck played by Jacob Tremblay. Chuck’s parents are killed in a car accident, and then Chuck goes to live with his grandparents. Chuck learns to dance in high school and demonstrates his unique ability to backwards moonwalk. Actress Mia Sara (one of the main characters in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” (1986), appears in her first acting role in 14 years. Also highly unusual is a room in the upstairs of the house Chuck lives in that has supernatural abilities that we find out about at the end of this story.

Given that this movie is entirely based on a Steven King short story, there is no workaround as far as making this movie more mainstream and less insane. Overall, this film was well shot and engaging enough to sit through without getting bored. The Rotten Tomatoes ratings of 82% is mostly accurate with my rating around 80% and a solid recommendation.