Another example of how building one's hopes up too high can often lead to severe disappointment. I'm a huge Formula One fan, so a film by the normally ultra-reliable Ron Howard, with Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Bruhl as drivers James Hunt and Niki Lauda ought to have been a very watchable sports movie. But it just wasn't.
Maybe because I've seen so much of F1 over the years, both live, on TV, and in film, there was nothing new in this. Yes, it was set in the 70s, so it wouldn't necessarily be new, but still ....
One unforgivable omission was the sense of really being in a race car, driving at close to 200 miles per hour.
It was interesting seeing the deadly rivalry between the two main drivers, which led to Lauda's crash and the fire that permanently scarred him. But Bruhl's portrayal of Lauda - perhaps accurate - being such a self-centered, unpleasant individual left me with little sympathy for his character.
All in all, a wasted opportunity. I guess that's what you get when you leave the directing job to a person that knows relatively little about the sport.
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