Friday, August 25, 2023

Movie Review: Gran Turismo: Based on a True Story

The new movie “Gran Turismo” has “Based on a True Story” added to the title. This is another one of those movies that were it not for it being a true story, nobody would believe it.

It turns out that the technology and accuracy of a playstation game called Gran Turismo is so good that it is almost exactly like driving a real race car. From a group of addicted players of Gran Turismo, an executive at Nissan Danny Moore played by Orlando Bloom thought of an idea to have video game contest to see who was the best player and the winner would be eventually become a professional race car driver. It is this crazy idea that is the reason why "based on a true story" was added to the title of this film.

The main character Jann Mardenborough played by acting newcomer Archie Madekwe is good in his role, but seems to be either depressed or low energy during this entire movie, one of the flaws of this film. Jann’s parents are played by Djimon Hounsou and Geri Horner, in small roles, but overall they are both good and believable in their parts. David Harbour plays Jack Salter who is a former race car driver and becomes a mentor and friend to Jann. It is this relationship that is the best part of this story.

This movie has very good special effects that show not only how difficult it is to be a top race car driver, but also how extremely dangerous driving race cars over 200 miles an hour can be. One small mistake can cost you your life or the life of another driver. Over the years, the techology of how cars crash, collapse and fire proof clothing to protect drivers from being burned has vastly improved, but drivers still die, and as is shown in this film, so do spectators of racing events.

The Rotten Tomatoes rating for this movie is too low 61%, with my rating 75% mainly because this is an interesting true story about car racing and video games with good acting.

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