Ordinarily, I probably would have skipped this movie, thinking it wouldn't be my cup of tea. But then I saw Film Brain's positively glowing review, and I decided to give it a chance. And boy am I glad I did! :)
In a word, wow! This movie does something that all good sports movies should: it pulls you into the sporting mindset so that even someone who doesn't give a shit about the sport itself can still understand what makes it so exciting. (I can vouch for myself!:D) You can tell that the filmmakers are huge Formula One fans, and that passion is conveyed so absolutely and so effectively that the audience can't help but feel it themselves. That's what makes the racing scenes so exhilarating – as well as how perfectly they nail the sense of danger.
The cinematography is also remarkable. It completes the period setting by adding a grain effect to the footage, so that you can't tell where the re-enactment ends and the stock footage begins.
The performances, needless to say, are all top-notch, particularly the bitter but respectful relationship between the two leads.
To sum it up, I found this movie every bit as exciting as a real Formula One fan would find the sport itself. And to think, I almost overlooked it! Hands down, my favourite movie of the year so far.
My rating: 90%.
This one, I only saw out of morbid curiosity. And, while I didn't think it quite lived up to its overwhelmingly bad reputation, it's still pretty lame.
The biggest problem with it is just the fact that the love story takes up nearly all the screen time. And on top of that, it doesn't seem the least bit realistic; it feels like a trite piece of Sunday afternoon TV fluff. Even though I know nothing about Princess Diana myself, I can understand the animosity there: it's applying such a feeble story to a topic that, for a lot of people, is a very delicate subject.
Diana's public life is hardly ever shown, and whenever it is, it always comes completely out of nowhere, like the movie suddenly remembered, "Oh yeah, maybe I should talk about that stuff too!" For God's sake, her divorce is completely skipped over and only mentioned in passing!
Not to mention, the stereotyping is just absurd. There's one scene where the Princess is at a jazz club in disguise, and she howls with laughter when the host drops an F-bomb.
So yeah, this movie's pretty ridiculous! But the reason why I give it two stars (out of five) instead of one is because I never found myself truly angry at it; it was all just dull and unremarkable.
My rating: 35%.
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