It doesn’t matter if you’re a gamer or not, I think that every one of us can find something to like in this movie. Gran Turismo is not your standard-issue movie based on a video game as it tells a much broader story. It tells the story of a marketing exec with a vision and a bunch of young gamers with a passion. That marketing exec, played by Orlando Bloom, will organize a tournament. The contestants will play a racing video game Gran Turismo and whoever wins will get the chance to replicate their success in the real world of racing. If you think that this sounds a bit crazy it’s because it is fucking crazy. And yet, everything you’re about to see in this movie actually happened.
So, as I’ve said, this is not your usual video game adaptation like Mortal Kombat or The Super Mario Bros Movie. Gran Turismo is based on the true story of Jann Mardenborough, a British teenager who did something previously thought impossible. To find out what that is, you will have to see this movie. And yes, even that tragic event towards the end of the movie happened in real life. The first thing you’re going to notice about this movie is the sheer quality of the visuals. Just a couple of nights ago, I watched Ferrari, directed by Michael Mann and starring Adam Driver.
While that movie had a hefty budget of $95 million, it still looked a bit mediocre. Gran Turismo has a budget of just $60 million and looks fucking phenomenal. Not only did the racing scenes look much more energetic and intense but the way the camera moves and how it presents everything around the track was excellent. We will also get a lot of these crossover scenes, blending the real world with the world of video games. And as a gamer, I fucking loved them. I expected nothing less from one of my favorite directors Neill Blomkamp. I just remembered how blown away I was when I saw District 9 for the first time.
In this movie, he tried to balance the adrenaline-fueled races with the personal drama of such a young guy going through it all. This is not a Fast and Furious type of affair but something more realistic, intimate, and yet equally entertaining. There will be a lot of racing footage. And when I say a lot, I mean really a lot. In fact, they could’ve trimmed it a bit as the running time is just over two hours. Still, I have to tell you that I wasn’t bored for a minute. Apart from Orlando Bloom, we also have David Harbour, and young Archie Madekwe was excellent in the lead role.
As a gamer (sheesh, this sounds a bit like “as a christian”), I’ve actually never had the pleasure of playing Gran Turismo. The game is a console exclusive meaning it’s not available for PC. And I never was a console person. Well, apart from that time when I was really young and spent days in front of Sega Mega Drive 2. However, that doesn’t mean I haven’t played my share of excellent racing games on the PC. Need for Speed was the first game I really liked until I discovered Colin McRae Rally 2.0 and spent months playing it. I even bought a wheel, just like these gamers in the movie, to fully immerse myself in the experience.
And yet there’s only one game that I would call the best racing simulator for PC and that’s Grid Autosport. The AI driving the other cars is so good that you’ll feel like you’re racing against real people. They will try to fuck with you, tip you over and do all kinds of other sleazy maneuvers.
Director: Neill Blomkamp
Writers: Jason Hall, Zach Baylin, Alex Tse
Cast: David Harbour, Orlando Bloom, Archie Madekwe, Darren Barnet, Djimon Hounsou, Pepe Barroso
Fun Facts: Almost all of the racing scenes were filmed at Hungaroring, Hungary.
Rating:
IMDb Link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4495098/
