Gran Turismo
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In a race car, the G-Force will be two times what an astronaut experiences upon liftoff. The cockpit's going to be 140 degrees Fahrenheit. You're going to sweat off seven pounds, and no amount of protein shakes are going to help you recover. Welcome to Now Playing Podcast Review of Gran Turismo. What is this? It's a contest.

Part of NowPlaying's video game movie review series. If you miss a line in the game, you reset. You miss it on the track, you could die. Hosted by Arnie. All you do is play video games with some crazy dreams of racing cars. Justin. I would dust him in a lap. And Stuart. The best players in the world.

This episode will contain detailed plot spoilers and strong language. You really think you're going to take a kid who plays video games in their bedroom, you're going to strap them to a 200 mile an hour rocket? It'll tear them to pieces. Listener discretion is advised. You ready to bring this home? Let's go. Let's go.

Today we're discussing Gran Turismo, starring David Harbour, Orlando Bloom, Archie Medecque, Darren Barnett, Jerry Halliwell Horner, and Dimon Honsau, directed by Neil Blomkamp. This is the Now Playing co-host who brings all of that Kenny G anger, Arnie. And get off my lawn, it's Stuart. Oh wait, that's another movie. Ha ha ha ha.

And pulling up into pole position, Justin. So welcome back to the Now Playing Arcade with Gran Turismo, a video game that wasn't even on our radar when we started the arcade and like Tetris, based on a true story. Yeah, didn't you think it was Gran Torino, that Eastwood movie? Like, I was like, what is this?

I thought it was a sequel. I truly thought we were done with the video games for a while. But yeah, this one is sort of an interesting quasi. It's not exactly a game adaptation. It's more like a promotional piece for what good games can do for people. And no, I don't know anything about this true story. It sounds totally made up. Well, Gran Turismo is a game that's been on my radar for a long time. It started in the 90s. I think I played Gran Turismo 2.

in the early aughts. This is the best-selling PlayStation-made video game franchise. So that means, you know, they're in-house games. This is their number one game. I'm surprised it took so long to get a movie out of it. The thing they said behind the scenes is a Gran Turismo movie made no sense, which I agree with, until it did. And that's because Gran Turismo is a driving sim. I played...

Yeah.

We've covered a few racing games. We had Need for Speed with Aaron Paul, which actually ended up being one of the best for the arcade. I don't think it necessarily is a bad thing that it's a racing game, but they make that stickler point. This is no game. It's a simulator. Well, that just means that you don't have any characterization to it all.

You know, unlike other things from the time, you know, Grand Theft Auto or Mario Kart, there's stuff you can do there. Those could be movies, but just seeing a very realistic racing simulator, I don't know how you adapt that. And yeah, I don't watch too many racing movies by and large. I'm forced to watch Fast and Furious. I did see Days of Thunder back in the day.

I did like the Christian Bale, Matt Damon one, Ford versus Ferrari. I thought that one was good. That one is good. But most of them, you know, I didn't see Rush, Chris Hemsworth. I heard it was pretty good. Stallone's Driven. No, don't see that one. Pixar's Cars trilogy. I know it sold a lot of toys, but I'm just not interested. So I don't watch auto racing and I don't watch auto racing movies.

I'm kind of right there with you, Stuart. Like, I'm not a car guy. I'm not a racing guy. So this really, you know, never really been on my radar. I do know Gran Turismo. I know the game. It's always popped up. And the thing that I remember most about it is there used to be a subreddit about Gran Turismo, the screenshots versus real world shots and how close they actually were. Like, they would have pictures from the game and a picture at the actual track. And I'd be like, damn, which was which? Mm-hmm.

It was always about realism. Yeah. And how far they could push the graphics of the time. So I'd be interested to see what they're up to now. Yeah. I did look at YouTube and just, that was my one and only thing that I could tell was like, oh yeah, that for even the 1997 one for 1997 graphics, I'm like, that's pretty strong photo realism. Yeah.

I gotta say, one of the things that always compels me in a racing game is real-world physics. I remember when I got so excited because there was a Nintendo NES game back in the late 80s where you could actually choose to drive a Lamborghini or a Ferrari. And it was cool because those were real cars. Most racing games just had these fake cars that were pastiches on regular car names. You know, instead of a Mustang, you'd have...

A pony. Yeah, exactly. Some other kind of horse. It turns out I don't know any other kind of horse than a Mustang. And I'm a Texan. Shame on me. Turn in your card. Yeah. But I really enjoyed with Gran Turismo that you pick races.

real cars and they handle differently. They handle like those real cars because I drive fast, but I'm not a racer. And so that just means I'm unsafe. I like the safety of a video game where I can feel like I'm actually driving the real car. Now, admittedly, I didn't go all out. You can, as shown in this movie, you can buy the steering wheels, you can get the

I'm using a PlayStation controller. It feels nothing like driving. You know, I'm just using the little joysticks and trying to adapt to the lines and everything. But I could see why people would make this a lifestyle. I didn't make it a lifestyle. I played enough to get a few courses unlocked and realize you get fake money in the game where you can buy stuff.

Hmm.

Yeah, tsk tsk. But it's not one that I hold near and dear. So I did my best level of deep dive for this review, which was kind of unnecessary. They're going to give me the whole history of the game in this movie. And can I just offer that, like, at least for me, I don't know how true this is for you guys, but once you actually get your driver's license, I didn't really play driving games after that.

Yeah, you mentioned pole position. Yeah, like back in the day. Yeah, I think for me, the height of it was ColecoVision. You could buy a steering wheel and a gas pedal and play turbo at home. Yeah.

But once I could actually get behind the wheel, there wasn't any appeal to faking it. Why would I want a video game to do something I could do in real life? You've ridden with me. That's why. Because I like to go fast. I like to take tight turns. I have a car that allows me to do that. And the more I do that online and the less I do that in the real world, the longer my lifespan and the lower my car insurance will be. Yeah.

You're right. If you want to drive recklessly, if you want to race, I guess that's the difference. There's a difference between driving and racing. And I'm more of the Miss Daisy, I guess, you know, kind of driver. Hey, I mean, it's not that I don't enjoy racing and stuff like that. It's all the reality stuff that doesn't do anything for me. Like, I don't care about the models of cars. I don't care about collecting that stuff. For me, there's a game that used to be out called Burnout. And it was really just a game where you went out and wreck.

I mean, that was the purpose of the game. You'd be racing and try to wipe other guys out. That's more my speed. Yeah, if you watch a movie like Days of Thunder, you'd think that that was the point. Kind of like hockey is really just secretly a gladiator cage match. You'd think that NASCAR was just about crashing. When will the next fiery explosion happen?

I mean, that's unfortunately my perception of that culture. And I've been educated. Believe me, my dad was really into it. He tried to even take me one time. And yes, that's not what it's about. But to the outsider, you might think that's the only thing of interest.

And I love racing games in general. There's just something about trying to beat your best lap time and trying to get the gold medals, you know, the achievements. It's not real world racing, but man, I've put probably 100 hours into Podracer and Racers Revenge for the PC and then the PlayStation 2. I just enjoy that content.

kind of gaming. Just because Turismo wasn't my thing, I also enjoy story-based gaming and don't have a lot of time for gaming anymore. I do get the appeal of that. It's just a personal best kind of thing, you know? There's a lot of fun. When I used to have gaming nights at my house and have all my friends over because you didn't have the internet back then, you had to have a LAN party and wire all your computers together, we'd always be breaking out the steering wheels and the gas pedals and playing racing games.

because it's fun to race against your friends. Yeah. And you bring up something I think which is key to this movie's appeal. Even if you don't like racing simulators, this movie is going to make the bold case that that's not a waste of time. If you hold up in your room and you play video games...

hours on end. And I think I did. Arnie, you did. There's a time in your life where you do make room for such an activity, but then you grow up, supposedly, put it away because it's not helpful. It doesn't benefit you. This movie is going to say you can actually use your time on PlayStation as a jumping off point to a successful career.

Yeah. And skip right over the e-sports thing, right? It's like nowadays you can get really good at a football game and your dad used to say, hey, you're never going to do anything with that. Go outside and play real football or whatever. Now these kids can go and actually win real money by playing e-sports in front of other people. But it's still the game. This is going directly from you're playing the game. Get in a car. Yeah.

So this was done and they pushed this. And every trailer based on a true story is big because you wouldn't think that this could actually be real. But yes, some kid who just had a lot of hours on Gran Turismo, like, is now a professional auto racer. What do you know about the real story, Arnie? What Wikipedia told me. Ha ha ha.

I read the wiki. I am not a racing follower, but I did watch some behind the scenes interviews and read the wiki about Jan Martin Burrow. And it's an interesting story. You know, it is highly glorified in this movie. It's not exactly as shown in this movie. This movie is not concerned with being true to his story. He was not the first nor the last GT Academy driver. Okay.

That was, again, my curiosities was like, this feels tailor-made to make it seem like a one in a million chance for him. But they do this all the time in all different kinds of video games. And you can make money at it.

I don't know that they do it on all kinds of video games. There's not that many. I don't think I can play Quake and then all of a sudden be recruited to go shoot people. But you just haven't gotten the invite yet, right? Hey, I was this close to getting on the Qbert board, man. But they did do this for Gran Turismo. It was done by Nissan or I'm sorry, Nissan. Yeah. That's right.

That's how they pronounce it in this movie. I'm going to pronounce it throughout this podcast like they do in the television ads, Nissan. But throughout this whole movie, Nissan. But there is a lot of truth to this story. But hey, they decided to write it like it's Rocky and make it all about him getting the chance to go from a hobbyist to a pro and all of the beats that Rocky follows.

your classic underdog story. Don't count them out kind of thing. Yeah, folks should be reminded that Rocky was a Best Picture nominee. Like, it was a prestigious film that really took the world by storm. Now I feel like we have so many of these kinds of movies, you might consider it, you know, formula, not exceptional.

but this is coming from a Oscar nominee, Neil Blomkamp. I haven't seen him in a while, but you know what? It's proof that there's nowhere to go but down when your first film gets a Best Picture nomination.

I had a lot of hope for Gran Turismo because it's coming from Neil Blomkamp. Now, sadly, I guess I don't follow his career enough to know a movie of his came out in 2021 named Demonic, something he decided to do during COVID. But District 9, Chappie is in our book as an underrated movie. Even Elysium had its high points. And so that this was coming from a much higher pedigree than an Uwe Boll gave me a lot of hope that...

This movie would be something special visually and in terms of story. Yeah, but like isn't Blow Camp's thing usually like futuristic dystopia type of thing, right? And like, I mean, yeah, I enjoy his previous films, but I don't know what the impetus of getting him in for a movie like this is. His alien movie didn't take off and he needed a job?

Yes, I think that he is creatively stalled. District 9, again, that was what, 13 years ago, up for Best Picture, got a lot of attention and made money. I don't think any of them afterwards have been very high profile. Elysium had big Hollywood stars. It had Matt Damon, Jodie Foster. It did not reach the same kind of acclaim or box office. Yeah, Arnie likes Chappie, but it underperformed. That's why it's an underrated film. Demonic, yeah, whoever even heard of it.

Yeah, the tragedy is he apparently had a very good alien script that Sigourney Weaver, she was coming back to the franchise, and Ridley Scott just didn't want to give up on that Prometheus thing. So we got Alien Covenant and we never got what Blomkamp apparently spent five years of his life trying to develop. So yes, at this point, you just want to make any movie. And if it's got a Rocky vibe, maybe you can use that to prove you've got commercial viability still.

Yeah, because I saw this on a Friday night and we're recording this on Sunday. And my wife Marjorie asked me, do you need to see this movie again? And I'm like, no, I've seen this movie a thousand times. But I saw it on a Friday night, seven o'clock showing dead empty. There were four other people there besides myself in the Dolby Atmos, big theater, big screen, the way you'd probably want to see this, if not IMAX and

I couldn't believe just how unattended it was. And I talked to some friends of mine and they went and saw it on IMAX on Thursday and they were literally the only two people in the theater. So I don't see people racing to theaters to see this. I thought I won like a private screening or something because I went on Thursday afternoon and I was literally the only guy in the theater. Yeah, it was me and Nicole, basically, you know, that was just...

Just kicking it in the IMAX. But, you know, here's the thing. It's the end of summer. So, like, people are back in school now. Like, this is just, you know, the summer movie season. You could call this the last one. And although it's positioned to maybe beat Barbie and be number one at the box office, it's a low box office haul this week.

weekend. They're even doing something weird on Sunday. They slashed ticket prices to like $4 to try and get people to even go. Yeah, they moved this a couple of weeks. We were supposed to be reviewing this a couple weeks ago, but I think they got it out of the way of the juggernaut that is Barbie. They knew Barbie was going to be winning the weekends back then. And here they have a chance of being number one with 15 million though on a 60 million budget. That's not a great opening. Yeah.

I mean, it's modest. Everything about this thing, yes, it doesn't scream blockbuster. And I think what I heard, some of the thought behind the delay is we'll just hold special night screenings. You could have seen this movie. I think they collected about five million just over the last three weeks from having a just Saturday night, one night only kind of preview. And that was to do what they used to do. Like if a movie seems to be...

you know, an underdog, you want to build an audience. You want people to see it, spread the word. I think they were hoping that if enough people got a look at it early, that when there was no competition at all, people on a mass level will be ready to come out for it. Yeah.

Yeah, and it also might be a little bit of a misstep all in all, because I think the audience this is aimed at is the exact audience that's not going to theaters. These are the kids that stream digital, you know, from their phone. And maybe this movie will have a second life once it comes out digitally, but right now it seems like it's missing its audience.

When it comes out digitally in two weeks. I mean, seriously, we could have waited on the Meg too. That thing's already out on digital. I feel like we could have waited on Gran Turismo. Gamers are a bad bet. Yeah. Even if they do come to the theater, they're going to be looking at their phone, watching the game. You know, as this main character shows us, if they're truly into the game, that's what they'd rather be doing. But let's find out. Arnie, what do they do in this movie? Give us the plot of Gran Turismo.

Yan Martin Burrow, played by Archie Medekwe, is a dreamer. He spends his days playing Gran Turismo and his money buying expensive accessories to make the game more realistic. He dreams of becoming a real race car driver, though he has no means to actually make this happen.

But Nissan marketing executive Danny Moore, played by Orlando Bloom, has a unique way to make Nissans more appealing to millennials who aren't interested in driving cars. They hold an online race for the best Gran Turismo players in the world, and the top 10 get admitted to what they're calling GT Academy, where they will be trained as real race car drivers.

Jan makes the cut and is trained at GT Academy by hard-ass Jack Salter, played by David Harbour. In the final race at GT Academy, Jan wins the final race by a nose and is picked as their driver.

Jan's next trial is to get his racing license, which requires he finish at least fourth in a qualifying race. After several failures, Jan does finish fourth in a race in Dubai. This leads to Jan being signed by Nissan as a racer. But in Jan's first race after being signed, his car flips into the air. Jan survives mostly unhurt, but a spectator was killed.

Jan is ready to quit racing, but Jack urges the boy to get back behind the wheel. Jan is cleared of any fault by the racing commission, and Jan does decide to race again. But a group of professional racers has started an anti-sim driver movement, saying Jan is a danger to the sport.

To prove the naysayers wrong, Danny decides a team of sim drivers, led by Jan, should race in Le Mans' 24-hour race. Jan is joined by two of the other drivers from the GT Academy. The goal is just to get on the podium, and these three spirited drivers do just that by placing third in the challenging race as credits roll.

As they start, I think we made it something of a punchline when we saw that PlayStation Productions logo in the past. They've had some victories. They're a little less ridiculous now that they have Last of Us on HBO. That's turned into a big hit. And I don't know, I don't have Peacock anymore, but they're behind Twisted Metal as well. So they are having some success bringing video games to TV, even though Uncharted kind of went unwatched.

Yeah, you bring up Twisted Metal, and that's something that I've just watched. And, ooh, what a difference. Difference in tone, difference in writing, all that stuff. But, yeah, this movie, right out of the gate. I almost forgot for a minute that we were in the arcade. But those opening credits was like, oh, that's right. There's God of War. We're in the arcade. Ratchet and Clank. How could you forget their lovable... Yeah. Oof. Yeah. That was a movie we watched, folks. Ratchet and Clank. Yeah.

Anyway, this movie. They helped me out because I don't know Gran Turismo. 25 years ago, we see a very serious looking Japanese man analyzing everything about a race car, meticulously checking all the instruments, and we're told that this thing is an advertisement. Even if it's not, it's an advertisement.

If nobody goes to see this, you can justify the $60 million expense because think about what it says about PlayStation. We make racing simulators so good that there is no difference between your console and...

being in a car. That is in and of itself. Like it just pays for itself. It suddenly like here's a man that meticulously created a game for PlayStation. If you want to play a racing simulator, this is who you'd go to. I mean, right off the bat, do you guys buy this conceit? Are you willing to go with the idea that a video game can be a tool that directly translates to that skill in the real world?

Because I think if you don't, this movie is just going to be a slog for you, right? Yeah, I can buy it because, you know, there is Microsoft's flight simulator that a lot of people spend time in before they get in real cockpits and do quite a bit of that. Yeah, the 9-11 attackers. Yeah.

Well, that's not what I was thinking, but very successful. And isn't all flying these days a sim? It's a drone, right? As far as military driving goes, that's just a sim that has an avatar out there for you. But yeah, I will say that the

right vehicle as far as games go, if realistic enough, can train you for the real world, can train your reflexes. But there's always going to be that learning curve. I mean, unless you really go all out, the one thing I say that Gran Turismo lacks, peripheral vision, the ability to quickly look to your side, the ability to know what's next to you and when you can change lanes. There's always going to be that digital divide. Well, they'll get VR involved, right? Like that'll be the next level of all that.

stuff. They actually did make a Gran Turismo in VR. I didn't play it. I chafe a little bit at the commercialism of it. Again, looking at this thing is like basically just plugging how great PlayStation games are. Yes, of course, simulations help people. They

Help people do lots of different things. But the other thing that this opening sets up is that it defines the story in terms of class, right? What gets said is that this guy, Kaz, I'm going to call him by his nickname, but Kaz, he leveled the playing field, right? Because racing is a rich man's sport, but now poor, non-educated, non-white people can succeed in this. They can crack into a field that was not intended for them. And that is, I guess, a reason to get behind the story.

They just have to spend all of their money from their retail jobs on steering wheels and like extra equipment. Virtual rims, I think he buys. Yeah, well, like I said, you have money in the game. You can buy upgrades to your car and configure your engines and do all kinds of things that mean nothing to me as a non-mechanic, non-enthusiast, but...

Do you guys like Jan in this movie when we're introduced to him buying the steering wheel and talking about his job and saying to his father he doesn't want to play soccer? I mean, here's what I would say. I think it's a relatable conflict. Well, no, let me say something first. I'm not a parent. So on some level, I don't have a dog in this fight.

But if I were, I would be on the dad's side. You need to get out and get some fresh air. Spending all of your time and all of your money obsessively thinking about one thing, to me, feels unhealthy. As a developing mind, I think that...

Yeah, children should be exposed to lots of different things and not compartmentalized in the way that Jan is doing here. And I would just also offer, I think, you know, Archie Mediqui is probably a good actor, but there's just, I'll go to tropes here, but gamers typically, they don't have dynamic personalities. Maybe they can talk trash when they're networking, but by and large, we don't have a character that's good at talking.

with other people on screen so yes that's a barrier to liking yawn yeah and i'm right there with you stewart like this is when i realized oh yep this movie is not at all aimed at me this movie is aimed at the younger crowd that hey you know i'm not gonna stand here and try to stomp on anybody's dreams you know i'm not necessarily 100 on board with the dad but like i get that

relationship the two have. But yeah, it becomes painfully obvious that this is aimed directly at dreamers who have yet to have any real life experience. The sky's the limit is the message from here on out.

And you say young people, Stuart, but Archie Mediqui is 28 years old. We did see him in the movie Midsommar. He's not exactly a teenager who is still a developing person. You know, by 28, you're pretty adult. He doesn't play it as 28, though. He feels very much like, I forget that he's even been to college. He's a college dropout. So 20, I think, is how old Jan was in real life when all this happened to him. And...

As a person whose father really wanted him to play less video games and go out and specifically play more soccer. You mean football? Football if I was in England. Soccer here in the States. I could very much relate to Jan. So instantly I'm on Jan's side personally.

But I wasn't sure if that's a universal thing of your father wishing you were a better soccer player and not as good of a gamer. Oh, I mean, this is a total in-your-face for every gamer to be able to tell your folks that they don't know what they're talking about, that everything you're doing is going to set you up for your future money-making prospect.

That's something for older generation like myself to understand. And while there are exceptions, I would not encourage young people to say spending all your time on PlayStation and all your money on PlayStation is a wise investment in your career. Again, I side with the dad.

I'm having trouble siding with either of them, right? Like, I feel like the dad's too hardline and Jan's being way too naive, right? Oh, yeah, certainly. I mean, the fact that there's this preference because he has a younger brother who is going out there and is getting some of the medals. And the dad is not just someone that encourages physical activity. He had a professional football career of some kind.

And now he's working in a train yard. So there's a lot of past glory that he's trying to relive through his children. And Jan is therefore the disappointment. I guess what might be helpful is if he could pick up a controller and race with Jan for a little bit. You know, meet the kid where he's at.

But also, yeah, I don't think he's wrong in saying diversify, have other interests. Like when they're at the dinner table, like he can't even look at his meal. He's on his phone. He's looking at YouTube footage of this game. It just, it feels obsessive. And,

I know that there is a part of our culture, America specifically, where we reward people that are tunnel focused on certain things that we think are great. But maybe more should be made out of people that can hold a conversation and have an engaged personality.

At this point, we realize that Jan doesn't really have anybody on his side, right? His mom is trying to walk the middle, but he does have a friend who's encouraging him, right? His brother doesn't. At a game place. I mean, again, all his friends are gamers. All they talk about is gaming. And that's like saying an addict's drug dealer is a good friend. Enabling. I mean,

Yeah. Again, I don't see any of these kids. I mean, we will see that there's a romantic storyline introduced later. But before we get to that, before we even find out there is a contest, we have to see it get pitched. We have to see what Orlando Bloom's been doing since that last Hobbit movie. Haven't seen this guy in a decade. Yeah. Pirates of the Caribbean. Oh, he was in that last one. He did come back for that. Oh, yeah. I forgot about that fifth one, but it wasn't bad, as I recall. I recall.

And here he is playing Nissan executive. He's going to be one of our heroes in this movie, trying to figure out a way to pitch driving to millennials who are like, yeah, repo my car. I don't want to make the payments and I don't even like driving. I'd rather Uber anyway. It's cheaper. I love that little detail that he's up there in front of Nissan executives trying to tell them young people don't want to drive. We need to find a way to get young people engaged and want them to buy Nissans.

And that method is we'll create a contest where the winner gets to drive professionally the Nissan sports car around some of the greatest tracks of the world. I mean, I love the response. They're in Japan. So, of course, they're composed, like all the response. But someone just one question. You're like, yeah. And if someone gets hurt, we're responsible. Right. Like they end up telling this guy, oh, yeah, you get somebody to certify safety and we're in, which to me feels like no. Right.

Like, okay, if you take responsibility entirely off our backs, sure, you can put a gamer kid in the driving seat of a dangerous automobile and deal with that PR nightmare. That's a crazy idea. But also, am I missing a step? It's like, where does this translate to sales for Nissan? Like, because you might be able to go to a driving academy, you're going to buy a Nissan? I didn't see how that was truly a great marketing scheme to sell more cars.

Agreed on that. It sells more games, but not more cars. Right. Well, and they did partner with Sony and Gran Turismo for this Academy. They kind of downplay that fact that they had to partner up. PlayStation gets a lot of advertising in this movie. PlayStation logos are everywhere, but they don't really have PlayStation executives personified in the film. But I almost see the point is if 80 million people

are playing Gran Turismo, you can inspire them to want to be drivers and just get a car. And if you've upped the sales of all cars, you're also upping the sales of your car and putting the name Nissan out there in front of them, front and center. Even if they have a one in 80 million chance of winning that game, it is 80 million, they say, right? Yes. That's the number of, I think, gamers. And

And, you know, there's another thing, too, of just the general rule about advertising is people don't buy something they've never heard of. So if you can even just get the name Nissan in 80 million people's heads, well, when one of them needs to buy a car, they're going to know what a Nissan. So that's how this scheme might translate into sales.

But I agree, I wouldn't fund it. For lots of reasons, I would tell Orlando Bloom to go back and make a movie that people want to see. This sounds like a really good way of killing children. In the real world, there were some rules, like you had to have a driver's license, you had to not have a racing license beyond a certain class, you know, you had to be an amateur, but you had to have experience doing some kind of driving. Mm-hmm.

Right. And there are places like this. Jerry, who co-hosted the show for a while, has gone to places where you can take Porsches on racing tracks and things and not race against other drivers. But for a few hundred dollars, you can get behind the wheel and drive really fast. And I'm sure you have to sign a lot of waivers to do that.

Yeah. Again, I see the appeal. I can see why gamers would want to do it. I don't know why Nissan would want to do it, but they did. And this is a true story. So now they just have to find that chief engineer that's going to certify that safety. And yes, Danny Orlando Bloom has gone through his entire list. And the only person that is left is David Harbour's Jack Salter.

I don't know. I never watched Stranger Things. What is his relationship to the kids on that show? Is he a lovable dad type? Is he a stern curmudgeon? I dropped off that show, but in the first season, he was the sheriff of the town. So he was kind of a protagonist. But then towards the middle of the series, he became stepdad to one of the kids. So he's kind of a mentor to them. Okay. So young people might associate this guy as a dad they'd like to have, because that's obviously the role he's going to play that

if Jan doesn't have a dad that supports his racing addiction, Jack is going to understand and teach him how to be better. And he's introduced while listening to some Ozzy and working for Team Kappa, working on what looked like gold-plated cars that are really cool. Yeah.

Could they make this company look more villainous? That it's like literally like, yeah, this gold LeMay car with this snooty little kid that's yelling at people. Like they take all the mechanics out for a nice dinner and he's yelling at them that they need to give their best and all of that.

Yeah. You can just see that. I mean, well, Jack can't do it. He makes a face. They call him out at the table and he tries to make the point of you want the best. You could drive better. You could take turns better. He tries to give him pointers and is told you're just a mechanic. I'm not listening to you.

And that's enough to make him take this job that nobody wants working for GT Academy. Of course, this is a false narrative because it's David Harbor. We know he's going to be a major part of this movie. And if you've seen a trailer, you know, he's going to take the job. So let's get through this pretty quickly. And fortunately they do. Well,

Arnie, I'm going to offer there's no point in this movie where you can't predict what is going to happen next. This is a movie. It's as obvious as a racetrack. You know where all the curves are. You see everything that is in front of you. It's about whether you're enjoying the ride.

Well, one feature I noticed about the game is... It seems like you start with used cars before you can race cool cars. And so they want to give Jan a moment where he's just behind the wheel of something unglamorous. And so they contrive this moment where his brother asked him to sneak out of the window with him to go to some party. And even though he's been offered...

He got the GT Academy invitation and knows tomorrow he needs to bring his A game. He's going to risk not practicing to be with a girl. And this is good. He's getting out of the house. He's meeting with other people. We show he's not completely stunted in every way. Oh, he's totally stunted. They're all like drinking and sitting around a barrel. And I mean, admittedly, they're sitting around a flaming barrel and drinking alcohol. It sounds funny.

Slightly dangerous, but he's off on his phone. She has to come to him. She's just like, why are you so in love with racing? And I'm like, no, why are you so in love with someone who is so in love with racing? And the answer is like, because the whole world falls away and it's just me in the car. Wow. How romantic. You really know how to make a girl feel special. They're like, yeah, my dream is just to have all these people go away and I'm just in a car. Woof.

What a Lothario. What a romantic. Swoon. Yes. Yeah, this romance is dead on arrival. They just can't make it work. There's no reason for this girl to like him, and he has no real interest in her. The one thing I predicted, this movie's pretty predictable at all given moments. She, at one point, mentions, I really want to go to New York and eat pizza. I thought for sure he could make that happen for her.

No, they go to Tokyo because that's where he wants to go. And he wants to go to Tokyo because that's where they designed the game he loves. Again, that obsessiveness about everything must be about Gran Turismo. They just have a girl here because what would this movie be if he didn't? I mean, he would really look stupid.

Rocky and Adrian, this isn't where they're both socially awkward. And so you can kind of see why they would get together and how difficult that relationship would be here. She does seem very socially adept and very attractive. And yeah, why is she interested in him is a question that I asked for half the movie. Once he becomes famous and a race car driver, well, yeah, I can see why she's interested in him. Girls like it if you want to fly them to Tokyo, I think. But...

Yeah, here in the beginning, I do wonder. Yeah, he has no interest in her and never does show interest in her. But yes, at a certain point, she becomes a trophy on his shelf. And like I said, they need to show him race something other than the cool cars he's going to race on the track so they can try this cop chase.

I think it could be said that Jan's character development, if we're going to read into it, is him coming out of his shell and he's nervous in front of other people and this girl. So by the time he does get her to come with him to Japan, that's a win for him. But it's not being shown very well.

It does come off as very superficial. During this race with the cops, they do go into Gran Turismo vision where it looks like the video game. They've got the speedometer in the corner. And just like when you're racing the game, you've got your heads up display there. They do that here in the beginning and he is able to outrun the cops and you

Kingsman? Kingsman! The very first Kingsman! Not only are these kids from the UK, but yeah, that they're going to start with this car race where in Kingsman we had Eggsy running from a couple of brutes and driving very well. And then they're going to go to an academy and...

And so I'm going to be making comparisons throughout this review to Kingsman in ways that Kingsman did things better. Yeah. That's not helping this movie at all. If you're going to think about a really entertaining spy adventure and then yeah, this guy.

But one thing I got to ask is, was some of this footage, it looked like sometimes they actually, it's like he sees video game. It felt like when he was looking at the road that it actually was CGI animation from a game. Like that they weren't showing photorealism. Like, again, he's so obsessed that when he drives, he sees PlayStation. Yeah, the best route, the best way out. Yeah.

That's not just an overlay. Like the whole street looked like it was CGI built. Can we say though, it's a much better computer game insert than what YuvaBowl did when he just inserted scenes from House of the Dead in House of the Dead?

Is it? Is it much better? I mean, you know, they have cheeky little things like goal achieved, cop avoidance, and what have you. But I don't know. It doesn't feel like a great creative idea if this was Neil Blomkamp's idea about how to translate the game into cinema. It's kind of unimpressive that they're going to do this sort of you're watching a game with pop-ups kind of thing. Expect it.

I don't think it's expected. We haven't seen it a lot in the arcade, and we've reviewed every video game movie that's been released. I feel like every time they show gameplay, they try to replicate it, and that's what they're doing. Again, I'm a little concerned that this character, like, sees reality in terms of living inside a video game. But anyway, he doesn't get away scot-free. He might get away from the cops, but he comes home with a broken rear view.

And dad is waiting. And we have this moment of dad, like, yanking him to his job and saying, if you don't have a plan, you're going to end up like me. Like, strange that this man sees himself as a cautionary tale because he's so big on soccer, but feels like it failed him. That his soccer career led to a miserable existence.

And I don't know that it matters because I feel like so many of these characters are all just surface and none of them have an arc, really. But do we know why Dad failed at soccer? Was it an injury that kept him out? Did he just not make it far enough to provide for his family with soccer? I don't know why he's a failure. He did not play FIFA. He did not have the PlayStation game to make him better. Well, he's closer to our age. He would have been playing Pele on Atari. Yeah.

Good point. Good point. That game will not teach you soccer. That is for sure. The only video game my dad ever bought me. Pele Soccer. Mmm.

No doubt. Anyway, Jan doesn't have time for this. Yeah. Okay, dad. I got to run and go get to my contest. We have some last minute, like, oh, you're 10 minutes away. They got to make it extra exciting that he's running to the place, the game land arcade, where he's going to prove that he can beat everyone in the virtual game. He starts out in last place, but through what's his power. Why is he good? It seems like he ultimately can take turns.

Sharper turns than other people. I'm trying to figure out why he is the best. He has some kind of intuition because in the game, they do show you a line, which is your recommended path. If you stay on the line, this is going to be the fastest way. It's going to work best with your brakes. So there's this yellow line that you are supposed to stick to. You can turn it off if you want it to be

Yeah.

He knows the game really well. I think he's just put in the time to become an expert. He's one of the best in order to even get the invitation. It means he set a world record for one of the laps. And he spent the money. Don't forget, he bought the big steering wheel, the one you didn't buy, Arnie. See, if you bought that, you'd be better.

No doubt, but he's good enough. He wins the virtual race and instantly he's going to GT Academy. It would have been interesting to see a little bit more with dad in this moment, right? Like, oh, you just won something and you're now moving out and going to like actually be behind the wheel. Like I felt like that was a scene I wanted to see, but it ends up feeling really truncated. Dad ends up just kind of pouting in another room and the son saying, if you don't believe in me, I'm still going to do it.

You would think that any dad would be a little bit proud that their son had won a contest of this caliber. Yeah, I mean, I feel like this is going to be my issue with this entire movie is everything feels so surface level. Like, the movie's not telling us how to feel about anything. It's asking us to bring our own feelings into each of these situations. Is dad really disappointed?

I don't know. He kind of feels like it. Is Jan really great at racing? Well, looks like he is on screen, but we don't know why. We don't know what his special skill is that makes him better than everybody else. Yeah, this is a shame because Damon Han-Sau is a character actor I like. We've seen him in quite a few things. I feel like he could be doing more in this movie, and I feel like he just took this for a paycheck. There's not a lot of character arc for Father Steve.

Maybe he's good because his mom is a Spice Girl. Did you notice? That's Jerry Halliwell in the Thankless Mom role. I did not recognize Ginger Spice, I'm sad to say. Yeah, I don't know why you would. Again, these are very generic. Again, they're disapproving parents. She's trying a little bit harder to be supportive, but neither is exactly happy that their 20-year-old son is, you know, he is leaving home. He's getting out of the house like they wanted him to, but getting deeper into his obsession with auto racing.

And when we roll in here to GT Academy, boy, have you ever seen any more flattering portrayal of gamers than these svelte, great-looking young people with awesome hair and complexions and not an ounce of body fat on them? Damn, these are some hot gamers.

I mean, I do think that our perception of what gamers are does need to be updated a little bit because everybody is a gamer nowadays, right? Sure, sure. My daughter, she's 18. She plays the hell out of video games all day and all night, you know? And it's like, if you went to the mall and saw her, you wouldn't be like, oh, dirty gamer. I'm not

saying they need to go to a stereotype, but wouldn't that be a little bit more fun in the next moment here is to see like the actual adjustment of going from a comfy couch to actually being in a car. You know, what would be nice is if any of these other racers were characters, if we got to know them, if we got to have rivalries, if we got to root for some of the others, again, Kingsman did a great job of setting up a villain in that Academy, setting up an

ally in that academy who would go on to help Eggsy in the climax. Here, we're so focused on Jan that it's to the expense of anybody else. I think there's 10 racers here. Out of all of them, I catch one of their names and

His name's Maddie, and he's the best of the crew, whereas Jan is nervous in front of the camera, not very talkative. Maddie is able to win people over with his personality. Maddie is the one that Danny, Orlando Bloom's character, is rooting for. But there's eight other people there, and it would have been nice to have a little bit more in this to root for them and feel for them as they get kicked out of the Academy.

This movie's pretty long. I wanted to stress it's over two hours. And yet there is so much that is told in montage. It's strange to me that they can't slow down and have this feel a little bit more Top Gun. Yeah, because you wouldn't want to see all of the egos and all of that. That it just ends up being, yeah, Maddie versus Jan. You know, the handsome American confident guy that's like, of course I've done all of this before. Yeah.

and yeah the guy that's nervous in front of the camera and yeah just socially awkward that is the David and Goliath conflict and they both have to you know deal with the hard-ass drill sergeant of Jack that we see a lot of scenes of David Harbour like really just telling these kids I don't believe in you I don't think you're gonna make it my job is actually to watch you fail and

And he has this red line and that if anyone's name should fall below that, however it's quantified, I don't know. But he just happily sends them packing. Yeah. Once again, shorthand, we're supposed to bring all of this to this movie, apparently. And like you said, Stuart, this movie is over two and a half hours. I'm not even sure where all the screen time goes. Mm-hmm.

Because nothing is developed throughout this movie. It's all just a series of images that we've seen in other movies. So I think we're bringing with us what we're supposed to feel about this stuff, but it's not being played out in front of us. Yeah. Dramatic shorthand for sure. We get one moment here where Jan's on the chopping block. He is actually, his name's below that red. He spins out with Jack in the car.

And there's a whole debate about, like, did he just lose confidence? The mentor is like, you just don't have what it takes to make the passes. And Jan is like, no, my brakes are glazed. I don't even know what that means. But of course, Jan is right. Jan knows driving virtually. And he's been in this car so much on his PlayStation that he could know that the problem was mechanical and not him.

I don't know. I guess I didn't play Gran Turismo enough, but I don't think you get mechanical problems in that game where your car starts breaking down. Maybe some of those used cars. I can see there being mechanical problems, but like, are they going as far as the glazed brakes in the game? Like, what does that mean? It sounds like sabotage. I don't know. Some movie

Movies would just be this, right? GT Academy would be the whole movie. Again, I think Top Gun. And then at the very end, the climax would be, and now it's time for you to do your first race. It's kind of surprising to me that they can't wait to get through this Academy and kick all of these people out, put Maddie in his place, and just get Jan out there on the circuit.

And there's some cut scenes. I mean, as long as this movie is, they did have some stuff in the trailer that was not in the movie that shows a little bit more strife between Danny and Jack over who's going to move on because they have a final race when there's five of them and it's almost a tie. But Jan beats Maddie just by a handful.

From what I read online, that is not the case. He won by quite a bit, but you know, you want dramatics for the movie. So here it's very narrow and Danny is perfectly fine lying about who won as long as they get the more photogenic guy in front of the cameras to represent Nissan. Yeah.

Yeah, I think he's right. I mean, Danny is right. This is not a real contest. This is not a real academy. We're not really training anybody for anything. We're trying to sell cars. And who is going to be the better car spokesman? Maddie is the one. I get why you make that determination. It's actually one of the more interesting moments in the film that they actually bother to tell the audience, hey, we know that this is all staged. This is Hollywood. This is reality TV.

And yeah, behind the scenes, they had an out. We might just go ahead and let the person that technically lost win because he's what we celebrate.

You say it's reality TV. GT Academy was actually a television program. Yeah. I mean, why wouldn't you do that? It has those stakes. It has that contrived kind of contest to it. But why does Jan get picked? They make it imply they cut away. We don't see that final discussion, but they imply that it is Jack who is like, I won't sign off on a non-winner.

I want the person that has the best skills. And racing comes down to a 100th of a second. So if that's what he won by, that's why he gets to go forward. I know they don't agree on music. They have a whole funny little thing in which Jack's always wearing these headphones, an old tape deck, playing Paranoid by Black Sabbath while Jan always prepares for his races with Kenny G and Enya.

That is a little bit funny and I guess true. He does love Kenny G before a race. That's a little character moment. And yeah, the score of this movie is pretty decent, but the soundtrack feels like a lot of oldies. Like I'm surprised somebody would dig out Kenny G from the 80s to listen to in 2011. I was waiting for the mashup. I'm like, when are they going to like put the techno beat to Inya and you

And, you know, like, you know, like really go for it. Get some house mix on Kenny G going. Yeah. Yeah. Remix. Yeah. Get some Cardi B on there. It all becomes about her cycle. You know, like I got to handle this again. There's a way to youth market this shit.

They don't go full pandering on the youth market music. Anyway, Jan's the winner. Off he goes. The next assignment is an FIA license. Don't know what that is, but he's got six tries to get it. Yeah, and not that I want this movie to be longer or more realistic, but like what we're seeing on screen is he's just thrown into these races. Like there's no practice laps. There's no getting to know where he's at.

driving around the course once or twice, meeting his pit crew. It's just like he gets off the plane, he gets in the car and they're off. And it's like, it doesn't feel real. Jumping ahead, I just want to ask, is there anything that anyone gives this kid that ends up being helpful? I don't think he learns. I think he teaches them that playing it the way he learned by himself on his video game console is better driving than what the rich kid is getting with the gold lame car.

I feel like it's implied that Jack is training him between these races. This is a big montage that Jack is teaching him real world skills. But he doesn't. What's the lesson that he teaches him? I don't think there's a specific one because yes, in the end, there is that moment where Jan is like, let me do it my way. I've raced this race a thousand times online, so I know how to do this.

That's the fantasy. The fantasy is the kids know better than the adults. And the purpose of Jack is you're just my supportive dad. I don't have a dad that really likes that I'm doing this and he believes I'm wasting my time. So you're invested in me

And you let me do what I want. And then I win. It's even more confusing than that because Jack's character is a guy who doesn't want to be there. He doesn't want any of these kids to move on. And then next thing you know, he's all in. And we don't see that turn. He's just all in on this kid. Yeah.

It seems to be happening here when they're going for the license and we get another montage of, you know, everywhere he goes, Barcelona, Germany, Italy, Istanbul, for reasons he just doesn't place. He needs to get at least fourth place and he's either hitting gravel pits or he almost gets there, but goal LeMahe card knocks him out or, you know, he just is not good yet.

And he's not experienced. I think we see that he hyperventilates when he's behind the wheel. It feels different. Of course it does. It feels different. I don't care how good your PlayStation simulator is. It's going to feel different when you're in that car and feeling that experience.

impact to your body as you're whipping around. But I do believe it's at this moment that Jack starts to say kinder things. We see him actually be a little bit encouraging. And that seems to be the only thing I ever hear him offer. He doesn't give tips that tells him, you know, turn like this, do like that. He doesn't speak to him the way that he spoke to Nikki with Team Kappa.

But there's also a moment where it feels like Jack's motivation switches from just liking this kid all of a sudden to seeing an opportunity to change his past since he flamed out at Le Mans years ago. Oh, boy. And never stood at that podium. Yeah. Well, obviously, yes, this kid is going to complete what he wanted to but couldn't. Because let's keep in mind, Jack is not just a mechanic. He's not just a coach. He used to be a racer, too, back in the day. Absolutely.

And yes, his dreams went south. And that's a mystery they teased for a long time. We'll see Jan talking to Orlando Bloom, whispering what happened, what's his story. And it will become relevant once we get to that pivotal, like all is lost moment right before the climax.

But first, he's got to get this license. And when they finally get to Dubai, we see him do it. Yeah, each race, he gets a little closer. He just has to place fourth. I think it's interesting that this whole movie, Jan goes the distance. He'll always do what needs to be done to make it to the next level. But he's never in first place this movie.

which is an interesting choice. You'd think that they'd want to glorify him. They do stick to a little bit of reality. From what I can tell reading, the real Jan, you know, he's not Dale Earnhardt or something. He's not, uh,

number one driver that people are putting stickers on their cars for. You know what I'm saying? He's a workman racer, which is cool. I'm not downplaying that, but he's not a champion. But he will win at the end. What they're doing, Arnie, they're not showing you. He doesn't win. He comes in third. No, in real life, he came in third. In the movie, he came in first. No, he came in third at the end. The whole point was just to get on that podium by being third.

Are we talking about LeMond? Yeah. He won. There was a photo finish. He came in third. You're wrong. He won that race. No, I'm dead solid. He came in third. Well, they don't tell us that in that way. That's not what I feel in that moment. That's minimized. Okay, but he comes in third. Okay, I'll take your word on that. Only saw this movie once. They give me the impression that he is getting better and that he has a victory at the end.

I don't see that this is a celebration of third place. I don't see this movie as that. Yeah, the whole point, what they said is the brass ring here is get on the podium. Be first, second, or third, and that's your victory. Yeah. And so he's never going to come in first in any of these races in this movie. Interesting. I did not notice that. But anyway, he does at Dubai get his license because he's able to take fourth. The only other racer we know, we know Nicky Kappa because he was the jerk that treated Jack bad.

But we also have this German in a rainbow car named Schulen, and he'll be pivotal at the end as well. He beats Schulen, and now he can, yeah, go to Japan finally and fulfill those dreams. Yeah, sign with Nissan to be an actual race car driver. Get a signing bonus and use that

To fly Audrey over to Japan so we can have a montage of them going out and enjoying Tokyo life for a night. And I think, yeah, like Justin had said, this is a movie that shows Jan's evolution and now he is getting out in the world.

This is making the butterfly come out of the cocoon. You say that, but it was Jack that told him to bring the girl. I think he was more excited to meet Kaz. He was like, oh, there's the game designer. This is the person I care about. That's the romance. You made the code that created the game that I love. Oh, and Audrey's coming too. Yeah. All this montage. All it does is reinforce what Jan is learning. The lessons he's learned are like, you don't drink champagne until you're on the podium. And.

he's so amused that Jack has a cassette recorder he's gonna go buy him a Sony digital player oh

Oh, God. Columbia Pictures is the worst because they're a Sony company. When it comes to product placement, Spider-Man films here, you can never have an iPod. You have to have a Sony MP3 player. Well, watch Apple Plus shows and they only deal with Apple products. Again, we live in a branded world and we are watching a feature film commercial. I have no doubt. I never forget that in this movie. But this is particularly crass. The close up of the Sony on the digital player.

He got it out of a claw machine. What do you want him to do? Anyway, things are going too well. It's time to have that moment of doubt that kicks in right before... I knew it was coming. Like you say, we know everything is coming, but coming in, I had...

heard a little bit of controversy surrounding this film that they would dramatize a real life crash, put it in a place where it did not happen in Jan's life. And so I knew at some point he was going to crash. And yes, after that night in Tokyo, I'm like, all right, can we get to the crash now? I think it's time for him to have his moment of doubt.

So this didn't really happen. This crash really happened. It didn't happen while he was training early on. It happened years later. Okay. But it is a real crash that happened to Jan where a spectator was killed. And that's the controversy is a human life was taken in this and you're using it for a dramatic beat in a movie.

I mean, but we're telling his life story, so you kind of have to do that. I'll side with the movie on that one. Yes, if you want to take that angle, all biographical films are exploitation because they're taking real lives and making a commercial product out of it. But,

But as long as it really happened, I won't call BS. I think it's a little bit overplayed that they're like, this is the most feared track on all the circuit. They really build up this German Nürburgring. It's even got a name that sounds like threatening. The Nürburgring. Here it comes. And it's German. That right there is threatening enough. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, this is where you need that Kenny G remix, like the death metal version of Songbird. A little Kenny G mixed with Rammstein? Sure, yeah. Make it a little bit over the top. They could just use the original Kenny G track during the wreck in slow mode. Do-do-do-do-do-do.

It gets said really quickly and they brush over this. Not your fault. Freak accident. What did happen? It looked like that he got airborne because he was going too fast over a hill. It was a hill, but they talk about how the weather conditions were just such. And there was a headwind that when his nose went up a little bit, it was like a sail. And so the weather caused his car to flip upward. It was not his fault. Okay. Okay. And I,

I imagine that's a ruling that came down, but I mean, obviously, I understand why you would have guilt. I can understand why he would go through what he's going to go through next. If you were behind the wheel of a vehicle, whether or not you had come through by this illegitimate PlayStation means or not, I would

like to believe that you'd have the humility to recognize you have a role in controlling that vehicle and you would feel bad if you had killed someone. It makes sense to me that we have this moment of him going to the hospital and saying, I'm done. Yeah, but it's Jack who I feel like has a weird turn here, right? Where it almost feels like his motivation is less about making sure Jan is okay with it. It's just more that he continues. Mm-hmm.

Which it was weird because right up to then, I felt like Jack was being altruistic and now he feels almost selfishly motivated, which is a weird writing choice. But again, parents oftentimes live through their children, relive the things that they didn't get done. And the fact that Jack...

wanted to get to Le Mans and succeed, that he had an accident too. It sounded like it was another driver that caused it. But he lost his nerve. Yeah, he doesn't want this kid to quit. He doesn't want this kid to make the choice that he did, maybe because he projects that he'll

be as unhappy 25 years later as he is or maybe just because yeah he's not thinking in the best interest of this kid he wants to win for himself but it's a very dramatic melodramatic moment that he drives him back to the side of the crash and tells him to get behind the wheel and

And together, again, I think this is the way that Jack is helpful. He never gives valuable coaching, driving advice, but he is nurturing when this kid is feeling alone.

And yeah, the fact that we have this setback and he needs to get his head back right. This is just such a trope of sports movies or this is the moment in Top Gun where Maverick loses Goose and Goose dies and Maverick is scared to get behind the airplane again. We're even going to replay kind of a scene where once they're behind the wheel, they start to freak out a little bit just like Maverick did. Yeah, this movie is nothing but cliche.

Kingsman, he doesn't shoot the pug. Yeah, they blink. Yeah, they have a blinking moment where they just don't have the killer instinct. And yes, good thing we have the evil kid, Nicky Kappa, starting a social media campaign trying to say it was Jan's fault. And because we can boo and hiss at him, we'll want this kid to come back quickly and win Lamont.

Yeah, he started an anti-SimRacer campaign, which kind of makes sense. Oh, is that what he said? I thought he said Sin. Oh, S-I-M. Okay. Yeah, SimRacer. And even with our bad guy here, I feel like it's all shorthand, right? Like, because he hasn't really done anything truly evil. Like, it's not like he secretly caused the wreck. He's rich.

Yeah, he's a rich, privileged kid. He's rich. He literally drives a champagne car and everything is gold and he demands the best of everyone but himself. So in that way, he's kind of a tool. He's spoiled. Yeah, but not truly evil. No.

Yeah, they want you just have someone to hate. And, you know, then they also want to bring back the villain Maddie to suddenly now be the wingman. Like Lamont, I forgot this, but because it's 24 hours, they're not so crazy that they're going to make one driver spend all day with their eyes open. You do get breaks and it's kind of tag team. So two of the racers from GT Academy are going to be his substitutes when he's taking six hours off.

And wouldn't it be nice if we had any clue who these characters were? I do remember Matty. Who's this third guy? He barely gets any time behind the wheel that we get to see. He was third. He was third? He has a mustache. I can point to physical attributes.

Yeah, I wish that they had been better developed in the Academy. I wish there was a better rivalry between Maddie and Jan so that when they became teammates, it meant something. When Maddie is like, I'm sorry about your race. I'm like, that's just poor taste to bring it up at all because you two aren't really close. I wish that that scene had impacted in some way. Yeah.

Emotional impact in this movie is very difficult because of the way that it has not slowed down. The benefit of this is this is a long movie, but I feel like it passes by pretty fleet. But at the same time, I'm under bulletproof glass as we whiz on by. Nothing is getting to me.

I think the nicest moment may be, just from an acting standpoint, when the father comes back and cries. Like that, I feel a little bit. That, you know, day of the race, and this dad who has been, he wasn't taking his calls, but he also wasn't calling that much. It was the mom that was mostly trying to bridge the gap. But dad is finally going to show up for a race and hug his son and say, so damn proud of you. It's the closest we're going to have to a tearjerker moment.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's the only fulfilling character arc we have in this movie is the dad comes full circle to be supportive of his son. And son also put like the dad's football mascot on his helmet. Right. This kind of idea that he was taking a piece of his dad with him into the car.

By this point, I'm done asking questions of this movie that they're not going to explain. Because we get to Le Mans and all of a sudden it's a different type of car. Are we just supposed to be big enough racing fans to know this? Or is that real? Well, the game does that, right? You have to keep upping your car so you want something new. We went from a used car to a Porsche to now this supercar. And in the game, I think he always drives Nissan. I don't think he drives a Porsche. I think Jack drives a Porsche when they go back to the...

Race, but it's not a race car. Well, I know nothing about cars. Just in case you haven't figured that out. I couldn't tell you what cars they were driving. But the fact that they have a new one for the last race just feels like what you do, right? You put on a new suit. You've got your full outfit on. You look as cool as you're going to look.

Yeah, I mean, I feel like that makes sense in a video game. I'm asking real life racing question at this point now, like because like Arnie, you brought up like Dale Earnhardt. That was NASCAR. Do they switch over to Formula One cars at some point? Or is that a completely different sport with completely different racers? I don't know. And I feel like this movie needs to at least address that with a dropped line or something.

And I think they're different leagues, but when I was reading about the real Jan Maddenboro, he did go into F1 for a little while, and he's been in different leagues like that and tried different types of racing like that. So I can't fully explain it, but yeah, I just took this as this is a different type of race and you need a different type of car. I got that from the GT game is that in certain races, you have to have a car of a certain class.

So if you haven't bought a car of that class yet, you can't compete in that race yet. So I just thought this was a different class of car. Yeah. Everyone's on his side. It seems like all of the GT Academy is like hanging out at the cafe. Audrey has been flown in. The parents are there. The brother is there. And yeah, it's just sort of everyone rallies as you expect in the climax. And

And the one thing that he's got to do, I mean, we know he's going to, again, I keep thinking he wins, but the one thing that's going to put him on the podium, because that's what they need to do, is he's got to get over his fears of the accident. And so they have early on, I mentioned German Schuller. We saw him earlier. He is going to have a terrible collision with a wall and Jan's going to pass not even knowing at the start of this thing whether the guy is alive or not. After that moment, he starts reliving the tragedy

moment his car left the Nuremberg thing, the flight into the Spectator. He becomes obsessed, fixated with reliving his crash. And this is just a shameless lift from Top Gun when Maverick loses his nerve behind the thing and you've got Tim Robbins in the backseat screaming, Maverick, we gotta get back!

Back in there, Maverick. Here you've got David Harbour yelling, Jan, you gotta get back in there, Jan. It is just exactly the same scene. The only difference is Jack isn't able to get through to Jan until he blares Enya. Or is it Kenny G? It's Orinoco Flow and on his Sony. So Sony saves the day.

Oh, man. At this point, I'm stuck back in the real world. I'm thinking, wow, if I made a list of things that I wouldn't want to do, I think going to a 24-hour long race would be pretty high up there. You really?

You really got to love somebody in order to sit there all day and stay awake. I think most people snooze, but yeah, that's a commitment. Luckily, the movie knows that that real life thing needs to be shorthanded. And the race itself, we get a little few shots at night and stuff like that, but it doesn't feel like a 24 hour race. It feels like one of the regular races that we've been in. High adrenaline, lots of stakes, lots of pole position changing, lots of pit stops, but ultimately they race through it. And they use GT.

overlays again, you get to see the lines, right? You get to see the yellow lines that the racers are on. We've seen that in the other races too. It is looking like the GT game as he's racing. I was going to ask you guys, what do you think about the photography? I mean, obviously a movie like this lives or dies by how much you can smell like the fumes and feel like you're there in the vehicle. I feel like it's a competently shot racing, but I don't feel like it's the best I've ever seen.

Like, I don't feel like they did anything with the cameras. You tell me, behind the scenes, it doesn't feel very different from watching an actual race. Visually, it's enticing and it's good looking, but like... Yeah. Unique, though? Mmm.

I mean, there's a few things they did, like where he feels himself kind of falling back into just the arcade chair and the car falls away. Yeah. That was kind of cool, you know, because they did the opposite of that at the beginning where he was in the arcade and the car built up around him and he was actually in the race. Yeah. So I thought that was a cool callback. But like, as far as like, if this is an homage to a sim, they're not doing a whole heck of a lot to make me even like understand the layout of any of these tracks. Yeah.

What I liked in it was some of the aerial footage, whether it was drone or helicopter, I don't know. But some of the sweeping shots over the cars and the fact that they're using practical cars here, you know, I do think that wreck with CGI and they enhance with CGI. Obviously, the shot Justin talked about where the car explodes into pieces.

was CGI and then it reassembles itself around him. But there's a lot of visceral, real racing going on here. Jan, the real Jan Martenborough is his own stunt driver doing the driving here. And when they sweep over the audience and things, there were a couple of times that I was like, that was a neat camera trick. But by and large, I remain unimpressed.

That I agree with you. The shot that got me the most was the drone shot where they buzz the audience, the stadium. Like it comes riding in and you go by the people in the seats and then it tilts up to the road and you see all the cars lined up. But the actual racing, and maybe this is the point, is you can't really tell the difference between what this movie is doing and what you might watch on the game. Like it doesn't feel any more exciting to see it as a movie than when I watched YouTube clips of the simulator. But

But anyway, the point is that, yes, obviously Jan is going to do the last leg, the last three hours. And those two bozos did their best, but they screwed up. He's actually slipped in place. He's in seventh and he was in third or maybe he was fourth. He's lost his standing. Even worse than that, because if this is a story of they got the right guy or the wrong guy, because honestly, Maddie was the better choice, like we said earlier.

To sell cars. Matty didn't even fail here. He physically failed. He cramped up. Like other than that, he was doing great. They had to get him out of the car because he was cramping up. Yeah. And it's the mechanic. There's some mechanic that doesn't get a hubcap on or something for a moment. Oh,

Oh, yeah. They contrive reasons why Jan is going to have to pull his moves to get back into where he needs to be. And yeah, again, the lesson I heard is I already knew how to do this. All I got to do is think about what it was like to be back in the arcade or in my bedroom. All of this stuff that I've learned is meaningless. Let me race my way, the PlayStation way, and

And I will deliver. And he's behind the wheel. I don't know if he really needs Jack's permission, but Jack does give it to go ahead and race your way. What have they got to lose, right? I mean, at that point.

You know, a valuable car, like they could wreck it. I mean, lives. Lots of things could go wrong, Arnie. But yes, in terms of thinking of the underdog story, you're not going to get ahead of these people unless you have the confidence to make those bold moves. And yeah, everyone feels fulfilled that he at least, I mean, he does beat Kappa. Yes. That much does happen. He beats the guy that we want to see beat that tried so hard to keep him off the podium.

Yeah, whoever might have come in first or second, whatever. Exactly. We never even see those people. They're never named. It's not the guy with the rainbow car because he crashed early on. But he's alive. It is really hard to dramatize a 24-hour race.

I think, like Justin said, it would be really hard to watch a 24-hour race. But to make that exciting and to think that in the final lap you can go from 7th to 4th makes me wonder, why did you race for the first 23 hours, right? If it can all change in that last hour. Did you see Ford versus Ferrari? It was at Le Mans, too, the climax. Yeah, I did. And I think they dramatized it much better. Yeah. Yeah.

for sure. Here, it feels like yet another montage, and other than it goes day-night-to-day, I wouldn't really know how much time had passed. I guess because the real Jan Madrenborough placed third at Le Mans, they're wanting to stay true to that, and that's why they do Le Mans, but it seems like an anti-cinematic race to do, you know? I think it's much more exciting to see someone who lives their life a quarter mile at a time than to see someone who races for 24 hours straight. That's just...

At the end of the day, what I hear you saying and I'm agreeing with is I'm just not a fan of auto racing. I'd much rather see people doing stunt driving than being on a track. Yeah, agreed. The only thing this movie was missing was like the Rocky and Apollo rematch in front of nobody on a desert highway between, you know, Jan and the gold car guy. Yeah, I guess we've got to wait for the sequel. But.

But we're going to not have a sequel, I don't think, even though we are shown text at the end that the real Jan Martin Burrow did over 200 races. And again, as I mentioned, did his own stunt doubling in this film. And yeah, he's got a successful career as a driver. Right.

The point is that he proved everybody, all the haters wrong. Playing PlayStation prepared him for his life. Well, does playing PlayStation prepare us to finish this podcast? Justin Stewart, do you recommend Gran Turismo? Justin. This one's a little tough since it is in the arcade. I mean, it is a good looking movie, right? Better looking than the vast majority of ones that we've sat through here.

But I just feel like it falls short in the movie part of that, right? Like if you're looking for a great movie about an underdog who rises to the top, well, there's hundreds of others. I would recommend Rocky. You know, this movie is trying to do that.

where Rocky can take somebody who's never watched boxing or cared about boxing and make you care about that character this movie doesn't do that for racing you know but if you're a fan of this game and if you're a fan of racing there might be some fun fantasy elements here of like pretending like hey I used to be great on my playstation and I might be on the circuit one day but

ultimately it just feels like two hours of nothing. I mean, the characters don't grow. They don't learn. They often contradict what they're even stereotypically supposed to be on screen for, you know, for a few scenes, I feel like we're supposed to be behind Orlando Bloom's character as like, Hey, this guy with a great idea, but then he kind of has a villainous turn, but then he doesn't. And he's back to just being the guy that was there. Same with Jack. He didn't want to be there. He was there to protect his integrity, but then,

I don't know. Maybe he's trying to relive and exercise some ghosts from his past. I don't know. I want to rip on it, but at the same time, it felt competently made, and it's not the worst thing we've seen. So I'm not going to dig it too hard. It's not a terrible movie to sit through. There are some fun moments. There are some cool graphics. So if it's something you're interested in, you could watch a lot worse stuff. So I'll give it a light not rating.

not recommend but same time I wouldn't argue with somebody who said that they liked it Stuart yeah I've been in this chair a couple times this summer I feel like last week you know like how much do I want to celebrate a film that totally delivers competence at every level and never revs my engine like I just I don't care but everything is fine

You know, the acting, the photography, the editing, even the writing, it all comes together to tell this likable underdog story that's very familiar but will play particularly to a family audience.

And, you know, you heard me say earlier that, like, maybe as a culture, we don't need to celebrate the elite the best. Maybe we should celebrate the average Joe. Well, Gran Turismo is the very embodiment of average. Nothing here is bad. Nothing is good. And yet, I think I'm landing where you are of just, like, I'm frustrated that the movie is satisfied on coasting. That it's just going to stay in its lane and never try to pull something, not

pull ahead and do something special. Like, it's just very happy doing the familiar moves and not, I don't know, like, do you want to give it a participation trophy? Because if I gave it a green arrow, that's all that that would be. You delivered a movie that was fine. But,

But here's what I told myself. I was sitting there at the end going, well, I don't know. Was that a recommend or was it not? I replayed the movie in my head. I said, was there anywhere? Obviously, it's formula. I'm not going to judge this movie because it's predictable. Everything that happens, I could have told you and sometimes did even like recite lines before they were used, predicted all the outcomes.

But the trick of it is we like formula. There's a reason why we have cliché, right? We keep doing the same things again because they have an impact on us, because they deliver. What were the moments in this movie that delivered? And the answer is I couldn't come up with one. There's not one scene in this movie that made me laugh or made me cry or really got to me and said, ah, this is why we have cliché.

In the end, yeah, it's kind of just like being in the zone. You know, I'm dead. I've been playing PlayStation for 20 hours and I got five more to go and I'm just not feeling anything. That's the experience of Gran Turismo. So to me, that's a mild not recommend.

And I was on the fence coming into this, whether I recommend it or not, it's extremely weak either way. Because yeah, just like you, Stuart, I was thinking about Blue Beetle and how I proclaimed that movie as exceedingly average. And I came out of this movie and I'm like, well, there's another one that just, it hits the beats just like Blue Beetle. It does all the tropes we've seen so many times before. And if it's

Is that a recommend or is that a not recommend? I mean, in the arcade, let's just say that's a success. Yeah. Yeah.

I know, yes. Certainly when you qualify it, yes. We know that this has been a very bad series indeed. Yes. If you're asking me for a video game movie you want to see, there's a hundred worse than Gran Turismo and we've reviewed them all. But is it a recommend? I was on the fence the whole time, even during this discussion. Justin, you said something that drove it home for me.

I'm not a fan of racing, and this movie didn't do anything to make me a fan of racing. I'm not really a fan of boxing. I've watched some, and Rocky made me love boxing. And so I think that's the case, is I found myself just not enthralled with the races. It didn't give me the feeling of speed. I didn't walk out needing speed. I walked out needing to take a piss because the movie was really long. So...

Yeah. I guess that is a weak not recommend. Yeah. It's a simulation through and through. It simulates the feeling of a feel good movie, but you don't actually feel good watching it. Like there's this extra layer of removal. That's what I mean about like when you've just been playing a video game for too long and you've just like deadened inside it.

And some of that's the lead, right? It's not the actor's fault. Again, I don't blame. I think everyone in the cast is fine. But like this as a character is not someone that's easy to champion because he doesn't seem to have a personality because he can't seem to connect with anybody on the screen. It just, I don't know. It required the screenwriters to go an extra mile.

They acquired the director, who's usually good with humor, good with technology. And I just don't think they found anything special in it. They were happy to stay in their lane and just deliver just to finish. Come in third.

Yeah, I mean, Neil Blomkamp is a hired director on this. He didn't get a story credit. He didn't get a screenplay credit. The only moment that felt like him is the one Justin referenced where the car kind of exploded into parts and then came back together. That's the only one that felt like his touch. And yeah, it's a shame because I expected more. Yeah.

In the end, I like Need for Speed better. I'll just go ahead and say if you have to watch a movie based on a racing game, not this one. But we're not done with video games for long. We are caught up on all the currently released video game movies, but a big one is coming out at Halloween. One that I have completely missed the hype around. I know the name, but I don't know the game for Five Night at Freddy's.

I worked at Chuck E. Cheese and I'm like, this is so made for me. I am so excited by this concept that it's a video game actually gave me pause. I'm like, oh my God, wait, what? And that has been this phenomenon that yes, I got to catch up. I've got until October 31st. That's when the show will come out and I will be diving deep into Five Nights at Freddy's. I'm going to spend many nights trying to understand if they've captured what's so great about hating animatronic characters.

and the horror of them. It's the height of horror for millennials, man. Like our childhood filled with showbiz and Chuck E. Cheese where we didn't really think too much about it. And like those things were pretty much run down by time millennials got around to going there. Yeah, I get it. That stuff is real nightmare fuel for them. So...

Yeah, it could be really fun. It could be. The trailer has high hopes for me, although I feel like I've already seen this movie with Willy's Wonderland. But we'll talk about that with Five Nights at Freddy's in October. Meanwhile, we're heading back to Marvel next week. She-Hulk.

Yep. We were trying to catch up on all those Disney Plus shows that ran in the last year that we just haven't gotten to. We're heading towards the Marvels in November. We already covered Ms. Marvel. Next one on the docket is, well, you know, Hulk has always been a little bit problematic in the movies, but I love Tatiana Maslany. I'm excited to see the star of Orphan Black turn green, get a little angry. We'll see how it goes.

Meanwhile, if you are a patron of $10 or more on Apple, on Spotify, on Patreon, or on Podbean, this Friday you get an exclusive review not available to anyone except our patrons. An 80s forgotten gem? Maybe an underrated film? Remo Williams, The Adventure Begins. Mm-hmm.

It seems like an important pick as we head into The Expendables, which tries to claim that it loves all the forgotten action heroes. I didn't see no Fred Ward invited. Like, they forgot one. And we're going to resurrect and see if, yeah, Remo Williams, it was a big rental, but not a big hit. Yeah, was this the true expendable of the 1980s action genre? To be determined this Friday.

So thank you for listening to Now Playing. Thank you for your support. We have no sponsors unlike this movie. We have no ads unlike this movie. We don't paste corporate logos all over our cover art unlike this movie. So we appreciate your support in keeping us

Thank you for your support. You can find the details on how to support at nowplayingpodcast.com forward slash donate.

And Justin Stewart, thanks for racing Le Mans with me, us three for 24 hours. Fortunately, this podcast came in under 24 hours. And until next time, game over. All I ever wanted to do is be a racer. I'm doing it.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Now Playing Podcast. We hope you've enjoyed the show. That was actually pretty great. Come back to nowplayingpodcast.com each week for another new movie review podcast. Come on, let's go!

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Look around. It's not our world, son.

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This whole thing is insane.

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You puked on my lawn.

My daughter, she's 18. She plays the hell out of video games all day and all night, you know? And it's like, if you went to the mall and saw her, you wouldn't be like, oh, dirty gamer. Rory is 18. I'm fucking old. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.