La victoire dans le sang

Started out promising. Could not understand the low rating during the first 10 minutes. Nicholas Cage and Michael Madsen are powerhouse actors, even in their old age. The story from the start is straightforward simple, no problem with that. BUT the other actors look like cardboard and act accordingly. No spark, no punch. It's not that it's bad, but after half an hour it simply is lacking, LACKING punch, suspense, wit, originality, quality...

Could still be a nice flick for race car fans, but why not watch the excellent "Ford vs Ferrari" instead? Matt Damon and Christian Bale DO excite the viewer...

The interaction between father and son was so maudlin and sappy I thought I was watching a Hallmark Christmas movie. We all new they'd win the final race, they always do, but give us a story. Down and out, not enough to money to compete against the big boys, finds the money, wins the race, smiles all around. Like watching the movie Titanic, we all knew the ship sank, and we all knew they'd win. Kevin Dunn's "Stumpy" was the only character I even remotely cared about. But I watched it, all...the....way......through. Only thing missing from this wanna be Hallmark fare, it didn't snow!

Take the plot of Days of Thunder then remove all the action and intriguing characters. Add some mediocre cinematography, direction, and editing and you have this waste of time. Travolta can act but what he is doing in such a film is a mystery. I hope his debt is now payed to whoever convinced him to participate in such a piece of... The rest of the cast is wooden and two dimensional as they whisper and growl through their lines. Don't waste your time.

...you enjoy seeing cars go around and around a track. This was a decent C-grade novice production that I'm guessing Travolta did someone a favor in starring in. The director and both writers have little experience, and it shows in this film with flimsy writing and poor directing of the cast. The acting was decent considering, and it was great to see the lovely Shania Twain in her first full length feature film, and she did quite well. Travolta nailed it as did Toby Sebastian, and the rest of the cast were all convincing in their roles, although some of the redneck Alabama accents seemed out of place. The camera work was good, the films length and pacing decent, but the story lacked anything memorable. Not a bad film if you're into this type of racing in the Alabama backwoods of Talladega. For a novice C-grade film, it wasn't great nor bad, considering some of the bigger production films that have come out lately that were garbage. It's a well deserved 6/10 from me.

We watched this movie on a whim based on the preview. Low expectations, really. We enjoyed it for what it is: a small budget action/drama with quite a few former A and B celebs continuing to work in the industry. A little cheesy and choppy at times, it's well acted. Racing scenes are done pretty well, even if the driver's visors don't get during a race. It's worth 90 minutes.