Rush

As a Cineworld Card Holder I was invited to a screening last night of Ron Howards new movie Rush.

Before I start...I am not a F1 fan, but I knew enough of the history of the main protagonists to appreciate the film. The main set pieces of the film set a year before I was born in 1976, so mainly my knowledge was based on my Fathers recollection of the events. I'd seen James Hunt in interviews and recently watched footage with Niki Lauda so got an idea of the characters.

The film is bang on in period, cars fashion and sets the tone excellently, the cinematography is nothing short of breathtaking and the fx are very much in keeping with the period, no ridiculous CGI.

The acting, on the whole is nothing short of miraculous, Hemsworth and Bruhl are fantastic, particularly Hemsworth, who's accent, mannerisms and natural acting was a big surprise. I could see a few awards for this role. I have seen Bruhl in quite a few films and I am always impressed so this just continues the trend. All the support actors are very good in smaller roles.

The film is well paced for 2 hours and quite graphic, particularly a few accident scenes.

Direction: Ron Howard - nice job, I'm not a massive fan and particularly after the da vinci/Angels fiasco's a big return to decent form. The flair was there but played safe (As normal) but let the story and the actors take centre stage.

If you like History in F1, a well documented rivalry and a film that capture this, watch it. It is similar to the excellent Control, Moneyball etc but with a bit of heart.

8 1/2 out of 10

Despite not being an auto racing fan, the stories of the rivalry between James Hunt and Niki Lauda and Lauda's accident are well known and on research was big news in the 70s.

'Rush' did seem intriguing, Ron Howard has done some good work in the past and my sister and her boyfriend absolutely raving about it. However having no knowledge of auto racing and having never found it my cup of tea there was a touch of intrepidation. As well as the worry as to whether there was going to be any bias and whether it was going to stray from the facts. After watching 'Rush', this viewer is so glad that she gave it a chance because it was a gripping and entertaining film from start to finish, and quite easily Howard's best work in some time.

Some occasional rushed pacing and some weak dialogue, that lacked flow, sounded awkward and stuck out like a sore thumb against everything else that was done to such a professional level, were the only drawbacks to overall one of 2013's better films. The time period is very evocatively depicted, there is a real sense of time and place, there is wonderful vibrant colour throughout, the editing is slick, clever and gives the race scenes the thrills they need and the photography is similarly audaciously slick and like the cinematographer was part of the action itself, especially good in the climactic Japanese race sequence. Hans Zimmer's score is not his best work by all means, but it went with the racing theme remarkably well and does capture the mid-70s time period and the atmosphere of the sport to such great effect (again the final race in Japan stood out). The sound effects also help, having a real authenticity.

For a film about auto racing, one does have to talk about how 'Rush' deals with the race sequences. The good news is that they are absolutely thrilling and keeps one to the edge of their seat, while all of them are brilliantly done, showing how glamorous and also dangerous the sport is (not many sports films I've seen have properly and fully captured the spirit of the sport it's portraying in the way Rush did) the highlight is the climactic Japanese race, which was both exhilarating and moving (masterful if having to sum it up in one word). Howard not only depicts the mid- 70s as if the viewer were transported back in time and part of the period (such was the evocativeness of the atmosphere) and adopts a visual style that never looks cheap and as said like the cinematographer was there part of the action, but he shows here that he knows how to tell a story. The storytelling is always compelling, thoughtful, informative and thrilling with a surprising amount of emotional impact, found myself really identifying with Lauda.

The film is faithful to the facts, the rivalry between Hunt and Lauda is genuinely engaging and are shown a lot of respect and dimension here. Neirher Hunt or Lauda are one-dimensional here and, although Lauda is the more sympathetically drawn of the two, one does not takes sides with one or the other. It also is tightly paced and assured, never getting bogged down in too much back story, too much soap- opera, too much sentimentality or technical jargon/minutiae (that would likely have gone over the heads of first-time viewers or non-fans of the sport). All the supporting performances are well-done, though some with not much to do, with Olivia Wilde and Christian McKay faring the strongest.

It is however the two leads that carry 'Rush' cast wise, both of them as close to perfect as one can get. Daniel Brühl gives Niki Lauda a real brooding intensity and genuine poignancy, making it very easy to feel sorry for him, while swaggering Chris Hemsworth has never been better as Hunt.

All in all, a gripping and hugely entertaining film. Has its imperfections but they are far outweighed by the number of things 'Rush' does right. 9/10 Bethany Cox

This is an amazing film. I can't recommend it highly enough for F1 fans like me, sports fans, or anyone interested in a story of rivalry i.e. something different to the unoriginal junk movies which get churned out each year.

All the crew involved should pat themselves on the back. They've done a fabulous job making this film critique, explore and honour two memorable F1 drivers.

James Hunt's fun, party lifestyle along with his brash and raw driving talent. This is contrasted against Niki Lauda's methodical thinking, technical brilliance and professional lifestyle. These two characters are total opposites but as their lives are explored it also acknowledges the value of an enemy, i.e. something to beat. I believe this is a commentary on human nature in that the best of us shines when we have something to beat or overcome.

Do yourself a favour and see it now.

I never thought I would ever watch a Ron Howard movie again much less write a good review of one.

Howard hasn't made a movie since "Parenthood" that has not bored me to tears and almost angered me with its pedestrian refusal to take any risks. He's turned into a lesser version of Steven Spielberg -- his films are just as maudlin and emotionally manipulative, but they lack Spielberg's technical panache.

However, the great reviews of "Rush" and the awards attention that swirled briefly around Daniel Bruhl got my butt in the seat for it, and I was surprised by actually liking it. It's a lean, mean telling of the intense rivalry between race car drivers James Hunt and Niki Lauda. You don't need to care much about race car driving (I certainly don't) to enjoy the story, particularly that of Lauda, who overcame a devastating accident to return to the track. Bruhl is as good as everyone said he was at the time, and Chris Hemsworth, as Hunt, is serviceable if nothing special. This is still a Ron Howard film, so don't expect it to push any boundaries, but it's much more technically daring than anything else he's made, the cinematography and editing putting the audience in the driver's seat more than once.

Grade: A-

As Asif Kapadia's gripping and extremely moving 2010 documentary Senna proved, cinema audiences have a thirst for the larger-than-life characters that inhabit the Formula One track. The sport itself is frightfully dull (although I'm sure plenty will disagree with that), but the sportsmen willing to lay down their life for a kick and a trophy are infinitely more fascinating, especially in the days of lax safety rules. The sport nowadays is little more than advertising on wheels, but when the likes of James Hunt and Niki Lauda battled it out on the track, epic rivalries were created, and no matter how talented these men were at driving these "coffins on wheels", every race could spell out death. Rush portrays the clash of two opposing personalities. The long-haired, dashing Englishman James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) was all about the adrenaline, embracing the post-race parties and lying with the many women that would throw themselves at him. He was reckless, willing to risk his life and others in order to win, but, as described in the film, there was no better driver in the world in terms of raw talent. His rival, Austrian Niki Lauda (Daniel Bruhl), was focused, clinical, and even helped design the cars he would drive. He was the early-night type, 'rat-faced' and cold. In every sense, he's the perfect villain. But where Rush succeeds the most is challenging our early conceptions of these two characters. There's little fun to be had with Lauda, but played by Bruhl, he evolves into the underdog of the movie, perhaps the only one that actually gives a damn about his own life and the life of his opponents. This, naturally, leads to tragedy and a particularly wince-inducing scene in which Lauda requires having his lungs vacuumed, but it's at this point that we realise just what these two drivers mean to each other. As Lauda watches Hunt claw back some points in the 1976 Formula One season, it becomes clear that these two need each other to survive. Their hatred of one another only serves to fuel the flames, and leads to Lauda's defiant early return to the driver's seat, scarred and bandaged. Fast cars, beautiful women and exotic locations hardly sounds like a recognisable workload for Ron Howard, one of the most play-it-easy directors out there. His past films have been unjustifiably successful, critically and commercially, never stamping a recognisable directorial trait onto his work. Yet here, although the bright sheen of the 70's initially takes some getting used to, he has managed to create a world that is very much alive, using snappy editing, a pumping soundtrack and some growing sound design to re-create this world for petrol-heads. But he doesn't neglect his characters, and evokes the great work done on Frost/Nixon (2008), which was also a study of two giant, clashing personalities coming together on the world stage. Rush is an exhilarating experience, able to distinguish each race from the next and literally putting us in the driver's seat with the use of digital cameras. Although it occasionally drifts into formulaic territory with the introduction of the 'wives' (played by Oivia Wilde and Alexandra Maria Lara, respectively), Howard cleverly uses this as an insight into Hunt and Lauda's personalities. Hemsworth is very good in his first 'proper' post-Thor role, but it is Bruhl that you take away from the film. How he gets you to initially loath him, only to be cheering him on at the climax is the work of a great actor, and it's a crime that he has been snubbed by the Academy this year. Hopefully this will inspire a host of decent sports movies, as Rush proves that you can mix character study and even existential musings with the thrill of sport.