cricketbat

To truly enjoy F9, you have to be a big fan of the Fast & Furious film franchise. I am not a big fan. I've only watched each of the movies once. So, every time this movie brought back a character and everyone acted shocked, I was just confused. There's also no real suspense about if any of the main characters are going to die. We know they won't. And even if they do, they'll just come back later. Are they spies? Are they superheroes? Why do the laws of physics not apply? Where do they keep getting all these cars? Is that how magnets work? These are just a few of the questions that F9 does not answer.

I don't know much about F1 racing, so watching this movie was a learning experience. I was surprised by how much money this organization has and how many people are involved with each team. But beyond education, this film is also highly entertaining. The racing scenes are fantastically fueled with adrenaline. Even when I didn't really know the mechanics of what was going on, I still got caught up in the emotion of it. Brad Pitt leads the cast with laid-back charisma with Damson Idris and Kerry Condon trailing close behind. I don't know if I'm a fan of Formula One racing, but I am a fan of F1 the Movie.

As far as inspirational sports movies go, The Rookie is better than average. This movie starts off pretty strong, but then its momentum begins to dip near the middle of two-hour and eight-minute runtime. The story manages to catch its second wind near the end, though. Dennis Quaid gives a very convincing performance as Jim Morris, ignoring the fact that he is over 10 years older than Morris really was when he was signed. I was also disappointed to read some of the real-life facts about Morris's marriage. Regardless of the reality, The Rookie is a good movie for the whole family with plenty of heart.