As a kid, my interest in the Gran Turismo games reflected that of my interest in motor racing in general, which is to say there was very little interest at all (unless said races featured a mascot plumber and his friends shooting turtle shells).
It seems as though director Neill Blomkamp (District 9) and the others behind the film Gran Turismo knew that there would be a good junk of us that know virtually little about the sport of motor racing, so they put together the old formula of a “feel good sports film” together. Anyone who has seen the trailer will be laps ahead of the cliches.
The film starts off well enough, as a marketing exec from Nissan named Danny Moore (Orlando Bloom, aging rather nicely out of his Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean days) comes up with the idea of recruiting the next racing star by giving the once in a life time chance to the best player of the Gran Turismo games (sorry, sim racing).
Enter Jann Mardenborough (Archie Madekwe), who is still playing the same racing game despite the (cliche warning) disapproval of his dad (Djimon Hounsou). Jann eventually hears of the contest that gets him into the GT academy, where he and a bunch of other gamers (sorry, sim drivers) are under the thumb of former racer Jack Salter (a well cast David Harbour). Whoever wins (you know who it is) gets to be the new racer for Nissan.
Parents, the movie is PG-13 mainly for dramatic moments and swearing (one F bomb). There is no sexuality (one or two scenes of kissing). 10 and up would be fine with the film.
Still, with all the tropes and cliches that abound on the film’s race track, Gran Turismo still works. The cast takes the material just seriously enough, and Blomkamp adds some nice bells and whistles (such as getting away from the police)that make it friendly to the video gamer (sorry, sim racer, I know, I need to learn that) in the audience. That just gets it past the checkered flag.
(sorry for the quick review, but the film did teach me that speed is essential at times.)
Overall:
Nothing else to say 