MOVIE REVIEW - Rush

There's been a ton of hype about the new Ron Howard directed flick, Rush.  I'm sure you've seen and heard it.  Touting it as he best Howard movie ever, and best of this year or any year.  Get a grip. Rush is a nice move, but that kind of talk is insulting to Ron Howard himself.

Rush is based on a true story of a little known (at least in this country),  rivalry in the Formula One Racing circuit in 1976.  The principles are James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) from Great Britain, and Niki Lauda (Daniel Bruhl) from Austria.   It's the story of how these polar opposites in every way pushed each other to be the best, and how they battled through virtually everything to be so. 

Formula One racing in the country is not what NASCAR is, or even Indy car racing.  But on the international stage from Europe to South America and even the Far East, it is huge.  The cars are Indy car inspired and are driven by drivers that realize they are being watched by millions around the globe.  This story takes place in 1976 for the most part, when this circuit was essentially unregulated and was before they really took time to worry about driver safety, and the safety of the fans.

Hunt and Lauda came up through the ranks of smaller racing leagues to finally make the big time.  Hunt, the typical English playboy, living by the seat of his pants womanizing and basically being his own worst enemy. But he was a first class racer.   Lauda, a no nonsense stereotypical Austrian with an amazing engineering background and few people skills.  But he too was a terrific racer.  They come to race together and battle each other through it all. And eventually come to some form of understanding each other.

First off, there are tons of really fantastic racing scenes from all over the world.   There in no shortage of great racing sequences as much of the story is told through action.   But this story is far beyond the racing, and the script is very nice.   This is told through Lauda's eyes, as he is the lone survivor today.  He narrates much of this.   There is much going on outside of the track with both of our characters and to this movies credit, it knows well that those side bars are a part of the story, but not the entire story.  And that is well done. The side plots are used to contrast the stark differences about Hunt and Lauda, and there are many.

This also gets kudos in the sum of all of the parts as they work together.  A nice supporting cast with Olivia Wilde, Alexandra Maria Lara, and Pierfrancesco Favino.  Who?  Exactly.   A great international cast, for a movie featuring the international stage.  Wonderfully filmed and edited, and the story told so all can understand.  Plus, it features an exciting and perfectly matched musical soundtrack.  Oh, yeah, Daniel Bruhl is great.  Hemsworth certainly looks the part, but he fails to dominate the screen as Bruhl does here, but the Lauda character is a better, more complex one. You don't have to know one thing about Formula One racing to get this movie, and that is a Howard signature.   He tells stories so well, ones you know and ones you don't. 

As nice as this is, this is going to be one of the most overrated movies of the year.   This is exciting and good.  It's just not great.   In short, as far as Howard movies are concerned, this is not Backdraft, A Beautiful Mind, or Apollo 13 all Howard classics.   This is simply a fun, late summer movie that will be forgotten to the tundra of TNT every other weekend in a couple of years.

Rush.  Good  - yes,  great  - no!