An F1 movie produced by Lewis Hamilton, Jerry Bruckheimer, Joseph Kosinski, and Brad Pitt should have the combined strength to make an all-time race movie, but does it?

Kosinski follows up the success of Top Gun: Maverick with another A-list actor putting his life on the line in a high speed manner. Whether you like it or not, Brad Pitt is the dictionary’s definition of charismatic. This time he brings his cheeky and “soft” spoken side into the mix which is just what this movie needed. He might not go to the full levels of what Tom Cruise did in Maverick, but it can’t be understated how important he is to the screen here.

The entire F1: The Movie crew spent an entire Formula One season traveling the world with the real-life drivers to make this as authentic as possible. From one perspective, it does exactly what it set out to do; the racing mainly feels like racing you’d see on your TV. With shots of racers close up and shots only lasting a few seconds at a time, it can make it difficult to feel the full tension of where characters are within the race. What it does really well is the behind the scenes stuff. It shows a side of F1 that I never knew about, the technology. As a person who’s never watched a second of any race, they make it look like these cars and garages are from the far future.

The conflict that begins and ends off the track is the most interesting part of the whole movie because everything on the track felt fabricated by Hollywood. I’m also not sure how fans of the racing itself will feel about the way they handled some of the actual racing. Some of it comes across as disingenuous and almost a mockery. I’m curious if showing more of the real F1 people and having them interact or if making this more fictional would have been a better idea. Because being right down the middle almost took me out of it completely.

Do you know what brought me right back into everything? The people. By people, I mean the actors/characters they played. Sonny Hayes (cool name)(Pitt) fit this role about as perfectly as he could have. It will never cease to amaze me with how good he still looks. Javier Bardem as the rich guy owner plays up every scene he’s in, but also has the range to make things more serious. The seriousness didn’t stop there with Damson Idris, our rookie on the track and in my movie eyes, brought a real depth to his acting and within his role.

Kerry Condon, though. She steals the show every which way. She might have been the only character that felt like a real human. This movie didn’t make her into a typical Bruckheimer character, but actually gave her more to do than almost everyone else. She was subtle, hilarious, relatable and gave a downright great performance.

F1: The Movie is visually an entertaining spectacle if you don’t look too close. The opening scene will bring your heart right into the speed of it, and if you believe in what you’re seeing, it’ll never let go.

I almost forgot to mention Hans Zimmer! Talk about a perfect score for a racing movie.

It’s a good movie that I didn’t fully trust as a racing movie.

7/10