“This is what blockbusters used to look like.”
Warner Bros. will release Joseph Kosinski‘s F1: The Movie on June 27 and critics are urging fans to race out and see Brad Pitt‘s charisma “consume the screen” in a “technical marvel of a movie” that gives audiences “a hell of a ride,” according to IGN’s Clint Gage.
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Filmed for Imax, F1: The Movie follows Sonny Hayes (Pitt), a former Formula 1 prodigy whose career was derailed by a track accident in the 1990s. Thirty years later, his ex-teammate Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem) convinces him to join Ruben’s struggling F1 team for one last shot at glory. Sonny teams up with rookie sensation Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris), but as the race for redemption heats up, Sonny must confront his past and navigate the intense rivalry where teammates often become fierce competitors.
“This is what blockbusters used to look like,” writes David Fear (Rolling Stone). “Come for the most impressive, lustrous car that a gajillion-dollar budget can buy. The reason to stay, however, is the driver.
Tim Grierson (Screen International) says, “Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski does for cars what he previously did for fighter jets, transforming them into balletic machines that fly through the frame with unstoppable propulsion.”
Linda Marric (HeyUGuys) calls the movie “the very definition of a crowd pleaser,” and adds, “F1: The Movie is a high-octane spectacle with heart, humour, and heroism. It’ll dominate the summer blockbuster track with the same adrenaline, charisma, and pulse-pounding action that defines Formula One itself.”
Pitt is earning raves for his performance as well, as Brian Truitt (USA Today) writes, “Watching Pitt burn this much rubber, and with macho panache, puts F1 in the winner’s circle.” Michael Ordoña (San Francisco Chronicle) says, “Pitt’s screen presence has aged like a leather jacket, scuffed in all the right places and cooler than ever.”
With a current Rotten Tomatoes score of 82 percent, F1 is not without criticism. Nicholas Barber (BBC.com) notes, “While Top Gun: Maverick was a masterpiece that pulled viewers into events in and out of the cockpit, F1 is simply a competently assembled collection of underdog sports-drama clichés. It never convinces you that its protagonists are human beings.” Clarisse Loughrey (Independent-UK) writes, “While director Joseph Kosinski and cinematographer Claudio Miranda can certainly shoot cars as well as they can planes, F1 represents the spiritually bone-dry, abrasive inverse to all of Maverick’s giddy pleasures.”
From Apple Original Films, F1: The Movie is produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, Kosinski, seven-time Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton, Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, and Chad Oman.
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