Review of Rush (2013) by Bokismovies — 17 Apr 2014

“Rush” is about the real life fierce rivalry between Chris Hemsworth’s character, James Hunt and Daniel Bruhl’s Niki Lauda. Hunt and Bruhl were both formula 1 drivers during the 70′s and the movie tells us what happened during the years they both raced against each other.

Chris Hemsworth may never get the Thor- stamp off him (and that isn’t that bad since those movies make tonnes of money) but he is genuinly great in this film and the best part is that he isn’t Thor. Chris Hemsworth portrayes James Hunt brilliantly. Hunt is a reckless playboy who is willing to risk his life in a car. Not only does Chris look the part, he also acts just like you would imagine Hunt acting. Daniel Bruhl as Niki Lauda is the polar opposite of Chris as Hunt. He is the rich, good boy who goes to bed early and who doesn’t party all night. However Lauda and Hunt are not only nice guys and playboys respectably. They are much more than that: Lauda is kinda douchy and not actually the nice guy you would have in a typical movie. Hunt is also troubled and you can, much thanks to Chris’s performance, see the scared side of the character. I can only say that the characters and the actors are the best part of the movie.

Ron Howard is a very underrated director. He is a two time Academy Award winning director and yet he’s never really mentioned in the top. He is however directing this film incredibly well. The editing is also fantastic, Daniel P. Hanley and Mike Hill are really sharp, working with quick cuts, my favorite technique. There was a certain sequence in the movie where the race wasn’t shown but the result were presented through text on the screen. That directing and editing trick caught me of guard and I admire the wat it was handled.

“Rush” isn’t really about racing. It focuses on the characters more than the cars and that’s how I want my sport movies. Similar to “Warrior” (a review for wich can be found on this very site) I don’t care for the sport in it, I care about the overall story. That being said, the sound of the motors and the way the characters (I seem to constantly come back to the characters) behave towards the sport are great and they kinda made me an ounce interested.

I contend that John Williams is the greatest composer ever but I also believe that the best soundtrack for a movie is the one for “Inception”, “Inceptions” score is composed by Hans Zimmer. He also composed “Rush”. Zimmer crafts a score with might similar to a motor and with the emotion and passion of the driver. It’s a beautiful soundtrack.

A surprisingly good thing about the film is the product placement. It gave a form of credibility to the 70′s racing.

The only real complaint I have about the film is how the relationship between Niki Lauda and James Hunt progresses. While the development is great I didn’t really buy into the way they went from non-respect to respect. I saw how they tried to introduce the growing friednship but it didn’t translate that well ont the screen.

Overall, “Rush” is an intense, thrilling ride (pun intended) with the right focus and no real big flaws. It’s good to see more from Chris Hemsworth and even better that his range as an actor increases. The movie is far from predictable (but if you know about the real life events you obviously know how it’ll end), something that is hard to pull of in a sports movie. Even if you don’t like racing, I think you’ll love “Rush”.