Two for the Road is a hangout for mystery writers Tammy Kaehler and Simon Wood to chat, reminisce, gossip, speculate and argue about all things motorsport.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Racing Movies

by Tammy

It took me long enough. I'd been excited about Cars 2 for months, but I never made it to the theater to see if on the big screen. And then came the reviews, which mostly consisted of "not as good as the first one" and "just kind of 'eh'." But we finally watched it on our new BluRay player last night, and I loved it.

Was it the best Disney/Pixar film ever? No. But it's cute, clever, visually awesome, and tickles me especially because it's about racing. That makes it aces for me. I mean, how many movies do we get about racing at all? And how many are clever send-ups of that world? I mean, "Jeff Gorvette" (above) and "David Hobbscap" (below)? Brilliant!

I'll grant you, Cars 2 isn't the best racing movie (not that I think it aspires to be). That honor would have to go to Grand Prix or Le Mans, right? But you can't argue those were heavy on a believable plot either. What they offered were incredibly real depictions of what it's like to race and what the world was like at the time. For that matter, maybe we should also count Bullitt in this list, though it's not about racing exactly; it's simply got the best car chase scene ever.

So tell me, what are your favorite racing movies? What do you think are the best ones out there?

2 comments:

  1. Sadly most racing films are dull. Bobby Dearfield anyone? :-/

    I think Grand Prix wins for the visuals and romance of the sport. Best movie about racing goes to Full Throttle with Rowan Atkinson that I mentioned a few weeks ago. Great film.

    PS: I do need to see The movie about Senna though.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have to see the Senna movie too. And I'll look for Full Throttle, I promise. :-)

    ReplyDelete