American car designer Carroll Shelby and the British-born driver Ken Miles work together to battle corporate interference, the laws of physics, and their own personal demons to build a revolutionar...
Watch out, Ethan Van Der Ryn and Erik Aadhl (with Godzilla KOTM). Paul Massey, Don Sylvester and Paul Giammarco are coming to get that Oscar for Sound Mix (which will be both sad and great for me, given Godzilla had one rounding thumper of a mix, and this one is all about precision, between destroyed brakes or tons of cars slamming one another to start the race in Le Mans)...
Y’know? It’s a good thing that we’re now getting Oscar-bait movies that feel like they were made to have fun with it, both story-wise and production-wise (besides Tarantino fare), instead of just being made to put serious effort and care into the story and the production (coff coff, Downton Abbey…). Actually, scratch that. This doesn’t even feel like an Oscar-bait. This is basically James Mangold at his most free for directing purposes. To the point to where they also confirm that Mangold will do about anything to plug the Western aesthetic into his multi-genre movies (we’ll talk about that later).
I can say that Ford V Ferrari is fun and I’d finish the review here, but I can’t, because I’m shocked that Fox went there and consumed $100M to transform such a story-changing event (for racing fans) into a big-ass thrill-a-ride packed to the brim with exquisite IMAX-worthy racing scenes and a really sweet and poignant dad/son story in a movie about building cars. Not only that but also delivering us one of the best movie villains I’ve ever seen on screen, Leo Beebe (played by Josh Lucas), the Director of the whole Le Mans project, AKA that one Executive who will try ruining it too because he hates Ken Miles so much.
Lucas brings in enough rage and menace to this character, and he makes it to where he also becomes one of the more hateful characters in the picture. The lengths and forces he’ll go to make sure he tells anyone not to let Miles race feel like he's just ranting on him only based off of a funny banter between the two.
The main cast is great too, especially Christian Bale as Ken Miles, the cocky idiot who loves going the extra mile who also has quality time with his son. Great stuff that pays off beautifully in the end.
It’s a shame I didn’t catch this in IMAX, because, as said, the Racing scenes are thrilling and intense, especially the final race. Cars leaping and crashing left and right, the rage of the motors and constant speed...all accompanied by excellent editing that adds more pedal to the metal (I suppose brakes were harmed during the production of this movie).
I’m struggling to write a coherent review for it, but sometimes it’s the case for these types of movies. While not really one with the source material it’s based off, I still had a blast seeing some dudes building cars for 2h32’ (which doesn’t even feel like 2 hours).
Ford V Ferrari felt more or less like 9 Year Old me enjoying the crap out of a Happy Meal mix,where,even if they had Hamburgers and McNuggets (that being the Racing scenes and Ford "going to war"), there were some other real nice treats,like Mini-Carrots and Fruit Juice (the Father and Son relationship).
I can't believe I had this much fun at it, and it'll definitely be one I'll be rooting for at the Oscars.
