Sports – Page 4 – Another Millennial Reviewer

Le Mans ’66, or Ford Vs Ferrari in the USA, is a biographical sports drama, about the rivalry between the Ford Motor Company and Ferrari, which came to a head over the Le Mans 24 hour race in 1966.

The plot follows the team that Ford puts together to build a car that can win Le Mans and dethrone Ferrari. Ford’s team is lead by the automotive legend Carroll Shelby, (Matt Damon), and his war hero driver Ken Miles,( Christian Bale).

I know very little about Racing, so if you are looking for a review of the film, where the realism and how close it was to the real events are mentioned; you might want to look elsewhere.

James Mangold directs this film, Mangold is one of the best directors working today see Logan or, Walk The Line for proof, and Le Mans 66, (that is what I’m going to call it), is another testament to his ability to direct masterfully. The film itself is very long, about 152 minutes to be exact, but it doesn’t feel like a slog. The plot mostly moves at a good pace, never getting bogged down for too long on any one thing. The only time this is untrue is in the final 10 minutes, which feel incredibly drawn out and do make you start to lose interest.

Le Mans 66 is interesting, even if like me you know very little about the sport itself, this is because there is a constant tension throughout that keeps getting turned up. The corporate politics of the Ford Motor Company result in moments where you think they’re going to shut the project down, these sequences are nail-biting, as you have come to root for the characters and want to see them succeed.

To develop on the idea of characters, Damon’s Shelby is believable and consistent throughout, we can see he is a veteran of the industry, who wants one last shot at glory. Also, his performance in the final moments of the film really helps to draw the emotion out of it and make it impactful.

However, his performance is completely upstaged, somewhat predictably by Bale’s Miles. Bale proves once again that he is one of the actors of the generation fully losing himself in the role. He is convincing as a man who has dedicated his life to cars and the art of racing. Furthermore, when they do the standard biopic thing of showing you the real people at the end, Bale looks eerily similar to the real person.

The film’s villain Leo Beebe, (Josh Lucas), is the one thing I can criticise about the film as he never feels like a believable threat instead feeling like at most a pain; which can be easily overcome.

Le Mans 66 is a fantastic Sports Biopic, whether you like racing or, not, the performances are equally excellent Bale especially. However, a weak villain and a slow final few minutes stop Le Mans 66 from crossing the finish line in 1st place.

4/5
Reviewed by Luke

Uncle Drew is a comedy film about Basketball. The main plot focuses on a former player turned coach Dax, (Lil Rey Howery) as he is forced to put together a new team in hopes of winning the Rucker. Said new team consists of Uncle Drew, (Kyrie Irving), Big Fella, (Shaquille O’ Neal), Preacher, (Chris Webber) along with a lot of other famous faces; disguised by old makeup. For the most part, the cast all give good, if rather cliched, performances. The cast is not given much to work with in terms of the script with it being every sports trope in the book cobbled together, but they still manage to inject some much-needed heart into it. The film does have a lot of famous NBA player cameos, so if you are into your Basketball these should keep you suitably entertained. These cameos don’t feel tacked on, as they easily could have done, rather it seems they are used to give the Basketball community a celebration of the game they love so much. If you can view this film, for more than just what it’s limited story presents, and instead as a love letter to Basketball then you will enjoy it far more. The main antagonist of the film is, Dax’s long-time rival Mookie, (Nick Kroll), who is an easily hateable villain. Howery and Irving are the standout performances of the film. Howery brings a certain hopeless likeability to the role, as he perfectly en-captures the underdog spirit. Whilst Irving plays Drew as not only, slick, suave and ultimately cool but, also with a world-weariness formed by a lifetime of bad decisions, which makes his character quite a nice opposite for Dax. All those positives being said the script is overall very shallow and that isn’t something the film can get away from, the characters, as likeable as some of them are, ultimately amount to little more than caricatures of genre archetypes. Furthermore, the comedy didn’t work, there were moments where I felt myself smiling and maybe one or two laughs, but overall the comedy of the film passed me by and left me cold. In addition, there are scenes in the film that feel strangely dated, such as a dance-off in the films second act, that feels like it belongs to a different decade of cinema. Whether this is a deliberate choice to play off the fact that they are, “old school”, or not, it still feels out of place. The film’s soundtrack is impressive, managing to bridge generations, with something for everyone to like. However, ultimately all these positives are just shiny coats of paint on an otherwise played out, dated and generic sports comedy. Maybe wait until this one comes out on Netflix.
2/5
Reviewed by Luke