Movie Review: Gran Turismo

I want to preface this review by saying that I am not a gamer, nor am I into motor sport / cars in any way – but I loved this movie!  Based on a true story, Gran Turismo follows the unbelievable story of a gamer who wins a competition to become a real-life professional race car driver.  If it wasn’t true, you wouldn’t believe it could happen!

The movie follows the story of Jann Mardenborough, a young man who is a brilliant gamer, given the opportunity to enter a Nissan sponsored gaming competition to win a spot to train as a professional driver.  From obscurity to the competitive and often dangerous stage of real life race driving, this movie has as many ups and downs as the rally track.

The use of clever animation and some exciting destinations around the world, with the obligatory small love story thrown in means this movie has enough to keep you interested for the 2 hour session.

I thought the casting was excellent with Orlando Bloom cast as the often pushy Nissan motorsport marketing executive, Danny Moore.  David Harbour as the dry, Jack Slater who was Jann’s trainer and mentor.  Even Jerri Halliwell, aka Ginger Spice, was there as Janns mother.  But really, Archie Madekwe cast as Jann Mardenborough was perfect, providing the right amount of naivety and guts it takes to bring this story to life.  Great to see that the real life Jann Mardenborough performed the stunt driving too.

All in all, this movie was a great watch for people of all ages and interests.  It had great energy and action, a few laughs, tears and a real feeling of pushing the foot to the floor to get Jann round the track at high speed.