The first reviews for the F1 movie starring Brad Pitt and Damson Idris are starting to roll in ahead of its worldwide release later this month.

While it’s unlikely to have the sort of impact on the sport’s popularity that Netflix docu-series Drive to Survive has – after all, it’s not like fans are going to be able to see Pitt’s Sonny Hayes on-track week-in, week-out – the action shots and presence of a number of real life F1 stars should help it pack a punch.

Lewis Hamilton was attached to the film in an oversight role as an executive producer to help get the details of the sport as close to real life as possible, with the trailers showing some incredible onboard shots.

F1 drivers and personnel were treated to a private screening of the finished movie ahead of last month’s Monaco Grand Prix, and now, a number of critics have cast their verdict, with reviews so far rather positive.

READ MORE: Monaco Grand Prix winner Lando Norris offers verdict on future Indy 500 attempt

F1 movie reviews

Variety’s Jazz Tangcay tweeted after a screening: “WOW! [The F1 movie] is an action-packed thrilling look at the world of F1 racing, with lots of grit. The sound, score and cinematography are flawless. Damson Idris and Brad Pitt are great! Absolutely Obsessedddddd”

Meanwhile, the magazine’s awards editor Clayton Davis added: “F1 the Movie is the Jerry and Joe Show! Bruckheimer and Kosinski really do make audacious entertainment together. Academy…don’t do Claudio Miranda dirty again on this one. Brad Pitt and Damson Idris shine brightest when sharing the screen. Race to see this one in IMAX.”

The film was also compared to Joseph Kosinski and Jerry Bruckheimer’s 2022 blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick, one of the biggest cinematic success stories since cinemas reopened following the Covid-19 pandemic.

Erik Davis of Fandango and Rotten Tomatoes wrote on social media: “Joseph Kosinski’s F1 the Movie hits the gas and doesn’t stop. The races are epic, the sound design, editing, cinematography, performances and music are all top notch. You definitely feel shades of Top Gun: Maverick in that it plays like an old school summer blockbuster. What a ride.”

F1 will be released worldwide on 25 June.

READ MORE: Max Verstappen hit with huge F1 penalty after ridiculous crash

Related

Saturday afternoon out west and evening back east, as citizens faced off against ICE agents in the streets of Los Angeles, “Good Night, and Good Luck,” George Clooney’s 2005 dramatic film tribute to CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow, became a Major Television Event, broadcast live from Manhattan’s Winter Garden Theater, by CNN and Max. That it was made available free to anyone with an internet connection, via the CNN website, was a nice gesture to theater fans, Clooney stans and anyone interested to see how a movie about television translates into a play about television.

The broadcast is being ballyhooed as historic, the first time a play has been aired live from Broadway. And while there is no arguing with that fact, performances of plays have been recorded onstage before, and are being so now. It’s a great practice; I wish it were done more often. At the moment, PBS.org is streaming recent productions of Cole Porter’s “Kiss Me, Kate!,” the Bob Dylan-scored “Girl From the North Country,” David Henry Hwang‘s “Yellow Face” and the Pulitzer Prize-winning mental health rock musical “Next to Normal.” Britain’s National Theater at Home subscription service offers a wealth of classical and modern plays, including Andrew Scott’s one-man “Vanya,” as hot a ticket in New York this spring as Clooney’s play. And the archives run deep; that a trip to YouTube can deliver you Richard Burton’s “Hamlet” or “Sunday in the Park With George” with Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters is a gift not to be overlooked.

Clooney, with co-star Anthony Edwards, had earlier been behind a live broadcast of “Ambush,” the fourth season opener of “ER” as a throwback to the particular seat-of-your-pants, walking-on-a-wire energy of 1950s television. (It was performed twice, once for the East and once for the West Coast.) That it earned an audience of 42.71 million, breaking a couple of records in the bargain, suggests that, from a commercial perspective, it was not at all a bad idea. (Reviews were mixed, but critics don’t know everything.)

Like that episode, the “live” element of Saturday’s broadcast was essentially a stunt, though one that ensured, at least, that no post-production editing has been applied, and that if anyone blew a line, or the house was invaded by heckling MAGA hats, or simply disrupted by audience members who regarded the enormous price they paid for a ticket as a license to chatter through the show, it would presumably have been part of the broadcast. None of that happened — but, it could have! (Clooney did stumble over “simple,” but that’s all I caught.) And, it offered the groundlings at home the chance to see a much-discussed, well-reviewed production only a relatively few were able to see in person — which I applaud on principal and enjoyed in practice — and which will very probably not come again, not counting the next day’s final performance.

The film, directed by Clooney and co-written with Grant Heslov (who co-wrote the stage version as well), featured the actor as producer and ally Fred W. Friendly to David Strathairn’s memorable Murrow. Here, a more aggressive Clooney takes the Murrow role, while Glenn Fleshler plays Friendly. Released during the second term of the Bush administration, the movie was a meditation on the state of things through the prism of 1954 (and a famous framing speech from 1958 about the possibilities and potential failures of television), the fear-fueled demagoguery of Wisconsin Sen. Joseph McCarthy, and Murrow’s determination to take him on. (The 1954 “See It Now” episode, “A Report on Sen. Joseph McCarthy,” helped bring about his end.) As in the film, McCarthy is represented entirely through projected film clips, echoing the way that Murrow impeached the senator with his own words.

It’s a combination of political and backstage drama — with a soupcon of office romance, represented by the secretly married Wershbas (Ilana Glazer and Carter Hudson) — even more hermetically set within the confines of CBS News than was the film. It felt relevant in 2005, before the influence of network news was dissolved in the acid of the internet and an administration began assaulting the legitimate press with threats and lawsuits; but the play’s discussions of habeas corpus, due process, self-censoring media and the both-sides-ism that seems increasingly to afflict modern media feel queasily contemporary. “I simply cannot accept that there are, on every story two equal and logical sides to an argument,” says Clooney’s Murrow to his boss, William F. Paley (an excellent Paul Gross, from the great “Slings & Arrows”). As was shown here, Murrow offered McCarthy equal time on “See It Now” — which he hosted alongside the celebrity-focused “Person to Person,” represented by an interview with Liberace — but it proved largely a rope for the senator to hang himself.

Though modern stage productions, with their computer-controlled modular parts, can replicate the rhythms and scene changes of a film, there are obvious differences between a movie, where camera angles and editing drive the story. It’s an illusion of life, stitched together from bits and pieces. A stage play proceeds in real time and offers a single view (differing, of course, depending on where one sits), within which you direct your attention as you will. What illusions it offers are, as it were, stage magic. It’s choreographed, like a dance, which actors must repeat night after night, putting feeling into lines they may speak to one another, but send out to the farthest corners of the theater.

Clooney, whose furrowed brow is a good match for Murrow’s, did not attempt to imitate him, or perhaps did within the limits of theatrical delivery; he was serious and effective in the role if not achieving the quiet perfection of Strathairn’s performance. Scott Pask‘s set was an ingenious moving modular arrangement of office spaces, backed by a control room, highlighted or darkened as needs be; a raised platform stage left supported the jazz group and vocalist, which, as in the movie, performed songs whose lyrics at times commented slyly on the action. Though television squashed the production into two dimensions, the broadcast nevertheless felt real and exciting; director David Comer let the camera play on the players, rather than trying for a cinematic effect through an excess of close-ups and cutaways.

While the play generally followed the lines of the film, there was some rearrangement of scenes, reassignment of dialogue — it was a streamlined cast — and interpolations to make a point, or more directly pitch to 2025. New York news anchor Don Hollenbeck (Clark Gregg, very moving in the only role with an emotional arc) described feeling “hijacked … as if all the reasonable people went to Europe and left us behind,” getting a big reaction. One character wondered about opening “the door to news with a dash of commentary — what happens when it isn’t Edward R. Murrow minding the store?” A rapid montage of clips tracking the decay of TV news and politics — including Obama’s tan suit kerfuffle and the barring of AP for not bowing to Trump’s Gulf of America edit and ending with Elon Musk’s notorious straight-arm gesture, looking like nothing so much as a Nazi salute — was flown into Clooney’s final speech.

Last but not least, there is the audience, your stand-ins at the Winter Garden Theatre, which laughed at the jokes and applauded the big speeches, transcribed from Murrow’s own. And then, the curtain call, to remind you that whatever came before, the actors are fine, drinking in your appreciation and sending you out happy and exhilarated and perhaps full of hope.

A CNN roundtable followed to bring you back to Earth.

MOVIE REVIEW: “KARATE KID: LEGENDS”
Grade: C

I really hate to be “that guy” but Karate Kid: Legends didn’t leave much of an impression. And I say this as a big fan of both Cobra Kai and the first two films in the franchise. That said, Sony Pictures is to be commended for releasing this in such close proximity to the Cobra Kai series finale. It’s clear that they wanted to strike while the iron was hot and that was probably a smart move on their part.

As Karate Kid: Legends opens, we’re treated to a brief scene from 1986’s Karate Kid Part II. Not only does this nostalgic moment give us a little of that much-missed Miyagi magic, but it also sort of retcons the idea that 2010’s Karate Kid was a reboot.  This is to say that this scene establishes that Mr. Han (once again played by the icon who is Jackie Chan) is actually part of the original Karate Kid universe and not just a new version of Miyagi (played by the late, great Pat Morita.)

Immediately following this 1986 flashback, we meet young Li Fong (winningly played by newcomer Ben Wang, soon to be seen in the upcoming Stephen King adaptation of The Long Walk as well as the next chapter in the Hunger Games franchise), a Kung Fu student who practices under the leadership of Mr. Han against his stern mother’s wishes. While angry about the situation (for a very specific reason), Li’s mom (played by Ming-Na Wen) won’t have to worry about that much longer as she and her son will soon be moving to the U.S. where she’s to take on a position at a hospital in the big city (fitting given that Wen first rose to prominence on the hit t.v. series E.R.)

Upon moving to New York, Li finds himself in a tough transitional period as he has to adjust to an entire new way of life. Things look up, however, when he meets Mia (warmly played by Sadie Stanley) but then, things quickly take a turn for the worse when he discovers that her ex-boyfriend Conor (played by Aramis Knight) is, you guessed it, a bully well versed in the way of Karate.  So, Li will ultimately need a very special trainer in an effort to prepare for a big upcoming tournament, and he’ll ultimately get that training courtesy of Mr. Han through the assistance of a beloved Karate Kid legacy character known as Daniel LaRusso (played by the forever young Ralph Macchio.)

As directed by Jonathan Entwistle, Legends is harmless enough and it’s certainly well-intentioned but…What a formulaic, disjointed, and often strange entry in The Karate Kid franchise this is. How strange? There’s a subplot that finds Li actually training Mia’s father (charmingly played by Joshua Jackson) in the hope that the proud papa can win a boxing match and get out of debt with a dangerous loan shark. The time dedicated to this seemingly bizarre and unnecessary plot thread certainly could have been put to better use.

Karate Kid: Legends is rushed, too. How rushed? Well, putting it into perspective, there’s a stretch in this film that finds Mr. Han flying from Beijing to New York, making a mess of a family member’s kitchen, flying to Southern California to meet with LaRusso (for whatever reason, he couldn’t just pick up the phone), and then flying back to New York. This all happens in a span of, maybe, 10 minutes.

It should also be noted that Karate Kid: Legends comes in at an uncharacteristically short 94 minutes. Not that there’s anything wrong with a brief run time, but it hurts this movie severely because there’s little to no character development. Again, everything happens at a very quick clip and as an end result, things that should resonate (for example, the tragic reason behind Li’s PTSD) feel more like an afterthought. This is to say nothing of the fact that Daniel LaRusso doesn’t even show up until the second half of the movie and once he does show up, he almost feels shoe-horned in.

What’s more, as a sports underdog movie, Karate Kid: Legends isn’t as rousing as one might hope. Yes, there’s a fight choreography upgrade here (watch as Li successfully takes on 3 full grown baddies in an alley even though, for whatever reason, he can’t rise up to the school bully who manages to beat him with two hands tied behind his back), Legends is void of the kind of “stand up and cheer” moments viewers expect from these movies. Even the big tournament sequence at the end of the film falls flat. That said, this is by no fault of Wang. And in fact, this new-to-the-scene actor is incredibly engaging as are Chan, Jackson, and Stanley. Speaking of engaging, if you do go to see this film, be sure to stick around for a bonus credits scene that adds a brief but much-welcome layer of joy to the proceedings, courtesy of a familiar face.

In terms of where Karate Kid: Legends sits amongst the other entries in the series, it’s not in the same league as the original, Part II or Cobra Kai nor does it have the emotional weight of the virtually forgotten 2010 film. That said, it’s just a tad stronger than both Part III  and The Next Karate Kid mostly because the cast does manage to bring the likability factor. This is to say that while this isn’t the “worst” film in the franchise, it’s certainly the strangest in terms of structure and pace. And quite honestly, at times, it has an energy more akin to something like Diary of a Wimpy Kid as opposed to The Karate Kid.

As I close out this review, one thing that Karate Kid Part III actually has going for it all these years later is that it was somewhat re-contextualized by the events that took place in Cobra Kai making it a much more interesting watch now than it was when it was initially released back in 1989. Here’s hoping that Karate Kid: Legends is re-contextualized in the future because as it stands, despite a charming cast and its wholesome nature, it’s not the best around.