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- iHaveNet.com: Movie Reviews
"Rush" Movie Review: 2 1/2 Stars
by Michael Phillips
The movie "Rush" is big, brash and dramatically it goes in circles.
The first two may be enough for most people, especially if they're into
With "Rush," director Ron Howard brings a long, earnest career's worth of expertise to bear on a two-headed
For Howard, who started out directing features 36 years ago with "Grand Theft Auto," "Rush" ushers him back into his own past (he was acting on "Happy Days" on TV during this time) while allowing him to exploit his filmmaking knowledge. There's a fair amount of digital effects work in the racing sequences, designed to push you ever closer to the high-velocity death lurking around every hairpin curve.
If "Rush" feels a little hollow, the reason lies with screenwriter Peter Morgan, whose play "Frost/Nixon" Howard filmed, to pleasing results. Morgan has long proved himself adept at intertwining, interdependent biographical studies. In "The Queen," for which Helen Mirren won her Oscar, the character of British Prime Minister Tony Blair (played by Michael Sheen) achieved equal narrative importance.
In "Rush," Morgan treats the men jockeying for position throughout as contrasting pencil sketches of '70s-era princes behind the wheel. One is a sober, meticulous character, the other a carouser who must be taught, by life and circumstance, to respect his rival. "Twenty-five people start
A gut-wrenching crash plays a major part in this story, by factual necessity, though to be sure Howard is not making a documentary here. (For a terrific
If the film finds an American audience, it'll be because of Hemsworth, best known for swingin' the hammer in "Thor." Hunt, a charismatically reckless party boy, is the kind of guy (according to the script, if not real life) who proposes to model Suzy Miller (Olivia Wilde, in a swank variety of enormous hats) mere seconds after they meet. Hemsworth lives for excess, and just as Hunt brought a boozy sort of panache to the sport, Hemsworth conveys genuine enthusiasm for whatever he's doing on screen without going over the top.
Where the events of 1976 took these two is fascinating history. But "Rush," while never dull, rarely feels dramatically alive; it hits its marks dutifully and darts onward.
MPAA rating: R (for sexual content, nudity, language, some disturbing images and brief drug use).
Running time: 2:03.
Cast: Chris Hemsworth (James Hunt); Daniel Bruhl (Niki Lauda); Olivia Wilde (Suzy Miller).
Credits: Directed by Ron Howard; written by Peter Morgan; produced by Andrew Eaton, Brian Grazer, Brian Oliver, Eric Fellner, Peter Morgan and Ron Howard. A
"Rush" is an epic action-drama stars Chris Hemsworth as the charismatic Englishman James Hunt and Daniel Brühl as the disciplined Austrian Niki Lauda, whose clashes on the Grand Prix racetrack epitomized the contrast between these two extraordinary characters
Article: Copyright © Tribune Media Services, Inc.
'Rush' Movie Review - Chris Hemsworth & Daniel Bruhl - The Best Movie Reviews & Movie Trailers Online