F1 Fanatic

After having the misfortune last night to watch Stalones Driven (simply awful in so so many ways) I was wondering what the best and worst driving films, F1 or otherwise, people have seen?

Where do you put a film like Taladega Nights and Days of Thunder…good or bad? Grand Prix is a classic and I guess Le Mans is too but I’ve always found that one a bit dull. Senna is clearly already a classic but it’s somewhat different as it’s a documentary. Could you include films like Bullet and Vanishing Point…not race films but certainly driving films. And lets not forget Speed Racer – cheesy but stylistic as hell and probably more realistic than Driven.

Sorry that was a bit of a consciousness dump…what do you all think (I’ll let my brain munge away and pop back later for a top 3, good and bad)

John Frankenheimer’s Grand Prix is beautifully shot and has some wonderful period car footage – you can certainly enjoy it for that. But the story is pretty rubbish. Look out for the cameo by Graham Hill.

Talladega Nights is execrable tosh, not even funny in a “so bad it’s good” kind of way. Avoid.

I haven’t made it to the end of Driven yet. I’ll give it another try one day. Brings back bad memories of the long, lingering death of CART for me.

Senna is, of course, required viewing.

I haven’t seen Days of Thunder in a long time – I remember it being poor but passable. I do recall a toe-curlingly awful scene where Tom Cruise is moving condom wrappers around on Nicola Kidman’s thigh – part explanation of the principles of drafting, part foreplay.

For me, Cars suffered from my high expectations after seeing marvellous 3D animations like Up!, Wall-E and the Toy Story series. It falls a long way short of that standard, but it’s not bad. Haven’t seen the second one.

Oh, and everyone keeps telling me to watch the TT film that came out this year around the same time of Senna. Definitely on my “to-watch” list.

@keith you have to make it to the end of Driven just to watch the ‘drama’ on the final lap…Stalone jumps a corner to take the lead but break his front suspension..somehow manages to stay in the lead for about half a lap before backing off to give his teamate and rival a way through, at which point his front tyre explodes causing him to spin along the track for what seems like a mile allowing him to come in third – hope I haven’t spoiled the film for anyone ;-)

I quite like Cars, although the cynic in me says it was made mainly as a way to sell merchandise to children who like playing with cars.

Drive, which came out this year (and has been getting rave reviews) is very good. It’s not about F1, the guy is a stunt driver/getaway driver and the film actually has a plot which is a big flaw with a lot of driving films.

Best car chase scene (I haven’t seen Bullitt) I have seen was in The French Connection.

Le Mans
Senna
Herbie – the Love Bug
Death Race 2000
Cannonball Run
Grand Prix
Days of Thunder

Grand Prix is the No.1 for driving, Taladega Nights and cars for the laughs. Driven Had Sly in it and Im no fan of his. Days of Thunder, well I like Nicole Kidman.

I liked the driving in the Transporter movies.

Slightly off piste, how about fictional F1 books. I enjoyed Formula 1 by Bob Judd at school