James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) & Niki Lauda (Daniel Bruhl) were rivals in Formula One (F1) racing... The story revolves around both of them; how the first started, how they met & became rivals, how they went neck to neck with each other to find out who's the best among them. 

True story.

I was first introduced to F1 racing when I was in secondary school... The principal decided to install televisions at the school canteen right before an F1 season (I can't recall what year) started... So, both teachers & many students (mostly males) took that opportunity to watch the races during recesses... I initially joined them because I was wondering what's so fun about watching this sport... At that time, my family couldn't afford a satellite dish & therefore, I was not exposed to most kinds of sports such as tennis, golf & motor GP.

My first reaction was... "Meh..." 

or was it, "ZZZZZZZZ"?

Yeah, I thought that it's a boring kind of sport... Watching cars go round & round a circuit for hours wasn't fun for me... 

A friend of mine at the university tried to talk me into watching F1 once... He talked elaborately about G-force, precision, stamina & what shit but I didn't give a damn... Totally not into F1. 

Because of that, when I learned about the existence of this movie, Rush, I thought, "Nahhh... Not gonna see this".

What changed my mind was the amount of good reviews it got from amateur & professional movie reviewers... Looking at how it received high ratings from most movie buffs, I decided to just try & watch it. 

Damn. It's brilliant. 

I love this movie! 

It's the kind of movie that win awards... 

The picture is so beautiful... The story is set in the 70's & therefore, the producers tried to give an old school feel by sort of Instagraming the whole movie... It's so beautiful & artful, I love it! I also love the close ups of engines, the working components of engines when the drivers revved up, the first view look of the races, the shaky cams, long shots, and many other camera techniques used. Damn, the movie is just beautiful... Damn beautiful. The director, Ron Howard, surely knew what he's doing.

I was very very intrigue by the story! The races, the neck to neck battle, the love lives, the fallouts... Damn damn damn, I wished the movie never ended. I truly did. Even after two hours of watching, I thought, "Gosh, please don't end now... I wanna see more of the rivalry & drama."

I walked into the cinema knowing nothing about the story... It didn't occur to me that it's based of real life events... and I think it's better for me that way! Not knowing about how Hunt & Lauda's story of rivalry goes made the movie more suspenseful for me... "Is he gonna crash? Is he gonna die? Is he gonna win??" Damn, I was literally glued to seat...... Okey, not literally... 

I found myself rooting for Hunt at the middle... but at the end, I thought, "Hey, Lauda is very cool too!" I cheered for them! The story & the way how wonderfully the characters are introduced & developed made it easy for me to either love or hate either one or both leads. I was really connected with both of them!

If I have any complaints, well, it's gotta be this : 

I fuckin' wish Lauda would just hug his lovely wife! 

Damn, if you watch the movie, you would probably understand what I'm trying to say... Dude, just hug that nice, loyal lady of yours!

Huuuuuu.......

Okey, all in all, this movie is grand! I love the cinematography, the camera techniques... I love the characters... I love the story (altered or not). I love the races! I love it I love it IloveitIloveitttttttt!

5 Stars

I still won't go & watch actual F1 race though...