Gran Turismo

Hey everyone and welcome, today we will be talking about the film Gran Turismo. Fun Fact, Gran Turismo is the highest selling game under the playstation brand debuting in 1997 and selling over 90 million units. This Film came out in 2023 and stars Archie Madekwe, David Harbour, and Orlando Bloom and was directed by Neill Blomkamp. So without further ado let’s get into it.

Gran turismo follows Jann Mardenborough Starting out playing hours of Gran turismo to eventually joining and winning the GT academy and racing in real life.

Gran Turismo is a biographical sports drama. It has similar vibes to 42, the blind side, or Coach Carter.

Gran Turismo’s cast is filled with familiar faces. Archie Madekwe was in Midsummer, David Harbour is in Stranger Things, Orlando Bloom was in Lord of the Rings, Darren Barnet was in Never Have I Ever, Geri Halliwell was in Crank: High Voltage, Djimon Hounsou was in Guardians of the Galaxy, and Neill Blomkamp also directed District 9.

I don’t know if it was from the name of this film or the trailers but I honestly was not excited to see this film. I was wondering why would gran turismo need a movie and from the trailer I didn’t think they really captured the heart of the story, the thing that would draw me in. I decided to take a chance anyways and to my surprise it was a fantastic film that had me so invested from beginning to end and it was truly inspiring.

Archie Madekwe did a fantastic job playing Jann. He really showed how Jann was this man who knew what he loved and no matter how many times people told him it would get him nowhere he would still push on. Because of  his performance I was rooting for him to win and he was able to pull out the emotions in certain parts of the film. He was the perfect person to show the dedication of Jann and how much he persevered.

I knew nothing about Jann going into this film but I was happy while watching to see his struggles and see how he overcame them. I think everyone has different things they struggle with and with Jann one of the biggest was doubts from people closest to him and the film highlighted that especially with his dad. I was glad that towards the end these people change their minds and support him to the fullest and are cheering him on in the final race of the movie and him and his dad have a moment with few words but it was truly moving.

So if you didn’t know Jann is a real person and this movie is telling his journey. One thing I thought was cool to find out is that he was a stunt double for Archie which I thought was dope to see. I’m glad he’s involved in the film.

At first I didn’t know if I  was going to like jack but he ended up becoming such a great asset. I love how much he helped Jann and became this person Jann could kind of lean on while he was away from home. He had Janns back and truly helped him become a better racer and tried to have him not make the same mistakes that he had. I loved their relationship and truly think they helped to make each other better.

Orlando Blooms character Danny kind of got on my nerve if im being honest. He only cared about the companies interest and only really seemed to support Jann when It benefited Nissan. I was glad it showed him coming out with this idea but disappointed that he seemed to care so little about the people actually involved in the races.

Danny also made me question if I was saying Nissan Wrong. I did some searching and found out that is really just a pronunciation thing the British pronounce it ni san and the American way is Nissan. Language is so fascinating and it was interesting to find out that it wasn’t someone saying it wrong but just different accents.

Obviously the GT academy was born from Gran turismo being that it is a driving simulation game. I thought it was cool how even though that is the extent of the connection to the game they still tied in aspects of the game. We see when Jann is picking his car in the begining it kind of shows us a 3d model like we are in the game and then we are in that first person mode racing other cars. I loved the parts where it would show the cars details like the game or Jann using his expertise of the game in real life and having some features that you would see in the game pop up. Ive never been into the car racing games but after watching this film and how cool they made it look I wanted to play.

The music was great and truly complemented the movie. We got some upbeat songs throughout the movie but then when Jann was zoned in we would also get some Kenny g which he used to relax himself.

I am not a sports fan but this movie sure did have me feeling like I was one. I was on the edge of my seat wanted to cheer when Jann won or did good and scream and curse when he got screwed over in his races by Nicholas. I always know when I start bouncing my leg up and down in the theatre im invested and a bit stressed and in this film it kept happening with all the races they showed and it just goes to show how much the film immersed its viewers.

My Favorite part of this movie with the big car crash part. It made be weird that a car crash is my favorite part but I really enjoyed how in that scene everything truly became a reality to Jann. Accidents happen and in this case it was an accident and it wasn’t his fault but someone died and he blamed himself for it. He shut himself off from the world and didn’t even seem like he wanted to come back to the world of racing. His coach steps in and finally opens up about why he quit racing, because he went through a similar event. He tells Jann that whatever he does next will define his legacy and really helps him to get back into the driver seat of the car. It was inspirational because it let Jann know that yes this all sucks but if you just keep beating yourself up about it you’ll just kind of be stuck constantly reliving the situation and figuring out what you could’ve done instead of realizing it wasn’t your fault and you have some fight left in you. It turned a sad event into such a beautiful moment.

Gran Turismo is an underdog story that is truly inspirational and caught me by surprise. We visit lots of cool locations and and the cast was phenomenal. Even though I am not a fan of sports or playing racing games I will say I truly enjoyed this film.