Thursday, September 26, 2013

Racing and Thor... It's a RUSH!!!


If you know me, you know how much I love everything about the movie poster above. Racing- yes please... Chris Hemsworth (aka Thor)- YES PLEASE (along with a rag to wipe up my drool). So when I first saw the trailer for the Ron Howard F1 racing movie Rush, I knew I had to go see it. It has racing, Chris Hemsworth in a firesuit, and Chris Hemsworth out of a firesuit.

Thanks to some tweets I posted about the movie, I was offered a chance to go an advanced screening of the movie (ps- the official movie Twitter handle is @rushthemovie. Follow them for good stuff). Of course I jumped at the opportunity to go see it.

Now don't worry- I'm not going to post any spoilers about the movie. I went into the movie knowing it was based on a true story, but I didn't know much more than that. I purposely didn't want to know more- I wanted to experience the movie. The movie depicts the 1976 F1 Championship battle between Niki Lauda and James Hurt, as well as background into the two racers leading up to that point.

You can tell that Ron Howard is really a racing fan. His direction of the movie is really amazing. I loved how the movie didn't romanticize the sport. The drivers were as human as you and I- we got to see their flaws and weaknesses, as well as what drives them.

The acting in this movie- HOLY COW!!!! As I said before, Chris Hemsworth is my Hollywood eye candy crush- and yes, he looks fabulous in this movie- but he really truly became James Hunt. There were moments where you loved him, and moments where he was a total a$$hole. He showed depth that you don't get see with him in some of his other roles- he was the perfect actor for this role and this role was perfect for him. The actor that played Niki Lauda also did an awesome job. At times, it didn't feel like they were acting, they were truly Niki and James. (Now I will add I wasn't a fan of Olivia Wilde in this movie- I thought for the most part she was very blah. The scene of her and James Hunt in the restaurant in NYC was the only time she showed some true emotion).

So should you go see Rush? Yes, yes, and YES! It does help if you are a racing fan, but I think even non-racing fans will enjoy it. There is more to the movie than cars going around in circles (well, around circuits since it is F1 after all). The acting and the story line add up to make a very enjoyable two hours.

PS- These two beauties sitting outside the theater courtesy of McLaren (their reason for involvement became clear to me during the movie) helped set the tone walking in... If only I could have taken one home- or even for a spin :)


Thursday, September 12, 2013

A letter to NASCAR from the fans

Dear NASCAR-

I'm going to make this real simple... GET YOUR CRAP TOGETHER!!!!

I'm not talking about the governing body of Nascar- I'm talking to the drivers, crew chiefs, spotters, team GMs, and owners. You are the ones that have given the sport a major black eye in the last week, and the fans aren't happy.

NASCAR fans are some of the most passionate sports fans anywhere. We stand behind our drivers when they run well, and when they don't. Yes, we want our driver to make the Chase, but we want them to do it because they drove the wheels off the car week after week and deserve to be in it. We love the passion the drivers themselves often have for the sport. We want to see racing and drivers going all out.  We want to see the helmet throws, drivers giving each other the bird, words on pit road after a race, bumping, banging, rubbing... That's what racing is. Racing is NOT back-room deals, slowing down on the track on purpose, intentional spins and cautions, fake pit stops... That crap is cheating and it has no place in the sport we love.

Y'all may think the fans are nothing but loud rednecks who drink and cuss too much... And yes, that may be who many of us are. But you have overlooked one thing- we aren't stupid. We have longer memories than many of the drivers. You piss us off once, we stay pissed off for a long time. We will put up with a lot of stuff, but messing with the integrity of our sport crosses that line. You talk about how important the fans are to NASCAR, but then you go and pull stunts like you pulled at Richmond and you basically are telling us that you don't give a damn about us. Be careful, because if you push us too far, you will push us away.

So right now, you are on thin ice. Us fans are waiting to see what happens. We want to see some amazing racing this weekend at Chicago. We want those drivers to go out and drive like they are pissed off- and many of them are right now. The last thing we want to hear about is more fishy team communications and team orders, or anything that hurts our sport. Because yes, this is OUR sport too- and you would do well to remember that...

Sincerely-
NASCAR fans everywhere