Gran Turismo is a 2023 biographical coming-of-age sports-drama film directed by Neill Blomkamp (District 9) from a screenplay by Jason Hall and Zach Baylin. The film is based on the video game series of the same name developed by Polyphony Digital, while also being based on a true story. Development of the film originally began in 2013 but changed directions several times as far as the director and the writing team went.

The true story of the ultimate wish fulfilment tale of teenage Gran Turismo player Jann Mardenborough whose gaming skills won a series of Nissan competitions to become an actual professional race car driver.

The film stars Archie Madekwe as Jann Mardenborough, with David Harbour, Orlando Bloom, Darren Barnet, Geri Halliwell Horner, and Djimon Hounsou in supporting roles.

Gran Turismo made its debut in theaters on August 25th, courtesy of Sony Pictures Releasing.

THE GOOD

I grew up playing videogames, from my earliest memories dabbling in the Atari, the original Nintendo, and the first PlayStation, to the PS5 I now have that admittedly mostly collects dust thanks to the fact that I have two unrelenting toddlers these days. My almost 5-year-old gets more use out of my PS4 playing Rocket League, which he refers to as the “soccer game”. Nonetheless, because I was a hardcore Sony and PlayStation guy I was right there playing the Gran Turismo games dating back to the debut of the original back in 1997.

I thought the games were awesome, they played great, and more than anything else they looked fantastic. But the funny thing is the appeal of the games wore off for me for the same reason all of the people in the movie loved them so much. And that was because they were just too damn realistic and I sucked at them. I wanted to play racing games like the Need for Speed franchise, where realism was put on the back burner.

But Gran Turismo was marketed as a “Racing “Simulator” for a reason, and you quite simply had to understand racing to be good at it. Or at the very least had a willingness to learn. It took practice, but if you could get better, the results were very much worth it, as you could unlock and use the coolest cars and race the best tracks. But interestingly enough, when the Gran Turismo film was announced and touting the fact that it was based on true events, I had a quick WTF really?! moment.

I had never heard of Jann Mardenborough or anything to do with his attachment to the games. The trailer looked pretty awesome to me, and ever since the epic 2009 sci-fi drama District 9 I have been a fan of director Neill Blomkamp, so I was looking forward to this. So with all that said, did Gran Turismo bring the excitement I hoped it would and help me to re-live my childhood golden years?! Keep reading to find out!

Wow, this movie was such an awesome and well-rounded theater experience. A feel-good story with an emotional element that seriously caught me by surprise; the perfect balance of relatable and genuinely likable characters, and all of the white-knuckle racing sequences you could want mixed with top-notch visual effects, Gran Turismo really has it all. I touched briefly on my background as it relates to the release of this movie in the intro, but I am not a racing guy at all when it comes to the actual sport of racing. I think it’s cool and certainly has its place, but it never appealed to me enough to really follow along.

But I am not exaggerating whatsoever when I say this, this movie has me considering giving the sport a try, and at the very least trying to hone in on the career of the real Jann Mardenborough. I understand this film is based on a true story and all that (with some liberties for the sake of Hollywood of course), but I don’t want to give too much away so that the film is more of a surprise for y’all like it was for me. I will say I did do a bit of research after the fact and this dude is still racing professionally, and he is still an absolute beast. At the end of the day, it is just such a cool story and is one that you really need to experience in theaters to appreciate.

As I already touched on, this is such a crazy story, and even though it is based on true events I definitely recommend trying to go in as blind as possible so that you can be surprised by just how wild it really is. That is usually my approach when a film is released based on actual events unless I decide to read the book prior to the film’s release. I don’t know, I just always found that it was fun to do that research after you had seen the movie just to determine what really happened and what was exaggerated for the sake of entertainment. Without going into detail I was honestly a bit blown away by how much of the film was spot on, particularly some of the heavier parts of the story.

Most people can relate to the origin of Mardenborough’s story, a young man who wants to forge his own path as opposed to follow in his father’s footsteps like his brother. Now he is far from this rebellious kid, but is actually trying to make his father proud in his own unique way. This is a story about daring to be different, dreaming big, and never giving up until those dreams become a reality. As it relates to Gran Turismo as a film, I thought the story was incredibly immersive, I loved how each part of his story felt like a separate chapter of the film, that way viewers had time to get to know him as a person before his life changed forever. Plus it was great that the film also made it a point to focus on his professional career in the final act. The writing team deserves a ton of credit for translating this story to the big screen in such epic fashion.

As far as the technical elements for the film, I was no joke on the edge of my seat damn near the entire time. The racing sequences were just wild and so much fun to watch, and the creativity that went into this film was on another level in terms of how they mixed real racing with the feel of a videogame to really put an exclamation mark on how much of a wild ride it was for Mardenborough. As I said I played some of the Gran Turismo games during my earlier years, and at times I felt like I was playing one of the games with life-like graphics on a massive screen. It was seriously incredible and terrifying too because to say these cars go fast would be an understatement. Like take a turn wrong without giving enough to the brakes and you will flip 50 times fast, no joke.

Gran Turismo features some incredible work on the racing front in general, and I did confirm it was a mix of real racing and CGI. Although most video game-to-film adaptations rely heavily on the CGI element, this film takes a page straight from the game itself and focuses more on authenticity than just trying to maximize the visual effects, and I personally thought they achieved a fantastic balance. The film utilizes real race cars and real tracks to sell the “realness” of the experience while also mixing in the CGI when needed. This means that the crew relied heavily on stunt drivers stepping in for the cast, and even brought the real Jann Mardenborough on board as a stunt driver for Archie Madekwe, the actor playing him. Oh and boy were these cars super badass, I can’t even imagine how cool it must be to be up close and personal with one of these beauties.

Director Neill Blomkamp pulls out all of the stops as usual by utilizing some fantastic camera techniques, including the use of helicopters, drones, and cameras rigged to pretty much every part of these vehicles imaginable to really immerse viewers. I feel like I could talk about this movie all day, but I have to be sure and shout out one of the absolute GOATs of composers, Lorne Balfe, who collaborated on the film with the super-talented Andrew Kawczynski, who recently worked on films like Dune (2021), and last years blockbuster hit Top Gun: Maverick. Last but not least, a shoutout to cinematographer Jacques Jouffret for helping to create one of the most immersive films I have seen in a while.

I honestly loved the cast for this film, and I felt like the main cast was perfect for each of their respective roles. I will start with Archie Madekwe who some may remember for his supporting role in Ari Aster’s horror gem Midsommar, as well as a small role in the 2021 sci-fi thriller Voyagers. He does have a role in writer/director Emerald Fennell’s highly anticipated comedy-drama Saltburn, slated for later this year. Madekwe plays the lead role of Jann Mardenborough, and I really liked him here. As a fairly unknown actor, I thought he displayed legit star power and was able to effectively portray all of the emotions needed for this role. I think this kid has talent and I look forward to watching his career continue to flourish.

Everyone loves Orlando Bloom, I mean the dude has been around forever and always delivers. Bloom plays the role of Danny Moore and is very much a love him or hate him character throughout the film, and he crushed the role. I also really liked Djimon Hounsou as Jann’s father, and thought he had genuine chemistry with Madekwe which was a big factor in terms of building on the story. Hounsou has been around forever and really is the ultimate supporting actor. If I had to pick I would say my most memorable role for him was the underrated 2008 sports drama Never Back Down. If you fancy yourself a good fighting/MMA film with a great story, check that out on Prime Video.

My favorite actor was without a doubt my guy David Harbour, who crushed it as good old Saint Nick in last year’s dark comedy action film Violent Night (our full review here). In Gran Turismo Harbour plays Jack Salter, a once-upon-a-time incredibly talented former racer who now works as a severely underappreciated and often ridiculed mechanic on a racing team. I fell in love with his character right away (not in a weird way of course), and just gravitated towards his backstory and quest for redemption.

Although this film is primarily focused on the rise of Jann Mardenborough from gamer to professional racer, the story of Jack Salter was just as captivating and honestly helped to add the crucial feel-good element to the film. Harbour is easily one of the more versatile actors in the industry today, and it was great to see him take on a role like this. I honestly really liked the rest of the supporting cast as well and have no negatives to speak of, with an extra appreciation for Darren Barnet as Matty Davis who is a rival racer for the majority of the film, as well as Geri Horner who plays Jann’s mother Lesley.

THE BAD

Gran Turismo may not be a perfect film, but I am honestly having a hard time really picking it apart. I mean I suppose some of the more dramatic interactions between characters could have felt a bit more authentic, but as I talked about earlier, you are blending top-tier acting talent with some actors still trying to make a name for themselves, and all things considered, I was nothing short of impressed.

I’m sure some people who know the true story inside and out have an issue with some of the liberties taken by the writing team, but that is the case with pretty much any film based on true events. For that reason, I’m not going to sit here and research the true story to the point where I start picking the film apart, because at the end of the day my primary concern, especially for the purposes of this review, was entertainment value. You simply have to spice things up and add a few new wrinkles to the story to ensure viewers are invested, and I personally thought they did a fantastic job.

I did find it funny that Harbour’s character was constantly making fun of the “gamers” who were going through the physically demanding portion of the training as they tried to become real racers, saying that most of them probably barely got off the couch, yet pretty much the entire cast was in damn good shape. I mean it probably would have taken away from the overall tone of the film to bring in a few gamers who clearly spent most of their days crushing Cheetos and pounding Mountain Dew, which sounds like the life don’t get me wrong, but I just thought that was sort of a comical takeaway. Plus to be honest I never really considered the fact that these professional racers need to be in ridiculously good shape and are legitimate athletes.

THE VERDICT

An exhilarating coming-of-age underdog story that will undoubtedly appeal to gamers and race enthusiasts alike, Gran Turismo is an edge-of-your-seat theater experience that had me bought in from the first green light. I thought this was a powerful retelling of one heck of a wild journey for British professional race car driver Jann Mardenborough. I mean let’s be honest, although embellished at times this is still for sure one of the craziest stories in quite some time if you really stop and think about it.

But more than anything else, everyone involved with this film found a way to entertain viewers with a great balance of spectacle, excitement, and storytelling, while taking their fair share of liberties for the sake of entertainment. I was never bored, and to be honest I can’t quite figure out why so many critics have been so hard on this film. To call it boring is not only wrong, it is downright ignorant and speaks to the fact that so many of these so-called critics are simply out of touch in terms of the foundation of these films. Gran Turismo is absolutely worth seeing in theaters, simple as that.