Ben O'Shea: Start Your Engines, Brad Pitt's New Movie F1 is Packed With Cameos

Movie man Ben O’Shea dropped by to review F1, Brad Pitt’s high-octane new flick that’s been dubbed 'Top Gun on wheels'... though with two seasoned blokes doing what they probably shouldn’t, Top Gun: Maverick might be the closer comparison. Pitt plays a washed-up driver haunted by a tragic crash, offered one last shot at glory helping out his best mate’s team. We take a look under the hood…

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Great per flick with Ben.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
It's a driving movie with a big sexy superstar.

Speaker 3 (00:08):
Is there a nuclear physicist as wellfare like good morning,
good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Look, I wish it was like Days of Thunder, Days
of Thunder. You know, we're being honest. Is it not
a good movie? But it came out. It came out
when I was an impressionable teenager, and I just love
that Tom Cruise getting around the NASCAR track with Nicole Kidman.
None of it made any sense whatsoever, probably about as
much as much sense as Talli.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
Dagan Knights with Will Ferrell. If You're not first your Last.
There's a bit of Talladega Knights about f one.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
The movie not deliberately a good thing.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
Yeah, yeah, there's a bit.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
So this movie comes along and it's been called top Gun.

Speaker 3 (00:49):
On Wheels, right, which you know, which poor Brad, Yeah,
poor Brad.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
And I think some people might see that as a compliment,
but it's I think it's actually should be called top
Gun Maverick on Wheels because, if you think about it,
both films try and leverage iconic ip. Both films have
vehicles that go very fast, driven by dudes who are
probably a bit too old to be still doing it

(01:15):
if we're being honest. And also both of them kind
of mediocre. Unfortunately, Top Gun Maverick and F One the movie,
even though Top Gun Maverick made a ton of money
at the box office, and I know, I know people
love it, and I don't want to offend anybody, but
it was only okay, Like, if we're being honest, it
was only okay. And F one comes along and it's
like we've spoken about this many times, those musical biopics

(01:37):
about you know, your Amy Winehouse or your Bob Marley
or Freddie Mercury, and they're always pretty superficial, right, like
they don't really dig under the surface, because the reality
of these movies is you have to suck up to
the record labels, you have to suck up to the
artist of states, or you can't license the song. And
if you don't have the songs, you don't have a movie.
And so in the same way, F one the movie

(01:57):
is done in collaboration with Formula One. It uses the
logo and uses the race tracks, sucking up to Formula one.
The Formula one Semular one guards guards. It's kind of
copyright and trademarks, like you know, like Disney wouldn't believe
like Disney.

Speaker 3 (02:14):
Exactly money sports. And you've got.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Lewis Hamilton, he's an executive producer, Oscar Piastres in there.
There's a lot of cameos in there for the F
one nuts and so sometimes this does feel like an
advertisement for Formula.

Speaker 3 (02:29):
One more so than a piece of art.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
And it's directed by Joseph Kazinski, who did a Top
Gun Maverick, And it's produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, the legend Yes,
who did Top Gun as well. So there's a lot
of Top Gun references in this movie.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
Is Daniel Ricardo in it?

Speaker 2 (02:44):
I didn't see pretty much everybody is it makes some
sort of an appearance in there. And so it's about
Brad Pitt who plays this American washed up race car
driver called Sonny Hayes. He must be in his early
fifties and he once had a promising career in F one,
had a terrible accident and never really got back into

(03:06):
the sport and so just now travels around America racing
in odd races, like one day he'll do NASCAR, do Daytona.
Next thing he'll be racing June Buggies in Mexico. None
of it really makes a lot of sense. But then
he gets a chance to come back to F one
to save his best buddies team Ruben, who played by
Javier Budem and they're the worst team in F one.

(03:28):
Their car is terrible, and there's a young driver played
by dams and Idris who's a hot shot, but he's
a hot head as well, so he has a hard
time staying on the track. And so Brad Pitt's coming
in as a mentor. No one really expects much, but
they just hope that something positive will happen in the
last nine races of the season. They've got nine races
to figure and then you know, surprise, surprise, all of

(03:49):
a sudden, the car is pretty good because they have
the first ever female technical director played by Kerry Condon.
The Banchee's of intershuran fantastic. Well, the problematic bit of it.
So you make this you know, big hooha about you know,
she is a trailblazer in the sport, and then she
just becomes a sex object for Brad Pitt.

Speaker 3 (04:09):
I don't know that's you know, really.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
So she starts off with a wing literally this is
basically what she invents to make the car go good,
and so people who love F one will appreciate how
much effort they put in to recreate the racing sequences.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
For people who aren't a big fan of F one,
it's a lot of cars going around in circles, like
you know, nine racers. There is a lot of racers,
and they just keep going and going.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
And going and going and going.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
And and so there's a lot of so there's a
lot of that happening, a lot of pit stops. It's
not it's not completely terrible. Brad Pitt is being Brad Pitt, like,
I'm not sure that's a good one. I'm not even
sure he's acting in this film. I think someone said
to me afterwards, Oh you think Brad Pitt has a
chance for an oscar?

Speaker 3 (04:59):
He's not sorry, He's just been himself.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
Honestly, if you had a chat to Brad Pitt at
a pub, you would not tell the difference between him
and his character trying and so, yeah, there's not a
lot of drama really to it. It's it's kind of
you know, if you've seen Ford versus Ferrari formulae.

Speaker 3 (05:18):
You are on fire. Yeah, you are clearly in pole
position when it comes to cracking the gags.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
Cracking the gags here me and Clay, you're still stuck
in the grid and.

Speaker 3 (05:30):
Girls like this this film really did you know?

Speaker 2 (05:32):
Stall at the start line and it's my keys. It'll
have its fans, especially amongst the F one tragics out there,
and because of Netflix's drive to survive, there's plenty of
casual F one fans. He'll get into this, he'll make it.
It'll make good money at the box office.

Speaker 1 (05:46):
Didn't help if they're comparing it to the Tom Cruise
stuff that Tom was there bread.

Speaker 3 (05:53):
That wouldn't have helped, looking very much like he was
keeping him in.

Speaker 1 (05:56):
His legs through the chicane.

Speaker 3 (06:03):
How many gentlemen start your engines?

Speaker 2 (06:06):
Are you giving it?

Speaker 3 (06:09):
Agree? Okay, it's okay, it's solid.

Speaker 1 (06:11):
Yeah, No one races it's a lot.

Speaker 3 (06:14):
Thank you man, Thanks guys,