{"id":12288,"date":"2025-06-27T17:21:24","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T21:21:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=12288"},"modified":"2025-07-26T13:33:57","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T17:33:57","slug":"f1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/06\/27\/f1\/","title":{"rendered":"F1"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"F1<\/strong> (2025)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 156 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (strong language and action)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Joseph Kosinski\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Ehren Kruger\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Hans Zimmer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Claudio Miranda\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 27, 2025 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Tobias Menzies, Javier Bardem, Kim Bodina, Shea Whigham, Will Merrick, Joseph Balderrama, Sarah Niles, Samson Kayo, Abdul Salis, Callie Cooke.<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0Follow my line of thought. Three years ago, director Joseph Kosinski directed Top Gun: Maverick, a belated sequel that was actually better than the original. In it, Tom Cruise\u2019s character, older and wiser, trains a bunch of young pilots including one that reminds him of his cocky younger self. In F1<\/strong>, Brad Pitt (Ocean\u2019s Eleven) plays Sonny Hayes, a veteran race car driver who mentors a cocky young driver (Idris, Snowfall) who reminds him of his younger self. I found myself wondering if F1<\/strong> started out as a belated sequel to Days of Thunder (celebrating its 35th<\/sup> anniversary today coincidentally). Like DOT, it\u2019s produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. The late Tony Scott directed both DOT and the original Top Gun. Writer Ehren Kruger also helped pen Top Gun: Maverick. It could be that Kosinski presented TC with a script and the actor turned it down forcing Kosinski and Kruger to retool it. Again, this is just a theory, but it kinds of tracks (pun maybe intended).<\/p>\n

\u00a0Three decades after a crash ended his Formula One career, Sonny\u2019s former teammate Ruben (Bardem, No Country for Old Men) brings him back into the fold. Now a team owner, he needs his old friend\u2019s help. His team APX hasn\u2019t won a single race this year. If that doesn\u2019t change, Ruben will be fired.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Sonny reluctantly agrees to be second driver to Joshua Pearce, a hotshot rookie who resents being told what to do by a has-been who never really was. He\u2019s not the only problem with APX. The pit crew is slow and clumsy. Their ramshackle car can\u2019t compete with the likes of Ferrari and McLaren. Timing is a factor as well. There are only nine races left to go. That doesn\u2019t leave Sonny much time to whip the team into shape and lead them to victory.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Although equally cocky, Joshua couldn\u2019t be more different from Sonny. The older, wiser driver isn\u2019t in it for the money or the glory; it\u2019s for the love of the sport. Joshua, definitely a product of the social media age, is more interested in likes and showboating for the cameras. Their rivalry, both on and off the track, is about position. Eventually, they start to work together instead of against each other.<\/p>\n

\u00a0At 156 minutes, F1<\/strong> runs longer than it needs to. There are definitely pacing issues. It rips and roars during the race sequences, but sputters when off the track. It introduces story threads that ultimately aren\u2019t developed. It\u2019s brought up a few times that Sonny had gambling issues in the past, but it\u2019s never explored in a meaningful way, not even when the team competes in Las Vegas. I would have liked to know a little more about Jodie (Cooke), a pit crew member who has to try harder than everyone because she\u2019s female. In its defense, F1<\/strong> is never boring. That\u2019s a positive.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Pitt does a good job as Sonny, a laid back sort who doesn\u2019t take himself too seriously. Racing is a different story. He wants to win mainly because this is his last shot at it. To do that, changes must be made. One of them is the car. What\u2019s needed is a combat-type vehicle. He tasks tech director Kate McKenna (Condon, The Banshees of Inisherin) with doing a complete overhaul. Would it surprise you to learn she later becomes his romantic interest? I didn\u2019t think so.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Idris is also very good as the conceited rookie who only listens to his mother (Niles, Beautiful People). The dynamics between him and Pitt are dynamite. Joshua doesn\u2019t respect the older man; Sonny couldn\u2019t care less. He just wants to make the kid the best driver he can be. Condon does what she can with her one-dimensional character. Bardem is great as the owner who understands that neither he nor Sonny are getting any younger. Tobias Menzies (The Crown) is sufficiently smarmy as an investor with a not-so-secret agenda.<\/p>\n

\u00a0F1<\/strong> is essentially a collection of clich\u00e9s broken up by some of the best race sequences I\u2019ve seen in a long time. Due in equal parts to tight editing (Stephen Mirrione) and sharp cinematography (Claudio Miranda), not to mention an exciting score by Hans Zimmer, F1<\/strong> is mighty impressive to look at. It stumbles dramatically, but never stalls out altogether. It\u2019s mostly high-octane entertainment.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

F1 (2025)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 156 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (strong language and action)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Joseph Kosinski\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Ehren Kruger\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Hans Zimmer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Claudio Miranda\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 27, 2025 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Tobias Menzies, Javier Bardem, Kim Bodina, Shea Whigham, Will Merrick, Joseph Balderrama, Sarah Niles, Samson Kayo, Abdul […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12289,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dramas"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/F1-POSTER.jpg?fit=620%2C775&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12288"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12291,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12288\/revisions\/12291"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}