I don’t think that it’s very obvious, but I really like cars. I come from a family of Michiganders on my mom’s side, and Michigan is very associated with the business of automotives. This is because of Detroit, a.k.a, Motor City. (That’s why the musical genre of Motown is called Motown; Mo- as in, Motor!) Growing up with half of my family living in the car state and my grandparents living fairly close to Detroit itself, cars became pretty important to me. I might not be able to tell you the exact brand of a car or what exactly makes it so special, but I can enjoy a good racing movie, and racing scenes, when done well, do give me goosebumps. All of this to say that seeing Gran Turismo was going to be a given.

The movie theater that we went to was a part of a chain called Odeon. Once again, the theater earned itself points for having an in-house Baskin Robbins, where Jamie and I got mini cups of ice cream. Along with the ice cream (the flavors of which were double chocolate and cookie dough), we got two large buckets of popcorn. Now, this might seem like an excessive amount of popcorn, and it in fact was, however! I have two very valid defenses to this action of intense popcorn ordering: 1) our dinner beforehand had failed spectacularly at the hands of an underprepared kitchen and stoves that were far too hot for our food (i.e, it came out burnt, and five minutes before the movie began), and 2) we had no idea that the popcorn buckets would be literally as large as Jamie’s head. 

With our concessions properly in hand, and our movie starting in less than a minute, we walked down the straight line of theaters. I made note that the posters on the wall weren’t framed in a portrait, but rather a landscape, which was distinctly different from our hometown theaters. I found myself preferring the landscape, where it was able to show the characters as well as the background details without the whole picture appearing squished together – that is neither here nor there, though. What is here and also there is the fact that we sat down in our seats just as the trailers were beginning.

Something that I had realized in Ireland was re-realized by me, and that was the joyful fact that I didn’t have to sit through Nicole Kidman’s sparkling pantsuit monologue as I was so used to from being an AMC Theaters customer. This is always a plus, even if the seats aren’t recliners, which Odeon did not have. I wonder if recliner seats in movie theaters are an American thing?

The trailers were the same ones that we’ve been seeing, which I assume has to do with the writer’s strike. All Hollywood production being put on pause is an issue, after all, and everything that has to do with entertainment struggles. Enough stalling, however; this post is about something other than the movie theater, or the trailers. It’s about how a gamer became a racer. (Cheesy, I know, but that’s the tagline!)

To give an overall rating, I would give the movie 8 Fords out of 10 Ferraris. This is because the racing scenes are pretty on par with the quality of racing that was seen in the movie Ford v Ferrari, an absolute classic movie for car fans. Along with the racing scenes that I found delightfully well done, Gran Turismo’s storyline, although a bit less emotionally charged as Ford v Ferrari, had heart and the same essence that most racing movies have: an underdog racer rises above all the odds. It is an inescapable theme, and I, for one, will never complain. It’s a theme that I will welcome time and time again, and if it comes with very well done scenes of car racing, I will not turn it away.

Now, without spoiling, I will say that Gran Turismo is worth a watch. A simple movie, yes, but based off of a very intriguing true story. Who thought to turn gamers into racers? Well, apparently, Orlando Bloom did. He didn’t really, but his presence, along with David Harbour’s and Djimon Hounsou’s, is another reason to see the movie. The casting choices were spectacular, and the main actor, although I haven’t seen him in much, is charming. It’s a well rounded, popcorn-eating movie that has its tender moments. I enjoyed that the writing had a focus on a father and son relationship, something that you never really see that often, but we’re getting more of it. 

Gran Turismo is no Oscar winning film, but if you’re going to the movie theater solely to see those, you’re not really going to the theater. As someone that enjoys both Oscar nom movies and your beat-em-up action (I am looking forward to The Expendables 4 more than I care to admit), you can have both and still be a movie person. All in all, Gran Turismo is a movie best served to a car lover with a penchant for famous actors and a script that can make you smile. You don’t have to check all of those boxes off – I was just lucky that I had.

After the movie, the Five Guys that was right next to the Odeon really came in handy, and acted as a bit of an American food fix. I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed a cheeseburger from Five Guys more than at that very moment.