Movies Worth Seeing

Gran Turismo Transformed: From Video Game to Blockbuster Film

• Michael Pisciuneri

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Buckle up for an exhilarating rush of adrenaline as we steer you through the cinematic universe of Gran Turismo! This is one riveting ride you won't want to miss, as we discuss the thrilling world of high-speed racing.

we're going full throttle into an extensive analysis of the film's subplots and cinematography. From the character development of the antagonist to the romance subplot and the lack of female representation, we're laying it all out on the track. The film's innovative use of GoPro and FPV drone shots has added an intriguing dimension to its cinematography;

Last but not least, we're going to pull back into the pit stop and share our thoughts on Gran Turismo's overall enjoyability. How does the sound design amplify the racing scenes? How do the visuals contribute to the movie's scope?  So, gear up and join us as we navigate through the fast lanes of Gran Turismo

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Gran Turismo Movie Review and Discussion

Speaker 1

Hey everyone and welcome to another episode of Movies Worth Seeing. I am Michael Pishonery, joined by Martin Jung. G'day G'day and on today's episode we're going to be looking at the incredible true story based on the video game Gran Turismo.

Speaker 1

This is a very different video game movie because, instead of it just slapping on the name of the video game and making some random story out of it, like, say, need for Speed or Double Dragon, any of those or the original 1993 Mario Brothers. This film has a unique hook in that it's got a true story about a gamer who was such a fan, such a pro at the video game Gran Turismo, a racing simulator, that he ends up winning a competition to actually compete on a professional level in the actual in actual racing and compete with professional racers that have, like, trained their whole lives for it.

Speaker 1

It was a good movie.

Speaker 2

Yeah, in fact, because it was a good movie, it's become more like an eight or nine, yeah, so you know, if you get my meaning Like in earlier years, in like early 2000s or something like that, a movie like this would be like maybe a seven or a six.

Speaker 1

But because of how shitty movies are nowadays and how corrupted and all the political virtue signalling and all, that gender pushing. Yeah, all that stuff that's corrupted so many intellectual properties. Nowadays, gran Turismo is such a breath of fresh air especially after watching Barbie and reviewing that piece of shit because it's just a simple story.

Speaker 2

It's trying to entertain its audience and it's not trying to subverting expectations for the sake of it or trying to push a certain political message.

Speaker 1

It's not acting like the world's saviour.

Speaker 2

Yeah.

Speaker 1

It's just acting like a movie and just telling a straightforward classic hero's journey. Three act structure, following all the textbook cliches, but because of the great cast like David Harbour or Lindo Bloom, and the main character is played by Archie Maddukwi, these guys do such a phenomenal job of elevating what would look like to be a pretty typical cliched story, the premise, especially for a video game movie.

Speaker 2

Yeah.

Speaker 1

And they elevate it into something special. They give it all these special moments and make it so much more emotionally investing.

Speaker 2

Agreed.

Speaker 1

You find yourself going like I know where this roller coaster is taking me, but I'm just enjoying the ride.

Speaker 2

I could tell what was coming up along the hero's journey, the ups and the downs, but I never felt like they phoned it in. I actually could believe and be immersed in the journey that every character was going through. It really helped that because this was based on a true story that I could actually feel and believe in the gravity and the severity of the situation and, as a result, be emotionally invested whenever they have their highs and whenever they have their lows.

Speaker 1

Yeah.

Speaker 2

And it was really elevated by the acting. Like I actually felt that they really put in their efforts for, like, in the pitch meeting that these actors would have gotten, they would have known that it was a video game movie and, with the stigma of video game movies, they could have easily just like phoned it in and so on. But like I feel like for a video game movie, they didn't need to have a team of writers to write a very textbook movie but they still put in. Like, even though I think you said it was a pretty cookie cutter of a script, the acting really breathed life into it. Yeah, made it believable.

Speaker 1

You could see the script was like the skeleton of like a very cliche underdog story. But there's, all these fun little moments and winks and nods and little things that give it that special flash where you feel like this is more than a normal video game movie.

Speaker 1

And the fact that the actors aren't phoning it in. You don't feel like the actors looked at this and said, oh, it's a frickin' video game movie. Yeah, I'll just do this for the paycheck. They've actually got talented actors Orlando Bloom and David Harbour phenomenal in their different roles as mentor figures for Yarn, the racer, the gamer, and David Harbour especially. He is definitely not phoning it in. Agreed, agreed. Yes, you feel like he is giving 110% conviction in this movie and he provides some of the best laughs, the most emotionally engaging moments, and he hooked me in Like I wanted to know more about his backstory.

Speaker 2

Oh yeah, and they were planting the seeds carefully throughout, like the Act One that gets a satisfying payoff at like the later half of the story.

Speaker 2

They were sort of subtly and I would just appreciate it, for I don't know how predictable it was and how well executed it was, which is weird to say because we like it sounds like a complaint Be saying that, oh, I can predict what's coming up, but the fact that it was just like finally, a movie was just doing textbook things, I was just happy to be taken on a journey to see them like. Oh, it's like we know this is the archetypal mental figure who's had a grand life in the past and was met with some kind of tragedy that stopped him in his glory days. He's like a shell of his past. And now he's the mental figure who's going to pass the torch to our protagonist, who's going to learn from the mistakes of the mentor or that. We knew all of that was happening. We could see it from a mile away and I never once complained about that. In fact, I want to see, like, just how well they executed this textbook maneuver, you know.

Speaker 1

I wanted to see more detail, and I think that's not so much a complaint, it's more. The movie left me wanting more. I didn't feel the movie went over time as well, which is a common complaint for new movies these days. It left me on a high note where.

Speaker 2

I was like yeah, perfect ending beautiful satisfied. Exactly. We, as human beings, like to see the underdog go through obstacles and triumph over everyone doubting them. We like to see the hero rise from the rise of the phoenix from the ashes, from the lowest points, to a satisfying conclusion.

Speaker 1

It's also fun to see the doubters like in a movie like this, especially where the main protagonist is a gamer. You know it's typical the game plays video games all the time and the parents are like stop playing your freaking video games and go outside and play ball. But this kid ends up proving to everyone that gaming is awesome and makes a career out of playing video games his whole life. It's truly the game's dream.

Speaker 2

What every gamer aspires to. Yeah, I'm happy to see the narrative slowly shifting, that there's no longer a negative stigma that gamers like just basement dwellers who are physically inactive and can't even sprint 100 meters.

Speaker 1

It challenges the old stereotype and I think that also comes into what the creator of Gran Turismo was trying to achieve was to say this game is so realistic that we are actually teaching people how to drive racing cars, and you see that through the game. You see how well the video game prepares these kids for the real life racing experience. There's obviously going to be some stuff that they have to adjust to and realize it's not as easy. There's things that just can't be done on the road, like there's no reset button, there's no pausing, especially during a 24 hour race, which I can't believe. That's a thing.

Speaker 2

Yeah, like I was two days or when I learned that they literally just like have a few races in rotation just for 24 hours straight, just nonstop driving. That has to be the loudest, like 24 hours on earth.

Speaker 1

The main climax. The main race is called the Le Mans race and apparently it's a real thing and it goes for 24 hours. Who the freak watches racing for 24 hours? Like, why would an audience be in the crowd at the start of a 24 hour run? Wouldn't you just leave and come at the last, like 20 minutes?

Speaker 2

All that matters is the final few laps.

Racing Movie Review and Discussion

Speaker 1

Yeah, I agree, like we cricket Like when they got the ashes that go for like three days and shit. I always say to myself why the hell would you want to watch a game for an entire day? Just shorten it. Oh man, yeah, I don't get that.

Speaker 2

But I don't know, there might be cricket fans that are fricking grabbing their pitchforks right now. They're grabbing their cricket bats.

Speaker 1

They're grabbing their cricket bats and they probably want to hit me over the head right now, but only if I post this on TikTok, where the real crazies are. It's funny that, like nowadays, movies can be so good when they just ignore being so like, overly political and preaching to its audience. And yeah, we were actually making fun of the movie poster on Instagram saying that this movie, oh my God, it's a. It's a deconstruction of toxic masculinity.

Speaker 2

Put it up. Put it up, martin, in editing. Yeah, send me the video later, please.

Speaker 1

It's also like one of those movies that isn't too much to really grab onto, like there's not a lot to talk about.

Speaker 2

Yeah, I foresee this is going to be like a short episode Because it's such a, you know, textbook movie there's really not really much to write home about. I don't really have much to say. Like I mean, yeah, other than it's so normal of a movie that, unfortunately, in the current like lineup of movies we've had in 2023 and the 2020s to be honest, covid year kind of movies that post COVID year that hey, this is just a movie movie. Okay, it's like we shouldn't be finding this movie to be refreshing. What's textbook shouldn't be refreshing and that's just like a bigger indicator of just the current state of Hollywood. I guess a conventional three act structure hero's journey is something that we enjoyed so much that we actually reinvigorated our love of cinema, or something. When this movie is just the norm, it's just what a movie should be.

Speaker 1

I also found it refreshing because this is an existing IP and Hollywood doesn't have a good track record with existing IPs. When there's an existing IP, it's usually either confined to the platform, like a video game movie can be constrained in some ways because it has to appeal to a video game audience, but then you've got movies like Barbie that just totally flip over and become something completely different, to the point where you don't even know that it was a Mattel endorsed product. Whereas this had this great balance, grant Turismo had a great balance where it was appealing to the fans of it, but a non-gamer could get behind the story because it was simple to understand.

Speaker 2

It tells a very pretty universally understandable underdog rising from the ashes kind of story that can be separated from, like video gaming, but what it just happens that the premise is that a gamer has risen from the bottom. And then there's one point in the why do video game movies suck? Episode that I failed to raise, which we only kind of touched upon, which is that another reason that video game movies have sort of the stigma of being like poorly realized is that sometimes the director, the producers and the actors themselves, if they are not gamers themselves, then it's harder for them to realize and breathe life into their characters, because if they're not a gamer then it's not like they can. There's some kind of source material that they can read. They actually have to put in the hours to play the game, but if they're not a gamer they don't know their own character to the full extent that a gamer actually would for a certain franchise.

Speaker 2

You know you get what I mean. Yeah.

Speaker 1

But the great thing is that, because this movie is based on a true story, these are real characters.

Speaker 2

You don't have to play the video games. No.

Speaker 1

And the real life. Young Martin Barrow actually played the stunt double for the actor in this movie.

Speaker 2

Good little trivia. Information in the at the ending yeah, and so you can tell that this had passion.

Speaker 1

The acting standards are way above what you'd expect from a video game IP, something like Uncharted, which was produced by the Sony production company. Like we had held that last and that came out, I think, last year or the year before. Yeah, but when I compare I would not even think that they're in the same universe because it's so different.

Speaker 2

Same corporate backing as well.

Speaker 1

So the director of this film was Neil Blomkamp. He's known for doing films like District 9, chappy. They usually have a very similar look to them, but he's good at dealing with subtext and social kind of commentary. He gives his films, I feel like, a very gritty, realistic look. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's true, and this film has that. It's not like over the top with its colours and vibrancy, it's realism.

Speaker 2

So let's jump on to the next chapter of this review, which would be about just the cinematography of it. So it's realism, not any fancy blue and red light, none of that sort of like euphoria kind of look with Zendaya. Well, it's not.

Speaker 1

Super Mario Brothers, like you don't expect.

Speaker 2

They're not going for the over saturated, they're grounding it in realism. Good sound design really elevated the frantic and the visceral nature of the car races. The quick insert shots and then coupled by the really rumbling of the car engines and the zooming shots and just like the extreme close ups really helped to elevate us sort of exploring the protagonists, psyche and adrenaline, mixed with anxiety, fear, all that stuff Like when we have close ups of eyes and so on. And also to it's helped by the, the taller expanded 1.85 to one aspect ratio. So when you have a taller aspect ratio people's faces take up more of the entire canvas of the movie. Yeah, just really like that fast pace sort of editing where for the most part I wasn't being whiplashed by the speed of the editing, I could follow the action as well.

Speaker 2

But my only caveat is and I will stick by the argument I made in the review for the Netflix movie Dayshift with Jamie Foxx, which is that I do want the use of FPV drone shots. So it's when like like five, like all these Dutch angle flying through crowds and going under the ball thing. I do think that for a movie just solely on like race cars that it does call for like those FPV drones shots, for like the tracking shots. But I still do stand by the FPV drone should be used in moderation because they were yeah, more sparingly because they were having shots like going through audience and the crowds and under things and over things and this was nowhere near as bad as Dayshift.

Speaker 1

Oh no, I remember Dayshift was like that ambulance movie where the drone was just flying everywhere and you can tell it was a drone in this. I was like, oh, this could have been a crane shot. Or like this makes sense, it's setting up the racetrack.

Speaker 2

It's getting us the speed of everything you know and it's you know, yeah, it works for those dynamic, fluid movement to the camera.

Speaker 1

But in Dayshift I was just like that's a drone shot. That's a drone shot, Like I thought that they were going to have DGI just in the bottom right corner because of how much and how blatantly obvious the drone shots were in that movie.

Speaker 2

Yeah, where is this? Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1

It was seamless.

Speaker 2

Yeah, they were blending them in, really well, yeah, it makes sense for a racing movie that you use those fast, like zooming, like flying shots, for sure, but they must have got the speed right on that thing, Whereas, like in Dayshift, I felt they had it like maxed out this movie. The guy was like no, let's turn it down a bit, let's install it down yeah it matches the velocity of the cars and stuff and I there was one shot I really really liked which emulated the camera behind car look and the turning is like and as a cinematographer I'm more like immersed in just figuring out logistically, like physically, how they achieved that shot.

Speaker 2

So it's like you're actually turning and it to emulate the video game look, and so on. And the other thing I liked is that is the overlays, the like final lap, fourth lap, fourth place. They actually conveyed information very well. They had like the tracking shot saying Yen was like now 12th place, and this is not in the camera department, but I liked how the antagonist was easily identifiable because he was always colored gold. So I liked that. The cinematography, they kept it wide. When they needed to be, they punched in for closeups to really get the adrenaline pumping and there was a clear understanding of like the of where the blocking, where everyone was and it's and it's really helped by the video game sort of overlays. There was one bit at the introduction in the beginning.

Speaker 1

There was a part where we were kind of like both had difference of opinion, where I didn't dislike it, just so you know, Yen was being chased by a cop and he was having this car chase and the movie was just making all these video game announcements like cap avoidance, and it would just slap across the screen and, like you did it, you win all this crap and I thought it was freaking hilarious.

Speaker 2

I thought, so too.

Speaker 1

Yeah, because it made me feel like the movie is not taking itself. Are you right? Oh, jesus Christ.

Speaker 2

But I was saying it was so cheesy but I didn't hate it. I also found it funny. I thought it was cute.

Speaker 1

It was nice to have those little winks and nods to video game, especially for people who've played green, you win.

Speaker 2

You winner that thing. We just come up. Lead time 0.071 seconds. Whoa, if cops evaded. To win your winner. It reminded me of that bit.

Speaker 1

It was the South Park episode. Are you all right? Yeah, I'm good, no, no, no, keep going.

Speaker 2

For those listening Martin was spilt all of his tea all over himself.

Speaker 1

An actual spit take. Yeah, spit take. Now I'm worried about you drinking tea.

Speaker 2

And now I'm just drenched everywhere. Anyways, audio listeners with no context. Now you have context.

Speaker 1

You always say something that's going to sound dirty to people listening, with no context, and that's another time when Martin says something. I should make a little segment where I'm like Martin says something inappropriate, unintentional, innuendo the one tiny, I guess, pet peeve I had just jumping back to.

Speaker 2

I guess.

Speaker 2

One final point about the cinematography before we move on, which is kind of a negative and a pro bit of a fence sitter on this is that when they first announced this movie, I did scoff at the idea.

Speaker 2

I was like, oh great, it's just Sony banking on a franchise to make another movie.

Speaker 2

And because of that, of the fact that it was a video game movie, I was a bit biased in the sense that I was conscientious of the fact that this is a movie with a corporate incentive behind it, where it was more of a proof of concept kind of movie, where they used this movie to to sort of like demonstrate and test out the like Sony Venice cameras and so on, like the same ones they use in Top Gun. I think it was shot in Sony Venice where the sensor block could be separated from the camera body and then placed in sort of like tiny little crooks and stuff. And then so I was thinking like it was more so just Sony showing off their like cinema lineup of cameras and stuff. And then that's why, as we were saying, I was surprised that they could have just had like a very textbook script, but they actually put in effort into exploring the emotional like journeys of everyone, the clearly defined character arcs with everyone had their motivations and how they come together and so on.

Subplots and Cinematography in a Film

Speaker 1

They didn't need to do that, there was no point in the movie where I felt like, okay, there's too much racing, there's not enough character stuff. Oh, that's true, and other way around. There was no point where I was like bored, wondering when the next race is happening. I felt like they broke it up really well to the point where there was nothing I felt needed to be cut. There were no scenes I felt were too long or too short. There were little things that I would love. Would have loved to see more of that could have been probably added, like 10, 15 minutes, like, for example, the. It's not really like a main antagonist, but Jan has to have obviously a rival racer to compete against.

Speaker 2

You need that antagonist to the Protangers, and yeah, and that antagonistic force, for sure, for sure, and David.

Speaker 1

Harbour's character used to train and help out with this guy. I think his name was Kappa Kappa. Yeah, I missed that detail. Or his team was Kappa, whatever.

Speaker 2

But yes, it's Kappa.

Speaker 1

And this guy, you know, he plays dirty on the racetrack. He hits Yannica once and almost causes a major car accident. He almost gets Yann into some deep shit. Yeah, actually, and there was a point where I thought they were going to go full Rocky style with this villain and make him a bigger deal than he was, but the movie decided we're not going to focus too much on that. So while I would have liked to see more of this villain, I would have loved to see, like, what motivates him, why he's the way he is. The film makes little remarks to allude that he's kind of this spoiled brat that's just been handed everything, but it would have been nice to understand more maybe more from a point of view why this character has such a problem with Yann coming from the gaming world into the racing world, like maybe they could take creative liberties and exploring his psyche.

Speaker 2

Well, I guess. My counterpoint, though, is that we don't want this biopic to be like a two and a half hour movie, I think they just needed this to be a serviceable, surface serviceable with a surface level antagonist, and it's one of those nice to haves, but I don't think it's absolutely mandatory because it would have taken attention away from Yann's hero's journey. You know what I?

Speaker 1

mean it's just a little bit Like maybe one more scene with him having a confrontation without it extending the runtime too long. Something small like that. I felt like there was a moment in the film where that was going to happen, but it didn't quite happen. But it's not like a big deal, it's more like, like you said, it would have been nice, but instead he's just kind of like just looks like Anakin.

Speaker 2

Skywalker Good typecasting, don't you agree? It's like he's got the douchey haircut, you know it's got like you know, the European look with like the very defined cheek bones and stuff. Do you hate?

Speaker 1

Europeans You're trying to like maybe, as a villain or something. I'm just doing that thing that people on TikTok do where they like just take apart every little thing you say and say that it's racist or sexist.

Speaker 2

They scrutinize, like just one sentence you say, and then they just like recontextualize, it's like oh my.

Speaker 1

God, of course you like this movie. It's a three male lead movie and there's no girls in it. You fucking sexist. There were female characters in this, but it does bring up a good point.

Speaker 2

There was also a love subplot that wasn't really given a lot of time but I don't think if this movie needed to explore that in more detail, same with the antagonist. And what would you say to that? Do you think the romance subplot is something that they should have spent like maybe three more minutes on or something, or was it serviceable enough to advance the plot? Do you think?

Speaker 1

I think it was serviceable. When I first saw it, I was kind of like I just didn't want to see a lot of it. From the first scene where I saw her, it was a bit like okay, I know where this is going, it's too cliched. I'm bored by that. So I think the movie did a smart job of being like this is the stuff we have to put in, but we're not going to spend too much time on it.

Speaker 2

Nothing overstays its welcome. Same with like and you said earlier, none of the set pieces also fit Like. Yeah, the things were well spaced out. Typically in like video game movies, especially movies based on video games, they will just have set pieces for the sake of it, and then they try to only just reverse engineer to figure out in post. How do we then string together these large chunks of like exciting, adrenaline pumping action scenes, like it's, those bits in between? That's just a bit of a drone fest.

Speaker 1

Yeah.

Speaker 2

But yeah, good on the subplots and everything where they just needed to do just enough and not overstay its welcome with the romance and the surface level villain and I guess just something to add on to the cinematography aspect on it, which I wanted to add on in the Day Shift episode is that when you're a movie viewer watching a Hollywood movie, you're going in with the knowledge that this is a multi-million dollar project. And so suddenly, when you're watching all these footages that are shot expertly on RE cameras and RED cameras and so on, and then you suddenly see in the editing that they cut to what's obviously a GoPro shot, you're taken out of the immersion because you're conscious of the fact that all of a sudden they are cutting to a camera that any prosumer, any consumer, can just achieve by going to their local JB Hi-Fi and like just by a camera that's off the store shelves, and so it sort of negatively impacts that perception of what's supposed to be an expensive project, it's also jarring.

Speaker 1

It is jarring because I'm not a big cinematography guy. I have you for that. I'm not a big tech guy, but I can tell when it goes from like 1080p to 480 or potato mode. Like you could tell, there's a difference between what they're using, because it goes from buttery, smooth and full HD. Full detail to. Oh my god, did someone put Vaseline all over the camera?

Speaker 2

You, as an average consumer, recognize that it's a GoPro because it's a very popular camera and so when you're conscious of that, it takes you out of well the story. You're more thinking about the logistically. They just used a suction cup in the interior of a car to attach a GoPro, which my son has, you know, and I myself have shot footage that looks like that.

Speaker 1

Do you have a son?

Speaker 2

I have a son.

Speaker 1

I never knew I'm the father. What's his name?

Speaker 2

Oh dear, oh god, I have a 13 year old son that I never knew about What'd you do you have a kid when you were eight, oh god. This episode just took a whole talk time Speaking of FPV drones used sparingly, yes, and GoPro's. I'm glad they didn't use GoPro's. I'm glad they still use the same sense of log.

Speaker 1

It would have looked weird if they used the GoPro.

Speaker 2

They needed to keep up. Keep a consistent aesthetic.

Speaker 1

Like you were saying just realistic lighting.

Speaker 2

Oh, and I guess, final thing, I like the sparing use of sort of slow-mo shots to really like build the scene. It's the tiny moments, it's the tiny details like the wheels kicking up the gravel and the dirt, and you can really pick up those details. When it's like extreme slow-motion, like high FPS, you can see the grit and the dirt and the visceral nature of it. It helps to really build that. This racetrack, this is the real world, this is where you experience the G-force, this is where you feel the inertia from when you initially pump on the accelerator that you'll really push back into your seat. It's those tiny attention to details that they incorporate into the editing and along with, like, the really rumbly sound design that you experience best when you're in the very center of the cinema, that really just get like, really hits you in like heart thumping adrenaline.

Speaker 1

It would have been good if this was like in those chairs that move around and shit.

Speaker 2

Oh, that would be cool.

Speaker 1

That would have been cool yeah 4D would have worked well with this.

Speaker 2

Yeah, let's like Google and put that comment down in the section below. If this is like an actual thing, like some Sony theater, this would be a good marketing sort of thing to sell to general audience. You know, but it is two hours and so so it might be a bit long for that.

Speaker 1

This didn't feel that long. This did not feel like a two hour movie.

Speaker 2

Did you feel like this movie could have some scenes shaved down, I wonder? I do feel like, for the scope of the story they were telling of this biopic, I think they did need every minute of it. Any scenes did you feel like could be cut out just for like a sort of a bridged version? Do you think, or do you think, this was the perfect length?

Speaker 1

I think it was perfect. Length yeah, felt just right Ended. I mean, if I don't look at my phone for a whole movie, that means it's good pace when you talk about cinematography, though, one of the things that really got me was the car crashes, without spoiling too much in the movie. There's a car crash in this movie that was so visceral with the way it was captured inside the driver's seat and with everything going on.

Speaker 2

It actually brought up stuff for me, because I've been in a car accident and I was like they captured that very well that the whole blacking out sort of it captured the psyche of the trauma of being in a car accident, like you're talking about the use of the cinematography and the sound design to sort of realize that sort of like I'm blacking out.

Speaker 1

Yeah.

Speaker 2

Like deep breathing, sort of heart pumping, sort of like oh my god, I'm starting to lose myself. I'm starting to just like oh my god, I feel like I'm going to faint so like visions are flashing before me yeah, there was just so many visual things that were popping and made it feel raw and like holy crap.

Speaker 1

even though your seat's not moving, you feel like you're about to fly out of it and fall down into the ball pit or whatever down where the people you know. We were upstairs, so I'm like we could have fallen over the railing and gone down. That's how it felt with the car crash.

Speaker 2

So yeah, I guess as a cinematographer I didn't mind the like all too obvious Sony product placement and like proof of concept advertising with the cinema line of cameras and stuff. And yeah, as I go home, I would want to just like research what lenses they use for, like the swirly bokeh and like when they really close up on the eyes and stuff. And speaking of product placements, oh fuck, let's go into that.

Speaker 1

Yeah, my only gripe with Sony movies is they always have to remind you constantly that it's a Sony movie, like you see so many products and so many times where Sony is just lavered all over the screen. And normally I'm okay with it. But there's one part in this movie, a really emotional moment, that's freaking, very well acted and fully invested. But then you just see a giant Sony logo in the center of the frame and you're like, fuck guys, couldn't we have like taken it out of this scene and put in some other useless establishing shots or something? And there's plenty of useless shots that have PlayStation logos and Sony and Gran Turismo logos. And it's all good, I get it. I understand that this is, I mean, ideally this is a giant commercial for Gran Turismo. Of course, much better standards than most kind of intellectual properties, of course. But I know going into this it's going to have some product placement. But there was that. Just it really kind of irked me on that particular scene.

Speaker 2

The Sony.

Speaker 1

Walkman yeah, it's like the actor's crying, he's got tears coming down his face and then the next shot's just a big Sony. I'm like you totally took me out. You totally took me out of it.

Speaker 2

No, 100% agreed, 100% agree.

Speaker 1

I don't want to like see someone like about to die in a movie and then a character goes and grabs a defibrillator and he's like thank God I have these Sony sponsored defibrillators nearby, oh dear. Click, click, click. So that was one very small gripe, but I knew it was coming, because Sony are freaking terrible at hiding their product placement in movies.

Speaker 2

Yeah, it wasn't even subtle about it, especially because it was a prop that was used at an emotional high point of the movie. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1

But having said that, this movie is, if this is Morbius and this is yeah, if this is Morbius and this is Into the Spider-Verse, it's like around here it's definitely more leaning more towards Spider-Verse than it is towards Morbid time.

Speaker 2

I was wondering how Morbius got brought into this conversation.

Discussion on Gran Turismo Movie's Enjoyability

Speaker 1

Because it's a Sony movie. Oh, okay, I see what you mean. That's why people thought this would be shit, because Sony either does really fucking good with Spider-Man or they do really freaking bad with Spider-Man, like Morbius and Uncharted. There's no in between.

Speaker 2

Rarely. Is there an in-between movie. That's a good point. No, I agree, I agree, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a, it's a movie, movie.

Speaker 1

Having said that it would have been good if there was, like maybe a post-credits scene where Morbius just came out and he was like I'll see you, I'll see you on the racetrack. Morbius will return, it's morbentime. But yeah, I loved Gran Turismo. I thought it was a great time, very fun movie. Might not be the most memorable film, but if it's on like this would be the perfect movie to watch on a plane trip or something like that. And you'll get invested but you won't. It's probably not something you'll go back to, but it was an enjoyable experience.

Speaker 2

I think well, with the comment on like, this would be sort of a movie to like pass the time on like a plane or something.

Speaker 1

That doesn't mean bad.

Speaker 2

No, it's just. I do think, though, that because this for a racing movie, there's all the more attention put into the sound design and sort of that larger than life sort of scope that you would sort of be doing at this service to not watch this in a theater.

Speaker 1

Yeah or great home theater system.

Speaker 2

Whereas if you're only watching this through headphones, earbuds on the plane, then you would miss out a lot on the careful attention to detail in sort of the editing and the sound design, and you'd only be watching it for the story. And if you're only watching for story then I guess it's somewhat of a serviceable like underdog rise from the bottom to the top sort of like. Here is journey thing. Yeah, if you want something that's serviceable not a problem.

Speaker 1

I'm saying taining fun visuals and isn't trying to shove a political message down your throat, then grant to Rismo is a good time.

Speaker 2

Yeah, no, 100% agree.

Speaker 1

Yeah, I'd give grant to Rismo, maybe like a seven and a half 80 out of 10.

Speaker 2

Yeah, Mmm, let's stick around. See, it's hard because, like the recent slate of movies really has dragged down sort of my hopes for Hollywood storytelling. And so when you know there's a very textbook heroes journey where you see the inciting incident, you see the hero, you know going through the obstacles, because you know obstacle, like friction, builds character, and then you see, like at the end of act two, the hero reaching a low point, you know, with the big accident that happened. Are we talking spoilers?

Speaker 1

We're talking spoilers.

Speaker 2

We've got to let him know, yeah, spoilers.

Speaker 1

Spoiler warning.

Speaker 2

Okay, here's your spoiler. Look you just got Someone dies. Okay, I'm just going to split that out. There there was. I didn't even count down to the spoilers, but someone dies Spoiler.

Speaker 1

Morbius is in the movie.

Speaker 2

Yes, he is and.

Speaker 1

Vulture and Spider-Man.

Speaker 2

But if I was to continue by that point of the movie, we've seen the character progress and go through so many doubters. And then when he had that really fatal accident where his car was going up a hill and it acted like a sail, All right, we don't have to say exactly what happened Okay so anyways, he is.

Speaker 1

You can just say he went through a trauma. Yeah and yeah.

Speaker 2

And like being indirectly responsible for the actual death of somebody.

Speaker 1

You could have said the character deals with some guilt following a trauma.

Speaker 2

Okay, well, by that point we have.

Speaker 1

been so, jesus man, if we were talking about Star Wars, would you say, oh, and Darth Vader's Luke's father?

Speaker 2

Now, yes, because everyone. Yeah now. But I'm saying if we were reviewed, back when it first came out.

Speaker 2

Anyways, my point is that by that point of the story we were so, even though we knew something bad had to happen, because of us seeing the trailer we was, by that point of the story, we had been so engrossed in the character's progression and invested that we really bought into it. Yeah, even though it was predictable. But again, like I said at the beginning of this episode, me saying that this movie was predictable was not a complaint, and so, yes, I would give it a seven, but it's like it's just what a movie is supposed to just do. That's just a baseline.

Speaker 2

So, I supposed to rate it so high.

Speaker 1

If this movie came out in another time in the world when movies weren't so shit, this movie would probably be a six six and a half probably.

Speaker 1

But because of the current state of Hollywood and with how terrible movies are, for example, if I watched this movie right after Thor, love and Thunder, I'd probably say it's a 10 out of 10 movie, just because of how bad Thor, love and Thunder is. But, being fair, I also went in with low expectations, so that's another thing which probably affected you. Yeah, that's the thing. We both thought. It's an intellectual property, it's a video game movie and no one was really talking about it. And it's a Sony movie. Yeah, so there's a lot of things working against it there, where we say it must be shit, but it wasn't.

Speaker 2

Yeah, so yeah, I guess. Ultimately my point is it's definitely above average, but I'm hesitant to give it a higher score than the movie honestly is. It's just a textbook hero's journey movie. It's not meant to be a refreshing thing. So I'll say seven, but only just hesitantly.

Speaker 1

You know it's not groundbreaking, it's not Nolan-esque like poignant storytelling, you know oh because we didn't see the car accident at the start and then we didn't see how it led up to the car accident. We didn't see that, nolan.

Speaker 2

Not linear, non-linear.

Speaker 1

Oh fuck, if Nolan directed this, we wouldn't have heard any of the freaking dialogue. Oh no, slow down, slow down. So, mike, is he here to tell you why you're racing so fast? Master Wayne, you shouldn't be racing like that, all right.

Speaker 2

Anyway, seven and a half and seven.

Speaker 1

I'll give it. I'll give it. No, you've convinced me. I'll give it a seven, seven.

Speaker 2

But I'm just questioning like our biases, has it been dragged down by you know? That's basically the point of my argument.

Speaker 1

I'm going to give it seven, yeah, seven, seven Sony Walkmans out of 10. Yep, with Kenny G Playing, or Anya, so Refreshing.

Speaker 2

Textbook Movies.

Speaker 1

Refreshing Yet Textbook Interestingly.

Speaker 2

Refreshing because it's textbook, you know.

Speaker 1

Yeah, the simplicity of this movie is actually its best asset. Agreed, agreed, 100%. Yeah, if Ryan Johnson directed this movie, you probably would have been like the guy dies, even though this is based on a true story of a guy that's alive.

Speaker 2

There's taking creative liberties, and then there's just absolutely shitting on the source material and going against reality.

Speaker 1

Yeah, he would have completely changed the whole story. Oh man, or maybe it would have been like would have had Daniel Craig playing his Knives Out character in his solving a who done it murder? It starts off you think it's a video game movie and it actually turns out to be a frickin' Star Wars sequel or something like that.

Speaker 2

Don't reinvent the wheel, sony and wheel and I'm glad you can Jesus, unintended puns, all right. So sevens all around and, yeah, average movie, you know. But fun, yeah, no, that's the key word. So it is a fun movie for sure.

Speaker 1

And that's us guys. I'm Michael Pishonary, joined by Martin Yong, and this is Movies Worth Seeing. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed the show, please leave us a like, share and subscribe, and you can also leave a review on Spotify or Apple Podcast if you enjoyed listening to this podcast. And that is it. That's us guys. Take care.

Speaker 2

Take care, drive safe out there, like all the need for speed games used to say at the beginning Out in the real world you're going to feel the G-Force. Oh shit, not another chair For the audio listeners out there. I fell, did you do that?

Speaker 1

First you broke a chair in one episode, and now you want to fall off a chair.

Speaker 2

The G-Force man, the G-Force. Goodbye guys, this ain't no racing game.

Speaker 1

Do you need a hand or are you okay? I'm okay.

Speaker 2

All right Audio listeners. You are missing so much by not watching the YouTube video.