In the 2006 comedy Talladega Nights , Will Ferrell and Sasha Baron Cohen were hilarious as NASCAR drivers bent on each other’s destruction, while the mesmerizing 2010 documentary Senna traced the real-life competition between the Brazilian Formula One driver Ayrton Senna and his career archrival, the French driver Alain Prost.
Unfortunately, Morgan and Howard never really investigate their compulsion to drive; urges we saw explored fully in the supreme F1 doco Senna, and the torturous tale of extreme sportsman Aron Ralston, 127 Hours.
Unlike the charismatic Formula One racer Ayrton Senna — the subject of Asif Kapadia's superb 2010 documentary "Senna" — both Hunt and Lauda are extremely arrogant, albeit in diametrically opposite ways.
The plot lacks the grease-stained poetry of better gearhead clashes (such as the extraordinary 2010 documentary Senna ); cynically, Rush seems to be courting a video-game crowd impatient for another CGI-heavy Fast & Furious.
We don’t get many films about professional racing, only “Senna”, “Days of Thunder”, and “Talladega Nights” come immediately to mind, so it’s always refreshing to see a film attempt to capture the speed and power of the elegant machines built to satiate humankind’s relentless need to race.