The Reel Easy Review

Le Mans 66 or the better non Steve McQueen title; Ford Vs Ferrari.

“Caaaaaawww blimey” what an excellent movie! In fact one could probably say it’s better than “a fur covered frog” (new favourite phrase, thank you Jez Butterworth) 

Now if you were to write a perfect film for Christopher Whitmore then it would be about car racing and star three of his favourite actors, Matt Damon, Christian Bale and Jon Bernthal, so well done TSG you’ve well and truly won my money. 

This film tells the story of the famous battle Ford had with Ferrari to topple the iron like vice Ferrari had over the most prestigious of races, Le Mans. Ford buy the services of Carol Shelby (Damon) a former Le Mans winner and all round racing fanatic. He then enlists the help of his business partner, racing driver and mechanic extraordinaire Ken Miles (Bale). 

Together they rage war against Ferrari to create one of the most iconic cars of the 60’s; the Ford GT40. The story really progresses from there and the banter between these two actors/characters is wonderful to watch, even if their accents are a little broad ranging, with Bale's in particular wandering around the Midlands and then further up north on the odd occasions, making it sound like a particularly dodgy episode of 'Peaky Blinders'.

The drama of the whole thing is very much driven by the pantomime like baddies that do stray into the ridiculous at points, but that is all part of the fun in my opinion. Enzo Ferrari seems to be portrayed as a Godfather like mafia boss rather than the engineering genius he certainly was and Josh Lucas plays a sensationally irritating, single-minded and classically middle management arse, who is hell bent on removing our boys from the history books at every chicane. 

So we have all of this petrol fuelled tension and we haven't even got to the gritty racing itself, where you won’t find more dramatic revving and gear changes outside of The Fast and The Furious franchise. This visceral experience where you feel you're in the car with the drivers really keep this film moving at a tremendous pace and I couldn’t have enjoyed it more. No it probably won’t win any Oscars but for pure enjoyment you won’t find much better at the cinema this year.

Overall I’d give this film A RATING OF 8.3/10 and an absolutely massive recommendation for everyone who wants to have a bit of fun coming into the Christmas period. 

My names been Christopher Whitmore and thanks for reading!