Movie review: Rush (M18)

5 out of 5 stars

Now here is a movie. Director Ron Howard is one of the few filmmakers out there who still knows how to tell a straightforward, old-fashioned story.

He has no sense of style. He's not clever in the least. He's conventional to a fault. Yet somehow, his flicks pop with life.

He's like Steven Spielberg without all that troublesome ambition.

Rush tells the story of two real-life F1 racers, James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) and Niki Lauda (Daniel Bruhl), competing for glory.

Hunt is a romantic and the world's handsomest fellow. Lauda is a rat-faced tactician.

The men are opposites yet equals, and as the film goes on, one's heart goes out to both of them.

It's a movie with two heroes. One thing I love about Howard is that he isn't shy about just blabbing about the film's themes within the film itself. You're not supposed to do that, but I find it cute.

Hemsworth will stand there and say, basically, THIS is what I represent as a character, and Bruhl does the same.

There is no ambiguity at all, which means you can spend your time simply enjoying the narrative instead of having to think.

Rush actually reminds me a bit of Prisoners, another meat-and-potatoes flick about two very different but very lovely dudes.

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