dr-baker wrote:ibsey wrote:There's a pretty funny old skool racing film currently on Film 4 (in the UK), called Monte Carlo or Bust. I've only just caught the end of it (the bit when they race on the mountain roads in 1930 cars), but it looks awesome. I'm loving the description on the TV guide as it states, "they race their jaunty jalopies...in this madcap comedy". From the little of it I've seen of it so far, it sums up the film perfectly. Has anyone seen all of this film?
Reading this quickly made me think of the film, "Genevieve." Haven't seen it in years. Perhaps decades. And I've heard of Monte Carlo or Bust, even though I haven't seen it and initially thought you were making reference to a Herbie film.
I've seen both of those, albeit many years ago, and also "The Great Race" a send-up of the 1908 New York to Paris race if I remember rightly. All three of them follow basically the same premise.
My ultimate racing film, without a doubt, is Le Mans. Yes, everyone criticised it for having virtually no plot or dialogue - but that wasn't the point of the film. Steve McQueen wanted to race at Le Mans, his studio wouldn't let him, so he did the next best thing he could do. I don't think there is any other film that captures the atmosphere and tension of a major motor race so brilliantly - and for a dedicated petrolhead like me, the racing scenes and sounds are almost pornography!
Grand Prix comes in as a close runner-up purely for its exquisite cinematography, while I haven't seen Days Of Thunder for a long time so can't really comment. I hated Talladega Nights, but Cars is brilliant with some very clever humour that pleases petrolheads and families alike.
