I WOULD NOT CALL MYSELF A “LEAD FOOT,” but if the opportunity presents itself, I certainly will pick up speed when I am driving. Growing up, one of my favorite rides were any that involved me controlling the speed. Go-carts, racing cars, mock airplanes, you name it, and I would always get behind the controls to make the ride go faster. This satisfied my desire for speed until I could actual get behind the wheel of a real car. That did not take place until I reached sophomore year of high school. In a previous review, I talked about my time in driver’s ed class; I already knew how to drive before taking the class since I was taught at the age of thirteen. For those first few years, I never went over the posted speed limits. Even when other cars would pass me, I still stayed within the legal limits. Things started to change for me once I was in college. Depending on the prices between airline/bus tickets and auto rentals, it sometimes was easier to rent a car and drive back home for the weekend. The drive took between four and five hours usually. Seeing how other drivers were driving on the highway, I felt I had to at least keep up with the traffic around me. This was my first time going above the speed limits and it was exciting. I always made sure there was at least a fast car in front of me because in my mind, I deduced the police’s radar gun would pickup that driver instead of me. I do not know if this was a fact, but it worked since I was never pulled over for speeding.      AFTER MY SCHOOLING, HAVING ENTERED THE work force, my average driving speed tended to be five to nine miles over the speed limit, depending on my location. If on a side street, five would be the most I would go over. On a main thoroughfare, it would be a little higher, but nothing outrageous to attract attention. After taking the same route each day, I learned where the police would be hiding, waiting to grab anyone speeding. Whenever I was over the speed limit, when I came to their hiding place, I always slowed down so I was a couple of miles within the legal limit. I can honestly say, there has only been three incidents where I was way over the speed limit. One time, road construction and a train crossing made me late to class. On a side street, where cross streets ended at the road I was on, I was driving forty miles over the speed limit to try and make up time. The second time, I was driving in the Dakotas and realized at one point I was going 104 mph. With vast open land all around, there were no markers to gauge my speed. And thirdly, during the pandemic, nearly every driver on the expressway was on the average, doing thirty miles over the limit. That felt the most like racing to me, but nowhere near what I felt while watching this action, sport drama.      YEARS AFTER A NEAR FATAL ACCIDENT took him out of Formula One racing, a race car driver gets pulled back in from a former teammate, who is hoping to salvage his company. With Brad Pitt (Bullet Train, Babylon) as Sonny Hayes, Damson Idris (Outside the Wire, Snowfall-TV) as Joshua Pearce, Javier Bardem (Dune franchise, The Little Mermaid) as Ruben Cervantes, Kerry Condon (Night Swim, In the Land of Saints and Sinners) as Kate McKenna, and Tobias Menzies (The Crown-TV, You Hurt My Feelings) as Peter Banning; this film had some of the most intense race car driving scenes I have ever witnessed. The cinematography was amazing which was such a benefit for this picture since the script followed a set formula. It was not difficult to figure out what characters would do, but I have to say it was not such a distraction that stopped me enjoying this movie. The role for Brad was well suited for his type of cool acting with minimum exertion. Overall, the cast did a great job with what they were given. On a personal level, I had no idea so much thought and planning gets put into formula racing. This film definitely should not get stopped for any illegal turns or speeding.

3 stars