As I said in my previous review I went to see Race yesterday and Risen this morning, and as you guessed from the title of the post, I liked Race slightly better. I'll explain why later in the review.
In with the review!
So Race tells the true story (a lot of true story movies this month!) of the insanely fast track and field star Jesse Owens (played by Stephan James). It generally focuses on his journey to the 1936 Olympic games which were held in Berlin, Germany and the games themselves rather than any other part of his life, which is straightforward and doesn't really get you bored with unnecessary events that happened in his life. On his journey, he meets and teams up with Larry Snyder (played by Jason Sudeikis) who helps him out with managing his life and his decisions.I went in this movie with really low expectations, and frankly it wasn't bad at all. It definitely could have been better, but it did its job well at sending you the message and letting you know who this dude is if you had no idea whatsoever or if you knew who he was and wanted to see his story on the big screen. I'll tell you this, on my way home I wanted to know more about Owens. He overall was just a really intriguing guy and I wanted to know more about him and his life, so I cannot say that the movie didn't make me care about him or like him because then I would be lying.
The acting in this movie was also for the most part good! The two that stand out though are James and Sudeikis. James had the entire movie on his shoulders. If he failed the whole movie would fail, and thankfully he did not. He delivered his lines perfectly and it made you feel for his character. Sudeikis is also someone who I was hoping he would do good as a drama actor, and he did not disappoint me. It's always awesome to see that an actor actually has an acting range and not just sticking to only one genre, and in this movie Sudeikis proves that he does have that acting range and I'm hoping to see him in more dramas! Jason Bateman and Owen Wilson also came out of their comedic comfort zones and did dramatic roles in The Gift and No Escape last year and they were also really good, so I hope more and more comedic actors like these three show us that they have a range (looking at you McCarthy).
However, the movie does suffer from a couple of things. The tone did not match the movie's story at all. You feel like it's a comedy TV show trying to be dramatic, so there was no consistency in the tone whatsoever, and it was something that really bugged me.
Also, the actual games, which are arguably the most important part in the movie, had absolutely no tension. Most of the games that he plays are just like 10 seconds long or less, and I wouldn't blame the director for not building tension because it's such a short time, but one of these events which were also 10 seconds long had me at the edge of my seat and it was one of my favorite moments of the movie, so why wasn't there tension in the other games?
All that being said though, I did overall like the movie, but it's not perfect in anyway except maybe the acting. When I saw Risen though I realized that personally there's a much higher chance of me seeing Race again without it being boring, so that's why I'm reviewing it instead of Risen. I would give 6/10 for both movies.
Quick reviews:
- Risen tells the story (it might also qualify as a true story depending on what you believe in) that by the now we all have it memorized, but it does say it from a totally different perspective of the non-believer Roman military tribune Clavius and I actually liked that so much. However, one of my problems with it is that I know how the story would go, how it unfolds, and how exactly it's going to end, so the entire second and third acts of this movie were, for me, very boring. That being said, if you are a religious person that really loves these stories and would like to see them in a well-made movie, then I would recommend this movie more than Race.
Are you guys excited for these movies? Which movie are you seeing this weekend?! Let me know in the comments below, and if you like this, share it with your friends! ☺
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