Also checked out the “I promise you it’s a theatrical release” movie Bennett’s War. This is the second “major” theatrical release they offered up for Labor Day. In other words, they gave up on the weekend… this is just end-of-Summer dumping ground content here. I had no idea what this movie was other than it was about an Afghanistan war vet. I didn’t know what the “war” was… the literal war, a figurative war, etc.
So Bennet’s War is a movie about motocross. Yeah, I guess that’s Bennet’s War… racing dirt bikes. To be fair, he was a soldier in Afghanistan who was wounded in the leg and rotated back to the States. His wound prevents him from doing anything too physical so he takes a job repairing motorcycles. But the call of racing bikes (and the cash money prizes) draws him back and, before can say “this is a sports movies?”, he’s out on the course, trying to prove himself and beat the bad guy racing team at their own game.
I’m not sure if this is just a generic sports movie that casually borrows glory about a war vet or a film about a wounded warrior working his way back to health. The movie kind of largely forgets the war stuff half way through so I think it’s just using the trappings of a returned vet story.
But, regardless of that, is this a good sports movie or a good motocross flick? I really, really, really don’t think so. It feels like someone got a GoPro, a drone, and found the slow-mo feature on the camera. Just a lot of splashy shots of cycles flying through the air and not enough emotional attachment to the race. Maybe a motocross fan will get more from the race footage, but I didn’t feel like they were presenting the sport in a meaningful way.
This is ultimately a well-made bad movie. Not because its incompetent, shot poorly, or even poorly acted… but because the drama is missing. The races are boring and repetitive. Again, maybe someone who loves the sports will see something I didn’t. Maybe they’ll enjoy this. I was severely bored.
Score: 59