The flicks
The action in McLAREN is always fast, but never furious, while TRANSFORMERS: THE LAST KNIGHT shows some things that always change actually stay the same
MCLAREN (PG) Director: Roger Donaldson ( The Bank Job) Starring: Patty McLaren, Emerson Fittipaldi, Mario Andretti, Jackie Stewart. Rating:
A FASCINATING and genuinely illuminating documentary about New Zealand motor racing icon Bruce McLaren.
Even if you don’t dig the four-wheel sport in any way, the unorthodox blend of simple modesty, quirky humour and steely ambition that was McLaren comes through clearly and irresistibly.
It’s not often you walk away from a sports doco feeling a lot better for having learned a little something about someone you didn’t know before.
Australian petrolheads not totally familiar with McLaren’s bio will be particularly enraptured by what they encounter in this wellcrafted doco.
In many ways, the subject was the Kiwi equivalent of our own FI trailblazer Jack Brabham. He and McLaren were great mates, the New Zealander having burst on to the scene as a junior member of the Brabham-led Cooper Racing team.
In a career that spanned little more than 10 years before he died in a testing accident aged just 32, McLaren rapidly became an allconquering figure in both Formula One and elite event racing circles (his triumph at Le Mans is still revered in NZ).
What comes through strongly in the excellent archive footage used in the doco is how graceful a figure McLaren cut at the wheel of the open-topped vehicles which characterised the era. While definitely an aggressive driver, he certainly never posed a safety danger to his rivals.
Somehow, McLaren also found the time to lay the foundations for one of the greatest race car manufacturing operations in history.
Not bad for a laid-back lad who started out racing for peanuts in NZ beach rallies, and then later hauled along all his buddies from back home to join him on a high-speed ride to the big time overseas.
A lot of those same friends — who kept McLaren’s famous name alive by keeping his company going after his tragic death — are to the fore throughout this documentary.
Almost five decades on, they speak of Bruce McLaren so vividly and lovingly it is as if they had just seen him yesterday.
McLaren screens today at 1pm at BCC Cinemas Darwin ROUGH NIGHT (MA15+) Sharp and busy enough to appeal to most, this follows a group of former college friends reuniting after a decade apart for a bachelorette weekend in Miami. But the male stripper they hire dies before he can get his gear off. As the bride-to-be is running for political office, everything has to be hushed up, with plenty of laughs. ALL EYEZ ON ME (MA15+) A take on the life and times lived by the late, great Tupac Shakur, this is selective with the truth and damages the legacy of the rapper. The lead looks the part, but that’s about it, while the performance of Dominic L Santana as Tupac’s nemesis Suge Knight is abysmal. THE MUMMY (M) Not sure we needed another reboot of this old tale, but although it starts off sluggish and ends with a stumble, the rest is largely entertaining, if a little silly. All hell breaks loose when Nick Morton (Tom Cruise) opens up a crypt housing a malevolent evil spirit. The terrifying force proceeds to possess him and all hell breaks loose. WONDER WOMAN (M) Wonder Woman outshone her DC Comics superheroes in Batman v Superman, but she’s not quite as good in this, which follows her story from the days of sparring with fellow warrior chicks on an invisible island to trying to restore world peace during WWI. BAYWATCH (MA15+) The bronzed bodies in skimpy red swimwear are back, and at loggerheads with a heavyweight crime boss whose operations are crossing their patch of sand. It’s a bit too long at two hours, and nowhere near as good as the ’90s show of the same name, but OK for some light entertainment. CARS 3 (G) As the only Pixar Animation franchise that does not enjoy genuine universal appeal, and on the tails of a dismal Cars 2, this could have floundered. But Cars 3 isn’t all just more fuelling around. Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) is now facing obsolescence on the racetrack.If he’s no longer the fastest, can he be the smartest? After a Rocky-like training regimen, maybe.