Producers: Doug Belgrad, Asad Qizilbash, Carter Swan and Dana Brunetti   Director: Neill Blomkamp   Screenplay: Jason Hall, Neill Blomkamp and Zach Baylin   Cast: Archie Madekwe, David Harbour, Orlando Bloom, Geri Halliwell Horner, Djimon Hounsou, Maeve Courtier-Lilley, Takehiro Hira, Darren Barnet, Josha Stradowski, Daniel Puig, Thomas Kretschmann, Richard Cambridge, Emelia Hartford and Pepe Barroso   Distributor: Sony Entertainment/Columbia Pictures

Grade: C

The sport cars that zoom around the track in the long-distance endurance racing of Neill Blomkamp’s “Grand Turismo” are basically moving  billboards, with advertisements splashed all over their bodies; so it’s appropriate that a movie about them should be a two-hour commercial for both the titular video game (issued by Sony Interactive, for PlayStation, making for a perfect example of corporate synergy) and the Nissan car company, which sponsored a competition to turn at-home gamers into actual race-car drivers.  And though it’s based on a real-life story, it’s as clichéd as any underdog sports movie written from scratch in accordance with the most basic screenwriting formulas.

The hero is Jann Mardenborough (Archie Madekwe), a young man from Cardiff, Wales, whose fanatical devotion to the simulated-racing game is a concern to his father Steve (Djimon Hounsou) and mother Lesley (Geri Halliwell Horner).  His obsession does, however, leave him time to go joyriding with his brother Cobie (Daniel Puig) and strike up a romance with winsome Audrey (Maeve Courtier-Lilley). 

Jann’s at his job at a clothing store when he’s informed of the contest Nissan marketing executive Danny Moore (Orlando Bloom) has persuaded his bosses to sponsor as a marketing tool.  He hastens to join the crowd of potential candidates, and with his stellar performance at a Cardiff gaming café as a credential, wins a qualifying race to secure a spot among those chosen to compete at the GT training center where tough-as-nails Jack Salter (David Harbour), a coach who’s a former driver himself, puts them through the paces that will winnow down their number to five. 

Jann barely makes the cut, but will eventually win out in a razor-thin victory against his chief rival Matty Davis (Darren Barnet)—Salter insistance on going with the result against Moore’s suggestion that Davis would be a better commercial choice being the deciding factor.  Jann goes on to earn his professional license in his first series of races despite the condescension of established drivers (even his own pit crew is more than a little skeptical).  He has a particularly bitter feud with Nick Capa (Josha Stradowski), the son of Jack’s erstwhile team leader Patrice (Thomas Kretschmann).

In his first pro race at Nürburgring Jann has a terrible accident in which his car goes flying and a spectator is killed.  Though quickly recovering, he’s understandably skittish about returning to the track, but Jack convinces him to do so by confessing how he allowed a similar accident at Le Mans years earlier to end his career.  Moore then puts together a team of sim drivers from the GT trials—Jann, Davis and Antonio Cruz (Pepe Barroso)—to compete at Le Mans, and despite various obstacles Jann proves able to comes in a close third against Capa, winning a podium finish for Nissan.  A coda outlines Mardenborough’s later professional racing career.

There are good things here.  Madekwe exudes a nicely awkward charm, and the racing action is expertly staged by Blomkamp, shot by cinematographer Jacques Jouffret and edited by Colby Parker Jr. and Austyn Daines, complete with accompanying graphs, statistics and narration to explain what’s going on in the recreated highlights of the races.  The sound effects and bellowing score by Lorne Balfe and Andrew Kawczynski in them add to their power, but can be overpowering in a large auditorium; one might be advised to bring along earplugs, or, if you use hearing aids, be aware of how to turn them off.  Martin Whist’s production design and Terry Anderson’s costumes are also assets.

Otherwise, though, things are less happy.  One can quibble over the tinkering the scripters have done with the historical record; Mardenborough won the third GT competition, not the first, and the Nürburgring accident, which actually occurred later in his career, has been transposed to his first race for dramatic effect.  That’s really secondary to the formulaic nature of the treatment of Salter and Moore, the one as a gruff Mr. Miyagi-esque mentor and the other as an oily manipulator with loose ethical values; neither Harbour nor Bloom can overcome the banal dialogue they’re saddled with, however hard they try.  Stradowski and Kretschmann make one-note villains.  The rest of the cast is stuck in stock mode; even Hounsou is reduced to melodramatic bathos.

But the main flaw of “Gran Turismo,” despite its sleek design and technical polish, is its glorification of pure merchandising.  Consider the introduction of Kazunori Yamauchi (Takehiro Hira), the creator of the game, whom Jann gets to meet at one point.  He’s presented in practically idolatrous terms, with others almost genuflecting in his direction.  This for a fellow who invented a video game that seduced heaven knows how many young men (and some women) into devoting countless hours to mastering it.  A considerable achievement, no doubt—as was Jann’s use of it to build a lucrative career.  But is either worthy of such hagiographic treatment?

If nothing else, though, “Gran Turismo” can act as encouragement to youngsters who choose to play video games nonstop in their parents’ basements, and perhaps as a consolation to mothers and fathers who disconsolately watch them whiling away the lives.  And as a fine advertisement for the game and Nissan, of course.