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The Race-ist


What it's about:

Lukas (Craig Palm) is a burger jockey at a roadhouse who desperately wants to follow in his white father Solly's (Jonathan Pienaar) footsteps of being a racecar driver, or as his eight-year-old self called it, a 'race-ist'. But he doesn't have a car and his father thinks he's a nobody. When two crazy backyard chemists recruit Lukas to test out their super biofuel, he finally gets the chance to put foot on the track with the help of his misfit friends and his trainer, Oom Noel.

What we thought of it:

So you're thinking "The Fast and The Furious" SA edition. So was I. And I'm excited about that description. Even the writers thought so – watch out for the corny reference in the first scene. Sadly, even Tokyo Drift leaves this hot mess choking on dust.

Rumour has it that this movie was filmed quite a while ago, so it's had more than enough time in post production. However, it feels like the film was plakked together by pre-schoolers during break time. From car doors that slam closed without any audio to a poor waiter who miraculously can afford to be taken up in the swankiest hospital in Jozi, it's riddled with simple filmmaking and continuity errors.

Car eye candy usually makes even the worst racing movies enjoyable. Do you at least get that here? No. We see the Golf tjorrie for over an hour, but the sexy Scirocco upgrade doesn't even get a full-length shot on the track. You should never waste an opportunity for car porn!

Then there's our dear Lukas, played by Craig Palm. It's hard to judge his acting because the script is so lame. With an awfully thick accent he says ridiculous things like "How's that going to learn me to drive?" Seriously? I get that they're trying to represent Lukas' modest roots, but the outcome is a big fail. His relationship with his white father who doesn't want him is also weird and it's never properly investigated, even though the movie's title rests heavily on this racial dynamic.

The cast reads like the Crystal Awards guest list: DJ Fresh, Strini Pillai, Ian Roberts, Genevieve Howard, "Bad" Brad Wood and others. They're all terrible in their roles. The best "actor" in the whole film was probably Kurt Darren, who cuts a fine evil businessman in the form of Zander van der Kloof. Murray Todd and Brandon Auret are really quite cute as the crazy chemists Cummif and Fillus; it's just a pity that they too are let down by a slow, unimaginative script.

It's a shoddy movie that had the potential to be good, but like a lot of wannabe car 'enthusiasts', they've spent more money on the body than the engine.

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