Awake not Woke!

The movie itself is just not very good, it's clearly low budget and while the FX look ok there is surprisingly little actual zombie action in the movie. They are never really scary or threatening there just another obstacle to overcome. The acting is ok and though it's supposed to be a comedy horror the comedy just isn't funny and jokes are just dumb. There is some bad filmmaking and writing as well like horrible green screen inside vehicles, Zombies that seem to hide behind trees and appear in a large group out of nowhere. A nurse yells at a soldier for smoking and says it's bad for your health even though this is unrealistic for the 1930's. Smoking wasn't recognized as bad for you until the 50's and widespread recognition in the 60's. There is a lot of weird scenes of character posturing and pointing guns at each other threatening to shoot but nobody ever does anything. At the beginning there is inconsistences with how the Spanish character interact with the Nazis. Sometimes seeming to be frightened of them and then minutes later the same characters are openly defying them or laughing in their faces. As for woke it does check some of those boxes. There is a openly accepted Muslim character which is not accurate for the time and Muslims were virtually nonexistent in Spain at the time, so DEI. Then there is the tiny, scrawny angry, aggressive modern feminist type. Though it is tones down a bit and at least she's not full superhuman overpowered. There is also the 'good' communist who has to remind you literally every couple of sentences that he's fighting the 'bad' fascists. The amount of times he says this is so unnatural and distracting it really seems like a weird attempt at subliminal messaging. I saw reviews on other sites saying there is gay representation in the movie but I didn't see any. I was losing interest and paying less attention by the 1 hour mark so it's possible I missed something. All in all I would pass on this one.

This is another "should have been a mini-series" crammed into 150 minutes.

The story of the 1966 24h-LeMans, and the events leading up to it, is legendary. They did a good job of rendering it down to the most significant points. This movie condensed a lot of information by tweaking the facts. The main points stand. The order for Miles to lift and wait for the teammates for a dramatic end is true. The attempt by Ford to buy Ferrari is mostly true. I would recommend enjoying this movie, and, if interested in the history, read about the true events. You'll see what I mean. Matt Damon played a great Shelby. The character was whitewashed, but that's understandable. The real Shelby was a bit unsavory in his personal life. The best part was, by far, Bales. He nailed it as Ken Miles. He spent some time at Bondurant's school of high performance driving in preparation for the role. Bob Bondurant was still alive and active then(Died in 2021). He was a driver with Shelby's Cobra project. He was good friends with Ken Miles. There are so many stories about racing in this era. I hope this starts a trend. the next one probably should be about Penske or Smokey Yuneck.

Not as Good as the First

After rewatching the first movie and immediately starting this one, it became clear that some things didn’t quite add up. While it may not be fully woke, there are certain elements that feel noticeably forced. ⚠ SPOILER ALERT ⚠ Even though the first movie follows a simple “get from point A to point B” structure (despite having other elements mixed in), there was never a pause for reflection to really explore the romantic relationship between the father and the mother. In this sequel, we suddenly see Morena Baccarin’s character -with no real explanation of her background or work history- sitting in a chair in the main decision-making room. At the same time, the protagonist from the previous movie Gerard Butler (whose profession we do know) is out searching for spare parts, risking his life alone, also with very little explanation. While that is clearly a narrative device and helps justify the father’s health condition, the real issue is how it’s handled in the film later. In the first movie, that kind of "moments" felt somewhat plausible and were occasionally resolved using a “just in time” approach. Here, they overdo it and lean on it constantly, which ends up lowering the overall quality of the movie. Bottom line: it’s not on the same level as the first one, and while the woke elements aren’t obvious at first glance, there’s a small dose of them injected in a very roundabout and forced way.

I had to rewatch this movie in order to watch the sequel and I can safely say this first one is not woke. For the time it was made, there were already plenty of similar movies, but this one takes a fairly realistic approach → within the limits of its characters, since some of them have traits or constraints you may or may not like. I won’t name anyone to avoid spoilers. That’s it. Good cinematography and an entertaining watch.