F1: The Movie

                                                                                             Poster and photo images via IMDb.com

Seeing “F1: The Movie” with my 11-year-old grandson reminded me of my own motor racing career when I was about his age more than a half-century ago.

It took place on a go-kart track at the Marlboro sports car raceway outside Baltimore. My dad would pack my kart in the trunk of his Pontiac Bonneville, and we would go racing a couple of Sundays a month.

That go-kart was the greatest joy of my junior high school wonder years in an era when a young senator from Massachusetts was inaugurated president of the United States one sunny snow-covered Friday morning a few miles from our home in the Washington suburbs.

Feeling like that kid again is one of the many pleasures of this joy ride of a movie.

In my youth, drivers named Sterling Moss, Juan Fangio, and Jackie Stewart raced the Formula One circuits of Europe. Although their vehicles wore the storied auto dynasty badges of Lotus, Ferrari, Porsche and others, they look like comical cartoons, compared to today's perfectly aerodynamic, $15-million F1 rocket ships designed to never leave the ground.

From me and my go-kart to the biggest names throughout the history of Formula One, the sport has always been about boys and their toys.

Beyond asking if you're Brad Pitt, is cosmetic work really necessary?, no further thinking is required to navigate “F1: The Movie.” The cars aren't the only products of formulas in this project. So's the script. This is precision-engineered entertainment.

It helps to have Brad in the driver's seat. Veneers or not, as he rounds the bend of 60, the Oscar-winning actor and producer still has more charisma in the tank than any ten normal mortals of the male persuasion.

The role of coulda-been-a-contender driver Sonny Hayes fits Pitt as comfortably as Capt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell fit Tom Cruise in the latest “Top Gun.” That's no coincidence. Both blockbusters were directed by Joseph Kozinski, whose signature is getting superb performances from fine actors and the sleekest machines imaginable.

Javiar Bardim is reliably excellent as Reuben Cervantes, Sonny's former teammate and rival who now owns the APXGP Formula One team. APXGP is in last place in the standings, and Reuben is hundreds of millions in debt. With one driver out for the season, he's stuck with a cocky rookie Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris) to lead the team. In Hail Mary desperation, Reuben seeks out Sonny – currently a beach bum living in his van – to save the day.

Stop me if you've heard this one before …

Kerry Conden – who all but stole the show from her manly fellow Oscar nominees in the wonderful “Banshees of Inisherin” – does something similar here. She plays Kate McKenna, a former NASA engineer turned APXGP's chief designer who's got a lot to prove to folks, beginning with herself.

Interestingly, considering this is a story of cutthroat competition, there's no arch nemesis driving for another team. All the dynamics – the rivalries, jealousies, treacheries and betrayals – take place inside APXGP world. Ostensibly a star turn for Pitt, what “F1” is ultimately about is the team.

The team … and product placement.

From the cars to the drivers to the backgrounds whizzing by at 200 mph, any somewhat flat surface is a potential billboard. Not just the form-fitting jumpsuits and futuristic helmets, but the flame-retardant, body-sculpted underwear worn by Pitt and company are covered with logos. Not just for Mercedes and Geico, but for products ranging from Shark vacuums to to Tommy Hilfinger outfits. Ads for Expensify – whatever that is – not only adorn cars' roll bars (always in the POV shots) and Pitt's chest, but filled the Megaplex screen before the movie even began.

Pitt and Idris actually learned to drive their F1 cars for the film. They can probably thank Tom Cruise for upping the ante for being a prettyboy movie star anymore.

But the real star of the show is director Kozinski who fills the screen with such glorious action. Whether POV shots from the cars, high-speed jockeying wheel to wheel, or action seen from above, it's all visual poetry, making the pyrotechnics at the end feel redundant.

As he did with “Top Gun,” Kozinski makes technical details – the strategy of pit stops, the chemistry of tire rubber, the split-second negotiating of hairpin turns – understandable to general audiences.

Along with the exotic machinery and high-octane testosterone behind the wheel, the gorgeous settings in places like Abu Dhabi where moored mega-yachts flank part of the course add reminders that “F1” isn't just about speed.

It's also about wealth… power … glamor… style … excess. It's one more diversion mostly for rich men, for whom fast is never fast enough.

In other words, boys and their toys.