Love the Beast

Dir: Eric Bana

2009

**

In 2009's Love the Beast two things are going on; 1) Eric Bana is learning how to make a film 2) Eric Bana is trying to be a racing driver. He doesn't really do a brilliant job at either. This feels like a real sickly-sweat buddy movie but without the buddy, or at least the buddy is a 1974 Ford Falcon coupe (a big red car). An anti-climax then when the buddy dies and Bana doesn't seem to give a damn, but then no one can stand up against the biggest display of egotism I've ever seen on screen, that and all the pointless interviews and moody shots of Bana's 'concentrating face', make this a film that could have easily just have been a fairly decent 30 minute TV documentary. Not all of it is bad though, it's nice to listen to passionate people, no matter what their passion and even though I'm not a 'Petrol-head', I quite like cars, American Muscle cars in particular, which helped, but in the end you know a film isn't up to much when Jeremy Clarkson pops up at the end and basically says (and I paraphrase) 'This is a stupid film, based on a stupid idea, you (Bana) are stupid'. Look closely and you'll find that this is actually a Top Gear production, so if that is your cup of tea and you are open-minded enough to watch a different ego act like a five year old instead of the usual three (Clarkson, May, Hammond) then this film is for you.