Before “Drive to Survive,” before Lewis Hamilton made Formula One fashionable, and long before IMAX cameras were strapped to carbon-fibre rockets, there was just a snorbs reporter with a dream… and Brad Pitt behind the wheel. In our F1 The Movie (2025) Review, we will unpack it all.
It's 2025. The team at Born to Watch trades nostalgia for noise as they deep dive into one of the year's biggest cinematic engines: F1 The Movie. With Pitt playing Sonny Hayes, a one-time F1 star turned paddock has-been, and Damson Idris as the cocky rookie you'll want to punch with a wrench, this week's episode is a fast, furious, and occasionally feral take on a film that tries to be Top Gun: Maverick on four wheels.
Whitey sets the pace with a bold take: Is F1 even about the story, or is this Avatar-level immersion with fuel and friction? He breaks down how this one's less about the emotional arc and more about tech flexing at 300km/h. Gow, never one to pass up a pit stop, steers us through Morgz parallels, real-life F1 credentials, and why Brad Pitt is still Hollywood's smoothest operator, even when he's getting screamed at by a 38-year-old playing a 60-year-old's mum.
Dan on the Land delivers one of the pod's all-time greatest analogies: F1 The Movie is the tale of a man returning from back surgery and bourbon benders to coach a team of year-nine canoeists. Add Damo's unexpected "this is about me” speech, and you've got a review that's half cinema, half confession.
The pod delves into the cry-o-meter (0%), the popcorn meter (full), and how the audience ultimately comes to like the car more than the characters. There are debates over whether Kerry Condon was miscast, who should've punched JP first, and whether Javier Bardem's surgically-enhanced nose deserved its own credit. Bonus points for the Han Solo theory. Double bonus points for calling JP the most punchable character since Bob Sugar.
Also: Damo reveals his Snorbs report special, a future film starring Jennifer Lawrence and featuring full-frontal nudity. Naturally. Dan shares a story about custom condoms and splashdowns that we cannot print here. And Whitey invents a new Oscar category: best use of tennis balls in a montage.
And just when you think it’s over, someone brings up Chuck Norris, and the podcast goes sideways in the most Born to Watch way possible.
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Drop us a voicemail at https://www.borntowatch.com.au and tell us whether this movie deserves a podium or a pit lane penalty.
Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your pods. Don’t forget to LIKE, SUBSCRIBE, and always yell “PLAN C” when walking into a bar.
#F1TheMovie2025Review #BornToWatch #BradPitt #FormulaOneMovie #IMAXExperience #SnobsReport #MoviePodcast #RacingMovies #FilmReview #DriveToSurvive