This is the third in a series of documentaries by Mark Neale on MotoGP racing (the first two are called
Faster and
Fastest). It covers the 2011-2014 racing seasons. Narrated by Brad Pitt (I preferred Ewan McGregor on the first two) and is excellent; highly recommended if you're into motorcycle racing at all. There were some warnings on Amazon that this Bluray was only European-coded; I took a chance and it played just fine on my Oppo (which has played everything I've thrown at it) and the disk/package I received doesn't give a Zone anywhere. The chapters are marked with non-descript scenes from that section, and totally useless. They showed the crash that killed Simoncelli, all music and narration went silent, kinda poignant; Marc Mrquez' crash at 209 mph was recorded nicely with the small cameras on the riders/bikes these days. Jorge Lorenzo broke his collarbone completely in two during practice (got to see the xray), was screwed back together with an 8" plate (got to see the xray), he raced, and crashed again two days later, and bent that plate at a 45-degree angle (yeah, you get to see that xray too). Nuckin' Futz!!
Fun to see the advancement of both tech, and riding techniques, over these docs/years; in the beginning it was cool to see the racers "drag a knee" and nowadays their elbows and even their helmets are touching down in the turns.
A constant in all three docs is the great Valentino Rossi, Italian kid, 6'2" tall, who has won more MotoGP championships (9) than anyone, and is still competitive at 36. Here, he finally won the race at the Dutch TT, after not winning 1st the last 46 races, (he last took 1st in Malaysia, his 46th run on the Yamaha bike), his career points after winning in Holland were 4,646, and his number is, of course, 46! He took second overall in 2014. Great interview with the two vicars in his home village; with that win they turned on the church bells (real bells, electrically played) and hit the bar to celebrate (forgot about turning the bells off ). Great fun!
Anyway, good story, good acting I thought, nice break from the usual big budget hollywood fluff.
