NASCAR: The IMAX Experience (2004)

Am I Missing Something?

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

I got a box of 20 IMAX movies at a Christmas gift exchange and this was the one with the least amount of appeal to me. I've never been interested in sports or cars. In watching cars race, there's no thought required, no deep meaning. You're just supposed to be impressed by shiny fast things. This is a movie about racing cars so it will be of little interest to me.A lot of it is talk, or the movie focuses on the mechanics of making the cars. All of this might appeal to people interested in mechanics, but not me. Some of it talks about the fan base. I heard these people say NASCAR is great, but I still don't see why. There are only a couple interesting facts of science sprinkled into the film, only a couple of attention-grabbing crashes. Nothing to get too excited about.

Nascar 3-D: The IMAX Experience is truly an experience that I will never, ever forget. This is actually the first movie I have seen at an IMAX theatre and believe me guys, I did not regret driving 100 miles to see this. This has got to be one of the most incredible experiences that I have ever... experienced!! And the 3-D picture made this movie 10 times better because I sometimes forgot it was only a movie and I actually thought the cars were gonna hit me!! I even braced for impact!! It was just so real that... I still can't believe it!!Nascar 3-D: The IMAX Experience was not only an enjoyable movie to watch. It also touched me in a way that I never felt before. Since the death of Dale Earnhardt in 2001, I have respected Nascar and the drivers a lot more. While I watched this movie, I kept flashing back to the moment when Earnhardt hit the wall on the final turn of the Indianapolis 500. I am still haunted by that moment. And I probably will be for a long time to come.In conclusion, all Nascar fans need to see this movie. You will really enjoy it for not only the action but also for the science behind Nascars and how they work and for many, many more things. This movie is not just for Nascar fans. I believe everybody will enjoy this film. My sisters were 4 years old at the time when they saw it and they were having the time of their life!! So go see this movie. You will enjoy it immensely and you will remember it for a long, long time.

There would be no point in denying that "NASCAR: The IMAX Experience" loses a little something in its transference to the small screen. However, it's still an eye-popping documentary for both die-hard racing fans and those viewers who know little or nothing about the sport - although the hardcore aficionados might wish there had been a little less talk on the soundtrack and a little more action on the racetrack to make the experience a more compelling and complete one.This comes as a bit of a surprise, especially considering the fact that the film was originally shot in the 3-D IMAX format. One might reasonably expect that the movie would be little more than a succession of speeding cars and hurtling objects aimed directly at the stunned eyes of the audience. Not so, for the movie actually spends far more time on the nuts-and-bolts, behind-the-scenes aspects of NASCAR than on the racing itself. The film provides a brief background on the organization's less-than-savory moonshine roots, then proceeds to fill us in on various aspects of the sport itself, including the construction, specifications and testing of the cars, the training of the pit crews, the loyalty of the fans, etc. It also takes time out to honor the memory of the late racing great Dale Earnhardt, although due to the film's rather meager 49 minute running time, the tribute, like virtually everything else in the movie, comes across as a little more halfhearted and perfunctory than, perhaps, in all good conscience, it should.To get most of the racing shots, director Simon Wincer strapped his camera crew into vehicles of their own in order to provide audiences with an experience as close to the real thing as possible. The majority of these sequences come in the last ten minutes or so of the film. As with all IMAX productions, the clarity and beauty of the picture is, indeed, a wonder to behold, with the colors literally leaping off the screen in many-hued splendor. Even without 3-D glasses and a two-story sized screen, this is a great visual experience. Now if they could have just shown a little more racing

VVVRRRRRrrroooommm! The thunderous sounds at a typical NASCAR race should be unforgettable for anybody that has seen a race on TV or live at the stadium. The excitement of watching cars drive around at almost 200 mph is lost on some, but for some people it's become almost a religion. NASCAR, an acronym for National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing, is the subject of the latest IMAX phenomenon, "NASCAR 3D: The IMAX Experience." However, the film seems to be made primarily for educating the general public. Not that that's a bad thing. The film deals with all possible aspects of NASCAR racing, so even NASCAR enthusiasts might learn something. Director Simon Wincer, the man that brought us the "Lonesome Dove" miniseries, brings us a film that makes us almost all of us care about the sport, NASCAR fan or not. The script, written by Sports Illustrated NASCAR correspondent Mark Bechtel, is typical documentary fare, with interviews, stock footage, and a lot of factual information. The first half of the movie deals largely with the history of NASCAR. The movie opens with a dramatized chase through the North Carolina wilderness, thus setting up the evolution of the sport that would eventually become NASCAR. Following the discussion of the 1947 conference that laid the foundations of NASCAR, the film goes on to talk about some of the (relatively) early NASCAR greats: Junior Johnson, Lee Petty, Richard Petty, Kyle Petty, Darrell Waltrip, and of course, Dale Earnhardt. Yes, they do have footage from the 2001 race that killed NASCAR's greatest star. Though they don't actually show the crash, they do make reference to it. Anybody watching the film with a more-than-mild interest in NASCAR had better expect an emotional reaction. The crash serves as a bridge linking the first half to the second half: How NASCAR Works. This film goes through everything you can think of, from the engineers in garages building car frames and engines to the pit crews training 38 out of the 52 weeks a year. The film discusses the importance of teams, how a typical race works, and even what the fans are like. People that know nothing about NASCAR would learn a lot from this film. Okay, so there¡¦s nothing really special about the script, but that's not where this film excels. "NASCAR 3D" makes the most of the IMAX technology, and the filmmakers know it. "NASCAR 3D" is one of the few IMAX movies that have the IMAX specs right on the poster. The film's remarkable cinematography puts you right into the action. Cars zoom past camera placed on the track. Cameras inside the car allow you to see what the driver sees. Aerial shots show exactly what a mob of 120,000 people looks like. The list goes on. The editing job is top notch. Rapid editing gives viewers the impression that there is a lot more going on in the race than cars racing around a racecourse. An impressive sequence where stock footage of a crash is repeated all over the screen can best be described as awe-inspiring. The IMAX sound technology is put to good use. The sound of roaring engines is strong enough to rumble the seats. Good luck in finding that same effect in movie theaters. However, there is a surprisingly large amount of relatively quiet moments present in the film, so the rumble effect isn't used that often. This isn't actually that bad. After all, there is probably a limit to how much a person can stand to be vibrated. The technological strengths of this movie make up for the blandness of the screenplay, making "NASCAR 3D" one of those rare documentaries that can keep viewers interested the whole way through. If you're already a NASCAR fan, then "NASCAR 3D" is probably near the top on your must-see list. Well, I'm not so sure about what everybody had expected, but I suppose it's safe to say that it lives up to everybody expectations. If you're not a NASCAR fan, then "NASCAR 3D" is still a worthy piece of entertainment. So "NASCAR 3D" is must-see material. The problem is finding a theater that plays it, as there are only 75 IMAX theaters in North America carrying "NASCAR 3D".