The World's Fastest Indian (12A) <!-- none onestar twostar threestar fourstar fivestar -->
A tender-hearted bore. Anthony Hopkins plays Burt Munro, a salt-of-the-earth Kiwi pensioner who follows his dream and sails to the US to test his 1920s Indian motorcycle at the Bonneville salt flats in Utah.
It's based on a true story - Munro still holds the speed record from 1967 - though why writer-director Roger Donaldson was so eager to tell it is uncertain. The first three-quarters of the movie laboriously describes how this doughty old dodderer makes friends with everyone he meets (including US Immigration - surely a first) on the road to Bonneville, bravely wincing through his angina attacks and dispensing gobbets of crackerbarrel wisdom in Hopkins' usual chuckling style.
The final quarter is merely the old-boy racer being wahooed by his new chums. It's meant to be an inspirational tale of resilience and bravery, but for a film that celebrates speed the film manages to make its two hours go very, very slowly.
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