“Rush”, Ron Howard’s new film based on two real-life race car drivers, is getting rave reviews this week and is even being called Ron Howard’s best film to date.

Howard–whose directorial credits include “Apolla 13”, “Cinderella Man”, and “The Da Vinci Code”–is garnering praise for the film’s high energy, fast-paced retelling of a true story that manages to incorporate a story and characters that viewers actually care about, which is sometimes hard to find in an action-based film. The stars of the movie agree.

“Rarely do you get a film which ticks this many boxes. There’s a popcorn entertainment element to it, yes, but it is surprising, exciting and there are real characters at the centre of it,” Chris Hemsworth, who plays bad boy racer James Hunt, said.

The story tackles the rivalry between two polar opposite drivers who were the talk of the racing world in the ’70s, Hunt and Niki Lauda, who is portrayed by “Inglorious Basterds” star Daniel Bruhl. Bruhl plays Lauda’s brusque Austrian attitude well, according to CNN.

“With his clipped Austrian accent, everything that comes out of his mouth sounds like a brusque insult. And it usually is. He may not be a particularly likable fellow, but he’s a methodical grinder with the unshakable conviction of someone who’s calculated the odds on what it takes to win. Pitted against each other, they’re like Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. It’s not just about beating the other guy, it’s about humiliating him in the process,” Chris Nashawaty writes.

Howard says he wanted to keep the story as true to life as possible but still surprise the viewer, and he thinks he’s managed to do just that.

“I think a lot of those twists and turns are exactly what people like because it’s not going down the path the way they expected it might. And yet it’s logical because it happened,” he said. “The guiding principle always was to keep telling the story and keep the movie psychological, so it was always heart and mind of the driver.”

“Rush” opens on Friday and also stars Olivia Wilde and Alexandra Maria Lara.

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