I was late catching up with Ron Howard’s “Rush,” having missed various press screenings while I was in Venice. So maybe my expectations had been unduly raised by the numerous rave reviews — including our colleague Drew McWeeny’s — that came out of Toronto. But I found the racing biopic, which details the rivalry between 1970s Formula 1 titans Niki Lauda and James Hunt, rather flat and uninvolving, its two mostly unpleasant protagonists burdened with a blunt script from Peter Morgan that hammers home its ‘driving=life’ metaphors for all they’re worth. Howard directs proficiently in a latter-day Eastwood sort of way, without betraying much affinity for, or investment in, the source material. On the plus side, it’s a handsome production, lifted by the vivid cigarette-box palette of Anthony Dod Mantle’s sleek cinematography. And while’s it’s Daniel Brühl’s Lauda who gets the angst and the makeup and the Oscar buzz, I was particularly taken with Chris Hemsworth’s suave, switched-on performance as the more smooth-operating Hunt. Anyway, that’s enough from me — what did you think? Share your thoughts in the comments, and vote in the poll below.