Review by Renee Wright

If you've ever seen an IMAX film, you've experienced the mind-bending effect of the giant curved screen, so disorienting that audiences are given hints on how to avoid motion sickness before the films begin.

Filmmaker MacGillivray Freeman is the master of this IMAX genre. His IMAX documentary, Everest, is the highest grossing film of its kind and two of his ocean films, Dolphins and The Living Sea, have been nominated for Academy Awards. Now he's once again pressing the IMAX envelope with his new feature Top Speed.

The film profiles four individuals who constantly strive to go faster - sprinter Marion Jones, holder of five Olympic medals, world champion mountain biker Maria Streb, racecar driver Lucas Luhr, winner of the GT class at the 24-Hours of Le Mans, and high performance car designer Stephen Murkett. They share the techniques, both physical and mental, they use to go fast, faster, fastest.

Jones discusses the realities of wind resistance that make differences of a fraction of a second in her race times, but also sits in yoga meditation, chanting "Slow down and I will go faster." Streb practices her balance sitting in a tree. There's a good bit of dialogue about "the joy factor" and overcoming fear.

The presence of Murkett, designer of the "world's fastest SUV," the Porsche Cayenne, among this distinguished crew is a bit mysterious until you notice the film's credits. Porsche was a major sponsor of this IMAX project, a notoriously expensive method of making movies. As a matter of fact, Lucas Luhr drives a Porsche racecar.

Tim Allen hosts Top Speed and adds a bit of comic relief to the discussion. Allen himself owns a race team and plays the good sport, taking on mountain biking and other hazardous pursuits with more of the "fear factor" most people would feel.

The IMAX format does a respectable job putting movie-goers in the driver's seat at Le Mans, atop a mountain bike, aboard a bobsled and in the cockpit of a fighter jet. However, as usual with IMAX, it is the scenes of natural splendor that take the breath away. Soaring over the Canadian Rockies or the dramatic desert of the American Southwest, the IMAX cameras capture the majesty of nature, dwarfing the efforts of mankind at any speed.

In one of the Top Speed's most memorable scenes, jumpers parachute from a plane, falling down into the infinite distance. It's IMAX at its best.

Another MacGillivray Freeman film, Coral Reef Adventure, explores the underwater world created by these almost microscopic creatures

The websites for the Freeman films are worth a visit. They include lots of educational features, plus fun activities for children, along with information on the company's many films and where they are playing.

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