Faced with a car-related movie to review, I guess that I should have felt as though I were in seventh heaven, after all, cars are my personal passion. Yet, while Antipodean actor, stand-up comedian and racing driver, Eric Bana, as well as being a Hollywood A-lister (‘The Hulk’, ‘Star Trek’) is central to Love The Beast, this is not really a movie and is more of a self-indulgent documentary. In fact, while the much-loved Jeremy Clarkson (playing himself) and even top US chat-show host, Jay Leno (ditto), provide supporting roles to Bana’s ever-so-selfish hobby of motor racing and rallying, you need not invest your money in a film record that ought to have something more than Bana’s-life-with-cars (well, one in particular) as its story-line.

In truth, the star looks slightly wide-eyed and immature in the presence of these ‘mega-stars’ and his cars, despite the immense sums of money he is able to throw at his sport. As the DVD progresses, you get to see the A-lister in various states of hirsuteness, a factor that he does describe in a red-carpet interview also caught in the course of shooting this 88-minute soap. The car that is central to the actor’s dreams is a 1974 Ford Falcon XB GT Coupe, which heralds from his childhood in Australia, a country to which he is clearly and inextricably linked. As one of that nation’s strangely popular ‘muscle cars’, powered by an immensely potent V8 engine, it also seems to be central to many of his schoolboy chums, as they all emerge to support his racing activities.

The viewer is asked to follow the car’s development into a prodigious and immaculate 600bhp rally machine. However, we could have been watching a British celebrity chef or any one of the BBC TV ‘Top Gear’ crowd as the car’s lumbering progress through one of the world’s remaining, truly exciting events, The Targa Tasmania Rally, ended with near heartache and a colossal off-road excursion into the trees. Bana’s subsequent moping did suggest that he loved his beast irrevocably but this is really just an inconclusive tale about a rich boy and his toys.

The Extras on the disc include the full and unexpurgated 22 minutes interview with Mr Clarkson, which might have been bearable had Jezzer been provided with a script. Hilarious and enlightening banter it most definitely was not! Mr Leno’s input to the programme itself highlights that he is by far the more professional presenter. My advice is that Bana should stick to Hollywood for as long as his star can shine, being the part-subject of a documentary is not a viable shot at fame. A largely wasteful and uninformative investment.