Driven

Rating:
Summary: ANOTHER LOSER FROM STALLONE
Review: The only half decent part of this movie is the mildly exciting street racing scene. Screenwriter/Producer/Star Stallone mumbles his way through his own bad dialogue and Burt Reynolds looks like he's about to drop dead of embarressment, though he; like Stallone, has made more than his share of turkeys throughout his career. Director Renny Harlin (who can do much better) even throws in some cheesy computer graphics of racing during the climax. Does he really think viewers are that stupid? I give this one and a half stars because its very ineptness is what makes it (at times) unintentionally funny.

Rating:
Summary: Give it a fair shake.
Review: I cut school and went to see "Driven" at the movies right after it first came out. It was an experience. After I left the theater, I was exhausted. It was precisely the kind of movie I avoid... loud, flashy, and vapid. I was like, "What in the hell was Sly thinking?" Cut to 5 months later: I rented the DVD, but this time, I got to see deleted scenes which fleshed out the characters, and I got to listen to Stallone's commentary, which announced his original intentions. In that context, I watched the movie again. Sly's script is actually pretty good. He was writing it in the mindset of Joe Tanto, writing it as a former mega-celebrity who has to deal with the fact that he's not as hot a commodity as he used to be, and has to make way for the new talent. It's very open and very frank, and just plain great. Unfortunately, this great material fell into the hands of Renny Harlin, a director who isn't known for his dramatic depth, nor his subtlety. Without the extra emphasis on effects, or a director who makes jump cuts like George Miller on crack, "Driven" could have been an Oscar contender, instead of the bomb it inevitably became. Get the DVD, because it just isn't worth watching without the extras.

Rating:
Summary: Dig deeper
Review: I appreciate the balance of the screenplay. The context of this movie is most prone towards direct confrontation. However, unlike Top Gun and Days of Thunder to mention two movies of similar opportunity, the writing manages to sidestep focusing only on direct confrontation. By the time we get two thirds of the way through, we even find ourselves sympathising with the arrogant Beau, and by the time the final race comes by we have no clue what to anticipate. This movie defies the standard formula. I think a big "Yo Adrian!" is in order.

Rating:
Summary: Driven drives!
Review: The critics are wrong on this one! This well-paced film really takes you into the heart of open-wheel Indy car racing. The integration of the movie with real CART races was accomplished quite skillfully. Yes, the storyline is simple and predictable but who would go see Driven for the story? I have to place this movie alongside LeMans, Grand Prix, and Winning as one of the best racing movies made.

Rating:
Summary: Driven Away
Review: Driven is about CART, the open-wheel racing series. I race myself; I'm just a weekend warrior who pulls their own car behind their truck. I have lots of fun, but I don't have a huge budget, like Sylvester Stallone had. So I don't screw-up quite as much as he did.

This movie was surprising in that the story was much better than I had expected. The tale is of three drivers and a couple of owners. One driver is very young and unstable, seemingly challenged more by fitting in with his new surroundings and the expectations placed upon him than by working the car. Sly plays an older driver, a veteran who might be past his prime but is still capable of winning a few races. And there's another driver in the middle--comfortable with racing in the series, but experiencing profound self-doubt in light of a few recent setbacks.

The interaction between the three is what makes the plot. The caracters, on the surface, have balance and could make a great and rich storyline. But there's lots of missing pieces between them, their interaction, and their development.

In the automotive press, particularly in the racing world, the making of this movie received a tremendous amount of ink. That press worked a lot of hype into the movie's most critical audience--race drivers. We read about how Bernie Ecclestone, czar of F1, discontinued a long relationship with Sly after many months of involvement. CART picked up the relationship, but I think that was a mistake.

Racing films are hard to make. It's impossible to concisely capture the passion, precision, and effort put forth by everyone involved in race day. But the blunders in this movie made it nearly unbearable.

That a driver would leave a Champ car during a race and be the first one to assist a wrecked driver, that cars fly 80 feet into the air after a wreck, that raindrops are visible as you drive at 130 miles an hour ... all of the those faults quickly add up to distractions that kept me from enjoying the show. Drivers hum and sing and yell in their cars, but they don't do it with their radio mic key pressed. Drivers don't suddenly decide that they'll go a little harder and pass everyone in sight during the next lap.

Even though it could have been better developed, I was surprised at the strength of the story but I was profoundly disappointed in the visual aspects of the movie. I know that Stallone did lots of work to get footage, including using his relationship with CART to get access to pit row during live races, and offering many popular drivers cameos. But the incredulous footage puts an intolerable tarnish on a decent story.

Rating:
Summary: Loved it...
Review: Great...Wonderful...Loved it... What can I say I'm a Sly freak! This is one guy that seems to get better with age!

Rating:
Summary: Childish and stupid
Review: A silly, noisy movie. Even the racing sequences -- the supposed reason to watch this movie -- are horrible. I told myself I'd watch just for the action sequences (knowing the plot would be horrible), but even they are not worth the effort. If you want to watching some CART racing action, get the IMAX Speedway disc; at least they don't pretend there is a plot.

Rating:
Summary: its banging
Review: It may be corny and inacurate, but thats not what its for. it gives a great insight into racing for those of you on the outside!

Rating:
Summary: This film is "rocky", not Rocky
Review: If you are a real Sylvester Stallone fan and love car racing, you might be able to find some redeeming feature in the movie, but otherwise it might be a good idea to pass it by. Stallone's character is an over-the-hill race car driver who is called back to his racing team to help groom a talented but inconsistant rookie driver. The writing is pretty bad and doesn't give the actors much to work with. It's difficult to imagine that drivers would stop in the middle of a race to help an injured driver, but that's what Stallone would have us believe. The story is stilted and predictable, but there are a few interesting race scenes.

Rating:
Summary: "Driven" to death
Review: Sylvester Stallone needs a serious career makeover and Driven sure isn't it! (...) And Driven has some good action sequences in it but Sly writes himself in the film to be a pansy, an old-washed up race car driver for God's sake. It's hard to believe that this picture was written by the same man who also penned all five Rocky's and all three Rambo's, roles that Sly made himself in those roles to be mighty and honorable. (...) If Sly is going to write any more parts for himself then he should take lessons from his past scripts from Rocky and Rambo.