Driven (Wide Screen)

Advantages: see review
Disadvantages: see review

I should have known when it said that Sylvester Stallone had written this movie that it really wouldn't be worth watching. Well, ok I did know which is why I had no intention of watching it until someone came wandering into one of my labs late last night with the movie burnt onto a CD...gotta love the internet. Anyway, work forgotten(as usual) a group of us crowded around a terminal to watch Stallone et al. doing the Rocky thing all over again... ...
...was like watching Rocky again. Sylvester Stallone seems to have one script idea and just keeps changing the locations. There is not one original idea in this movie and when its not ripping off his own movies it is ripping off other people's namely Grand Prix and Days Of Thunder in this instance, although without such things as plot and character development but with CGI crashes aplenty to keep us interested. It doesn't work. But first the plot before ... Read review

Advantages: good action, great racing scenes
Disadvantages: some dodgy acting, a few script howlers

Driven was the film that briefly stopped the box office slump of Sly Stallone in the USA. Alright it was only for a week and the film just scraped over $30 million eventually but hey it's a start. The film has got mixed reviews everywhere, none saying it's fantastic, some saying it's entertaining and some saying it's just plain awful. Well you have to bear in mind that some reviewers have a standard reply to anything featuring Sly Stallone. Even ...
...are - mindless entertainment. Driven takes place in the world of CART racing which bares some similarities to Formula One with a large popularity over the world. Team owner Carl Henry (Burt Reynolds) has a young rookie diver Jimmy Bly (Kip Pardue) who is fast catching up to the champion Beau Brandenberg (Til Schweiger) but is losing some composure with all the pressure. Henry brings in ex-driver Joe Tanto (Stallone) to help Jimmy get some control ... Read review

Advantages: Must have missed them.
Disadvantages: Everything

Driven was the kind of film that promised much, but delivered nothing. OK, forget the fact that Sylvester Stallone was the starring vehicle, but how could a film about the high powered world of racing be boring? Director Renny Harlin certainly found a way of turning an exciting sport into a dull, lifeless event on the big screen. There were aspects of the film that were so far fetched they made me laugh. The joy ride through the streets in their ...
...the only half decent track on there. If I can advise cinemagoers out there, it would be to avoid this like the plague and go and see 'The Fast and the Furious' instead. That film has all the elements that Driven lacked, and definitely takes my chequered flag. ... Read review

Advantages: Loads of racing action/great for kids
Disadvantages: Just plain daft

This film sucks! This has got to be the corniest, cheesiest and most predictable film ever made. How can films like this ever get made. Whoever read the script and agreed to spend millions of dollars making this film must be barking mad. There is a scene when one of the drivers crashes and flips upside down into a swamp. The rescue team are too far away (why?), so in order to save his buddy, but lose the race he turns his car around and drives along ...
...just laughed so much. This is the sort of thing that was done in racing pre 1970 and would never happen now. There really are too many scenes like this that make you think “duh”! This is all such a shame as it could have been a really great film if only they had taken out the Hollywood cliche้s. The film would have been better if it was set in the late sixties/early seventies (see: Robbie Williams/Supreme video). It would have added more passion, ... Read review

Advantages: You Can Switch It Off
Disadvantages: Its Sad To See Stallone Sink Even Lower

...owner of a copy of Driven through a joke £1 bid on ebay. There was a day left on the auction, surely I would be outbid. Surely. But no, my bid won, I couldn't believe it. Why would the seller even accept such a low bid, I didn't care, I'd got one over on him. Little did I realise he was probably laughing all the way to the bank with his shiny little pound. I should have guessed something was up when no-one else put in a bid. They knew something I ...
...since Sylvester had started turning up in the paddock at every F1 meeting about 7 years ago. He was planning to make a movie about F1, applying the good old rocky formula, racer is coming to end of career, racer gets his chance, mean German/Brit/Scandinavian gets in his way, racer overcomes him as he overcomes his own personal demon and roll titles. Another Stallone triumph in the bag, surely. Then I found out he'd had a wee row with the F1 people ... Read review

Advantages: Interesting mystery, with politics on the back burner
Disadvantages: Kate winslet's assistant

...for helping produce, and for turning the role of David Gale down, as you would have been nowhere near as good. At two hours and ten minutes, you may well wish the ten minutes or more had been left on the cutting room floor, but for a slow-burning character-driven mystery The Life of David Gale is worth checking out. The wide screen is used to good effect, it all looks nice, the acting and camera-work are always pleasant, and you will not guess the ending. Whether it is enough of a thriller must be down to personal taste. There are no guns on show (apart from prison guards, of course), no cars thrown over and blown up, and only one race-against-time action scene. However Alan Parker has never really done all-out thrillers anyway. What you get here is a mystery movie, as you will long be puzzled as to whodunnit, only to then have doubts... Read review

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