Driven Reviews

Watching a movie directed by Renny Harlin has always been a guilty pleasure of mine. Indeed, with this director, I already know before watching his movies that they won't be really good but I still watch them anyway because they still end up being entertaining somehow. This movie was a perfect example. Seriously, I don't know what was worse : the directing, the acting or the writing. I think I'm going to blame the writing though. Apparently, the screenplay was written by Stallone who really should stick to acting, even if he is not really such a great actor either. In my opinion, there were just way too many characters and too many subplots. On top of that, the dialogues were laughable and there were so many ridiculous scenes (when they 'stole' the cars and raced throughout downtown Chicago, when they stopped racing to save a fellow driver, when the rookie had to do a stupid test before driving with a broken foot and it went on and on like this...). Still, the driving scenes were not bad at all and the (many) crashes were quite spectacular. Actually, this racing world was quite fascinating, the whole project had some potential and they could have made something interesting with this material. Anyway, eventually, it was a really silly and ridiculous action flick but if you don't take it too seriously, it remains watchable but, honestly, I don’t think  it is really worth a look.

Driven met with a negative reception from critics and audiences alike, even permitting the Razzie committee to have a field day with this Stallone-written sport drama. It pains me to admit it, but I found Driven to be unworthy of such an appalling reception. Okay so the movie is clichéd beyond belief and highly predictable from about 20 minutes in; however the film still supplies a fair share of intense racing scenes and boasts a decent cast.

In the world of racing, rookie driver Jimmy Bly (Pardue) is a young hot shot who has won several races throughout the year and is fast challenging the current world champion Beau Brandenberg (Schweiger). Despite Jimmy's early success in the season it rapidly becomes evident that he is struggling to maintain focus and concentration. Jimmy is palpably mentally unfit and his luck will fast run dry. Under constant pressure from his manager (Reynolds) and brother (Leonard), Jimmy is on the verge of cracking. To ease the stress and pressure, Jimmy's manager calls retired racing star Joe Tanto (Stallone) to act as a mentor. Joe is also brought on board as a co-driver to watch over Jimmy while he's on the tracks and to give the rookie some assistance when necessary. With the persistence of Joe's tuition it is hoped that Jimmy will overcome his stress and doubts to proceed throughout the competition and hopefully end up as the new world champion.

Driven had a lot of potential, most of which is terminated by the cliché ridden screenplay. It's painful to think that this is the same man who penned the screenplay for Rocky. I think the main problem here is reluctance to step out of the comfort zone. Instead of staying away from a formulaic structure, Stallone throttles into the clichés at the speed of a race car driver.

Naturally this film has the conventional set of characters standard for the genre. Throw in the proverbial love interest, a few arrogant managers and a sneaky reporter. On the contrary it's relieving to know that screenwriter Stallone did not go for the conventional villain approach. Instead of arrogant and selfish, the powerful Beau Brandenberg does not try to make enemies out of anyone. He shows some depth to his character, especially when someone is in trouble. These mixed sets of characters are portrayed fairly well by the game cast.

Sylvester Stallone's dialogue isn't too hard to understand here. Sometimes that subtitles button does look mighty attractive. Be that as it may, Stallone shows commitment and focus. Obviously many people are welcome to disagree with that previous sentence; however in my opinion Stallone has a lot of talent that usually goes to waste with some dodgy career moves.

Driven may be predictable and clichéd, but the effects look great and the film boasts a number of exhilarating races. Even so, during some of the races the cars begin flying all over the place while slow motion photography kicks in. To make matters worse the special effects for the duration of these shots look dodgy and almost resemble an arcade game.

I'm very fond of the style that director Renny Harlin brought to the production. There's a lot of ultra fast cutting; however the whole thing is very classy and ably directed by Harlin. Many of the key racing scenes become overwhelmingly intense. I was on the edge of my seat for the most part.

It's an interesting creative choice to utilise so many songs throughout the film's duration. About 60% of the chosen music fantastically accompanies its desired scene. The remaining 40% are catchy but unsuitable.

Overall, Driven received a lot of criticism and negativity upon initial release. I found the movie to be filled with clichés and conventions that were to be expected. Regardless of this the film is a lot of fun. It certainly entertained me for its entire running time. Worth seeing.