If we've learned anything from watching Stallone flicks, it's that even a talented cast can struggle with a mediocre story. That's not to say that Driven doesn't have its saving graces. It's fast-paced, visually sublime, and has a kickin' soundtrack.
Unfortunately, the plot boils down to reveal the familiar tale of an underdog fighting for his shot at the limelight. A hardened athlete, the champion race car driver Beau Brandenburg (Til Schweiger, SLC Punk!), is trying to defend his crown from up and comer Jimmy Blye (Kip Pardue, Remember the Titans). Old Sly plays his classic hero role, a broken athlete name Joe Tanto. There's a love story in there somewhere, but it lacks in clarity, which raises the suspicion of rampant scene slashing during editing.
Estella Warren, the yummy model in every magazine from GQ to Maxim, gives a heartfelt and seductive performance, proving that models (and Canadians) can be actors after all. Her character, Sophia Simone, is caught up in a love-hate relationship with Beau Brandenburg, and revs the engine of competitor Jimmy Blye. As Sophia threatens to sink Jimmy deeper into his losing streak, his brother/manager Demille (Robert Sean Leonard) tries to find a way to fix Jimmy's head.
Enter Joe Tanto. Once a racer for Carl Henry's Formula One racing team, Tanto has been on ice, pishing his life away designing new racecars. Henry (Burt Reynolds) drags Tanto back onto the team, hoping that his old friend won't fail him the second time around. To Tanto's surprise, his talents are wanted off the track - to repair Blye's bruised ego. The problem is, if Blye doesn't shape up, they're both off the team.
Driven is like Days of Thunder with the graces of modern special effects. Tanto's coin trick gives new meaning to the term "being in the zone," and with a big screen and powerful bass, the audience gets as close as they'll ever be to being in the cockpit of a Formula One racer. As an added bonus, the movie has superfluous car accidents, all unique in their application of Matrix-like photography. It's the same primal urge that brings people to the German Autobahn in their Sunday best to wait for crashes. Driven is the Indy 500 without all those boring laps. Did I mention the kickin' soundtrack?
It's not Survivor, but Driven's soundtrack offers a wide variety of tasty music, from hard punk band Insolence to pop-country artist Tim McGraw. If you're not yet convinced, try to imagine having tunnel vision while screaming down a racetrack that unravels to the pace of Tantric's "Breakdown." Sadly, some of the songs in the movie didn't make it to the soundtrack, namely Crystal Method's techno gem, "High Roller."
Driven is a fun way to blow $7.50 and two hours of your time, but don't expect to come out of the theater with a better understanding of man's need for competition. In fact, don't expect anything. Just go and enjoy yourself because, in the end, we're all just cars going around and around on the raceway we call life.<$>
@thumbnail:Movie Review, Driven, starring Sylvester Stallone, Kip Purdue, Burt Reynolds, Estella Warren, 3.5 out of 5<$>
@boxhead:Dave's Pick of the Week - SLC Punk!<$>
@bodytext: SLC Punk! is the comically disturbing story of two post-college punks trying to preserve their way of life in the suffocating community of Salt Lake City, UT. It's 1985, and Stevo (Matthew Lillard from Scream) and Heroin Bob (Michael Goorjian) are trashing Reagan, drinking heavily, and fighting the system. Stevo's father, played by Christopher McDonald (from Thelma and Louise) still has hope that his son will go on to law school. Despite his recklessness, Stevo keeps his lifestyle under constant scrutiny, lending to the emotional, raunchy, and witty plot of the film. "Who started it all? Was it the Sex Pistols or the Ramones? Who cares?" says Stevo. "Its just music."
