Stallone ‘drives’ away audiences

Jerry Hoffman

If you hate the sport of car racing, then you’ll find little to like in the
new action film “Driven.” However, if you enjoy racing, then you’ll
definitely get a kick out of the movie. It is a thrilling, cheesy, action-packed,
poorly written piece of guilty pleasure entertainment.
The film focuses on the rivalry between Jimmy Blye (Kip Pardue) and Beau Brandenburg
(Til Schweiger). Beau is the quiet, focused German racing veteran who is involved
in a rocky relationship with blond bombshell Sophia (Estella Warren). Jimmy, on
the other hand, is the All-American fan favorite who is loosing control of “his
game.” To help Jimmy reclaim his fading glory, his car owner (played by Burt
Reynolds) recruits retired car drive Joe Tanto (Sylvester Stallone) to teach Jimmy
the meaning of racing, as well as the meaning of life.
Stallone also wrote the screenplay. That is amazing, considering there is barely
a screenplay present here. What we get is a lot of car crashes, a lot of love
triangles stolen from “Beverly Hills 90210,” and a lot of crummy dialogue.
The audience does not get to know a single character of the film. Instead of providing
a single ounce of back-story, the film just pushes full throttle ahead into the
unknown. It never stops to take a breath.
While that is a reason to dismiss “Driven” as drivel, the fact remains
that film delivers the goods in terms of action and excitement. The director,
Renny Harlin, knows how to make an action movie. “Deep Blue Sea,” “Die
Hard 2” and “Cliffhanger” were all solid pieces of thrill ride
entertainment that managed to be both silly and exhilarating. Although Harlin
stumbled with the pirate romp “Cutthroat Island,” he still managed to
direct one of the most underrated action movies of all time with “The Long
Kiss Goodnight.” If you love action movies, or movies at all, you owe it
to yourself to rent “Long Kiss.”
“Driven” is no “Long Kiss,” but it manages to get the audience
really energized during the racing scenes. A combination of computer effects,
swooping camera movements, and genuine momentum launch the film’s many racing
sequences into overdrive. Thrown into the stands with the spectators, we become
part of the crowd watching these races. If you let yourself get caught up in the
races, there is no doubt you will be on the edge of your seat.
In between the racing scenes there are numerous love stories going on that are
simply buffer among the action parts. However, even these scenes involving Sophia
hopping from Beau’s arms to Jimmy’s bed, and then back to Beau is fun
to watch. We don’t really care what will happen in these scenes, but its
dumb fun to see the newcomers act out a weakly written story.
Besides the numerous fresh faces we see in “Driven” we still get a dose
of experienced performers (notice I didn’t use the word “actor”)
with Sylvester Stallone, Burt Reynolds and Gina Gershon among others. Stallone
is actually pretty good in this movie, and I thought about forgiving him for the
last 20 bad movies he has made until I remembered he had written the script. Coming
off not as well is Burt Reynolds, who must have had one of the worst face-lifts
of all time. His skin is pulled so tight in this movie one would wonder how he
is able to speak. Although I am a big fan of Gina Gershon (“Bound,”
“The Insider”), she amazingly repeats her diva performance from the
cult classic “Showgirls.” Her scenes are the film’s worse.
Bad dialogue. An absent screenplay. Middling acting. What reason is there to see
“Driven?” Try a lot of awesome racing scenes pumped up with driving
rock and techno music. Try a lot of shots you’ll say “wow” at.
Try a movie so corny and laughable that you will be embarrassed how wrapped up
in it you become. “Driven” is a fun start to the summer blockbuster
season. I just hope Sylvester Stallone never writes another screenplay again.
He may not be so lucky next time out.