Drive (2011, dir. Nicolas Winding Refn)

Johnny Jewel must be stopped. He is the idiot responsible for the smug, soulless, retrograde crap on DRIVE, and is about to collaborate with Refn again on a remake of LOGAN'S RUN.

I summon the ghost of Jerry Goldsmith and his army of ARP 2500/600s.

This forum is depressing on the best of days. I like to whine and complain about the state of music and films with the best of them, but Drive was hardly part of the problem, on either front.

Only if you hold the movie up to absurdly high standards can it be considered bad. And I would be very interested to hear what 2011 releases the people who knock it did enjoy.

TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY for one.

TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY is a mess. Without a doubt the biggest piece of shit I saw last year.

I'm not shitologist, but I'm baffled as to how one could think DRIVE is a better film than SPY. DRIVE is dumb, tasteless, ugly, soulless, and nihilistic trash. The complete opposite of TTSP.

I find it amusing that people who call Drive a generic 1980s fabrication would see no issues with "Tinker..."

Sharky wrote:

I'm not shitologist, but I'm baffled as to how one could think DRIVE is a better film than SPY. DRIVE is dumb, tasteless, ugly, soulless, and nihilistic trash. The complete opposite of TTSP.

Why exactly is Drive nihilistic? The Driver is just another iteration of a character type that has long been a part of the American cinema tradition.

SPY maybe set in the early 70s, but it's form and aesthetics are not. Unlike DRIVE, it makes no attempt at reverence or nostalgia of the past, or gloss it up. It tells it like it was, not through the Refn-Tarantino "past seen through the prism of cinema" mould.

Salomé wrote:

Sharky wrote:

I'm not shitologist, but I'm baffled as to how one could think DRIVE is a better film than SPY. DRIVE is dumb, tasteless, ugly, soulless, and nihilistic trash. The complete opposite of TTSP.

Why exactly is Drive nihilistic?

There is no real moral core to the film. It's one pretentious, overlong music video that fits within the "tradition" of Tarantino, Haynes and Van Sant.

Drive plays like a college project in techniques to me, I feel I understand what they are trying to achieve in the shots, a lot of pretension underpinning many of those lingering close ups, but there's no focus or cohension to justify making a movie of them. Its grungy and grimy without offering any realism, the characters are cliched and woefully underwritten, the perfomances devoid of any charisma or empathy....there's just nothing to make the scenario come alive or most importantly make me care what happens.

2011 has been a dissapointing year imo, There are a few important movies I have yet to see for the year, but Drive was likely to be one of the higher hopes and it just underwhelmed on every level - I just hope that the two next biggest hitters 'Black Swan' and 'Tinker Tailor....' don't end up doing the same.

Loomis wrote:

Are there actually any genuine songs of the 1980s in DRIVE? I didn't spot any. To me, the dross on the soundtrack sounds like contemporary hipsters trying to make music in a 1980s style, and it has about as much character and authenticity as Sebastian Faulks writing as Ian Fleming.

Considering how many superb synthpop songs came out in the 1980s (both mainstream and cult), I'm at a loss to understand why we didn't have Gosling drive around listening to, say, Depeche Mode ("Never Let Me Down Again"), New Order ("Confusion"), very early Pet Shop Boys, Bobby O, Jellybean Benitez, etc. instead of soulless faux-1980s crap.

Running the old tunes in a contemporary film that is only evoking ASPECTS of a past era is like getting kissed over a telephone, and self-conscious as all-get-out in most instances. I thought the main song seemed more like Julie Cruse from TWIN PEAKS than anything from a full 3 decades back.

I think you can do it in a slightly less sell-some-CDs obvious fashion, like using an instrumental of NIGHTS IN WHITE SATIN to reflect an old love affair in the Rutger Hauer SPLIT SECOND, a cheapie with a terrible monster that I just love anyway, but haven't found since the VHS days.

I forgave Drive for its pretensions because of the violence. Thought it was a decent enough counter.

I don't think gratuitous violence makes a film any less pretentious (ANTICHRIST anyone?), more rather a sense of humour.

The Driver should have been able to laugh at himself, because sure as hell I did.

trevanian wrote:

Loomis wrote:

Are there actually any genuine songs of the 1980s in DRIVE? I didn't spot any. To me, the dross on the soundtrack sounds like contemporary hipsters trying to make music in a 1980s style, and it has about as much character and authenticity as Sebastian Faulks writing as Ian Fleming.

Considering how many superb synthpop songs came out in the 1980s (both mainstream and cult), I'm at a loss to understand why we didn't have Gosling drive around listening to, say, Depeche Mode ("Never Let Me Down Again"), New Order ("Confusion"), very early Pet Shop Boys, Bobby O, Jellybean Benitez, etc. instead of soulless faux-1980s crap.

Running the old tunes in a contemporary film that is only evoking ASPECTS of a past era is like getting kissed over a telephone, and self-conscious as all-get-out in most instances.

I see what you mean, but that isn't to say that the use of old tunes in a contemporary film that seeks to conjure just some ASPECTS of a past era can't be done well. Depends on the tunes and the scenes and how the two are combined. I think it's done brilliantly in, for instance, PULP FICTION, but seems a bit self-conscious in, say, 127 HOURS.

Loomis wrote:

trevanian wrote:

Loomis wrote:

Are there actually any genuine songs of the 1980s in DRIVE? I didn't spot any. To me, the dross on the soundtrack sounds like contemporary hipsters trying to make music in a 1980s style, and it has about as much character and authenticity as Sebastian Faulks writing as Ian Fleming.

Considering how many superb synthpop songs came out in the 1980s (both mainstream and cult), I'm at a loss to understand why we didn't have Gosling drive around listening to, say, Depeche Mode ("Never Let Me Down Again"), New Order ("Confusion"), very early Pet Shop Boys, Bobby O, Jellybean Benitez, etc. instead of soulless faux-1980s crap.

Running the old tunes in a contemporary film that is only evoking ASPECTS of a past era is like getting kissed over a telephone, and self-conscious as all-get-out in most instances.

I see what you mean, but that isn't to say that the use of old tunes in a contemporary film that seeks to conjure just some ASPECTS of a past era can't be done well. Depends on the tunes and the scenes and how the two are combined. I think it's done brilliantly in, for instance, PULP FICTION, but seems a bit self-conscious in, say, 127 HOURS.

Heartily agree on both of those.

Whatever you say about this movie, though, it sure seems to generate a lot of discussion.

Okay.... I brought home DRIVE today...

will watch it sometime tonight or this weekend...

I see y'all are split on this movie, some hate it, some love it....

I will let you know my professional opinion soon....

If I turn it off before I even finish watching it, I will let you know that too...

The last movie I didn't finish on DVD was Real Steel (after only 20 min) and I haven't walked out of a movie theater in the middle of a movie in a long long time.

I look forward to your professional opinion.

30 min in and nothing has happened plus Carey Mulligan is in this.

The movie just lost 5 points already!!

Carey Mulligan is a fantastic actress. Not the most attractive (though she isn't ugly by any means), but definitely has talent :|

My problem with Carey is not her looks.

I find her acting wooden and stiff.

The only movies I've seen her in are:

Wall Street Money Never Sleeps (UGH, she was horrible in that!!)

Public Enemies

Never Let Me Go

Brothers

She was outstanding in Never Let Me Go! Watch An Education - she's incredible in that. Admittedly though, I can't remember her in Public Enemies, but I can't remember much of that dire film anyway.

finally!

something has happened once Christina Hendricks came on!

now it has my attention!!

Drive (2011)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0780504/

A CAPER movie that had a good intention with its story but it's poorly executed, incompetently written, filled with cliches and out of place scenes, sloppy acting, unnecessary violence that doesn't add anything to the substance of the film and uninteresting narrative.

This movie also lacks identity: it wants to be Gone In 60 Seconds One Minute, The Transporter the next minute, Reservoir Dogs the next, than back to The Transporter again and then Pulp Fiction and when it tries to imitate the early 80s Michael Mann films with the nighttime photography, that's when you want to scream in pain.

The dialogue is boring and unmemorable; the characters uninteresting; the acting is shallow and empty, especially Gosling's and Mulligan's, both actors who shouldn't have any business whatsoever attempting to play any dramatic roles requiring depth and drama.

This movie was hailed by many critics as a cinematic masterpiece but you know critics; half of them don't know what the **** they are talking about three quarter of the time.

There are better caper movies out there like Reservoir Dogs and The Bank Job and The Thomas Crown Affair (original) and Heat and this is not it!!

I can make a list of movies that should never have won Best Picture and Best Director but had and in today's Hollywood, it's not talent and quality that wins awards most of the time; it's money and who you know and whose ass you can kiss.

If you like a movie where you can sit for almost 2 hrs waiting for something to happen and nothing happens and you like to waste your time doing it; then this movie is for you.

Of course, if you are that person, then you must also like visiting the dentist and watching grass grow for hours at the time.

Otherwise, look elsewhere!

My rating:

0.5/5

my lowest rating of any movies I've seen in 2012 so far;

lower than the previous two films I've seen this year that I'd previously rated the lowest

Trust (2010) 1.25/5 on 01-05-2012

and

The House of the Devil (2009) 2/5 on 01-11-2012

I rated Drive best movie of last year. I cannot fault it whatsoever.

I rated 'Drive' highly because aesthetically, it's great, with some striking images. I also liked the intensity of the acting, though for Gosling's character, it drifted out of emotional distance to blankness and then back in again, so I wasn't fully engaged with his performance. Though his scenes with Mulligan were great, and even though the dialogue is minimal, you really do get a sense of the moment and their relationship.Thematically, it was quite vague, which is why, along with Gosling, it just misses out for being anything higher than about an 8/10 for me.