Finally got to see "Drive" (2011)

So I finally got my act together and watch “Drive”, a movie I’ve been meaning to watch for a very long time. Well long if you consider 12 days a vast amount of time. But after seeing the amazing reviews and saw the trailers not so long ago, I knew this movie was perfect for me. The trailer was filled with car chases, action and Ryan Gosling being amazing. After getting real hyped up for this movie I drove to the theatres, sat my fat butt on the stiff theatre seats and watched this car-oriented movie. My thoughts of this rather interesting movie after the jump.




Gosling plays the mysterious driver that takes jobs from criminals but only as a driver. He gives them a set of rules and they need to be followed or he won’t take the job. But in the day time he is a completely different person. He has two honest jobs, car mechanic and stunt driver. But because of his crime history, the mafia family has their hands around his life. Though none of this really matters because when the mafia comes after the only people he is close to. He’ll need to do one last job to set things like the way it was before.

After watching the trailer, the movie has a feeling that is a hybrid of “Bullitt” and “Transporter”. Which was awesome, I loved those two movies. The trailer also tries to depict this movie as a fast paced action movie. This might be a bull-faced lie. Yes, those scenes in the trailer were in the movie, but it seemed to be the most of the action scenes in the movie. And all of these scenes are awesome; I loved the car chases, the gun fights and hand to hand fighting. All of that showed Gosling in a new light for me, a freakin’ badass. I would honestly love to see him in these types of roles.

Gosling was the star of the show.

But let me expand on Gosling’s character. He was awesome in many ways. Not only does his speech-minimal character really capture his characters mystery, he can kick some butt when need be.  What really was the icing on top of the cake was the scorpion on the back of his jacket. I assume there was some symbolism here, with the Greek mythology of Scorpius who was sent to kill Orion after he swore to kill all beasts on Earth. A great tie in if you ask me.

Now let me express to you why I actually didn’t like this movie, even though a lot of this is because it is my fault. I was expecting a movie with a lot of car chases and a cool crime story line, a very “Transporter” like film. I got half of that; just a small crime story and that is all. Most of the action has slow scenes to fill in the story. As much as I liked the mafia scene with Ron Perlman, it had too small of a part to do with the film.

Don't be fooled, there isn't much action in this movie. Even with shotguns.

Most of this movie is to do with Gosling’s character and the story. Slow scenes of him building his character, introducing himself to the audience was all accompanied with hit or miss background music. As interesting as the story was, I don’t think it felt all that wonderful. It just felt rushed even though it took its time presenting itself.

Let me bring it back to the music, it was like I was on a swing set. At one point I was high up and enjoying it, the slow electro-house music (Kavinsky is an amazing artist) was a perfect mix. A very 1980’s style of music was the perfect sound track. But at other time, like on a swing set, I was down and not feeling the orchestral music. I nick name it, church music, for its organ heavy theme. To come to think about it, I can’t think of many scenes with no background music with it.

But when the action did kick it, it really shocked me. I was mellowed out by the story and when Gosling fired off that shotgun or utters the phrase, “Shut your mouth or I’ll kick your teeth down your throat and I’ll shut it for you”. It woke me up and really had me cheering him on. And this might be the only upside of having a fairly slow movie. I never expected these ‘in your face’ action, until it happened and the effect was magnified.

Perlman plays one tough mafia boss.

Now the most important part of this film the car chases. Well the two car chases to be specific, yes I only said two. The first car chase scene reminded me of the “Getaway in Sweden” videos with Driver X with on car shots, bumper cams and a very amateur look. But I like that; you get the sense of speed and no camera tricks. The second scene was a letdown, it did almost the exact opposite as the first one. It was just generic car chase sequences. Not much more I can say about that. Again they have the same fundamental flaw as the action, too short and not enough of it.

Yeah, that is all I really have to say about this movie. I might have over hyped this movie on myself expecting a fast paced, driving heavy movie and when none of this was present I was let down. But can you blame me? The movie is called “Drive” after all. After making a pros and cons list while writing this up, I should have liked this movie. But at the end of the day, I just shrugged. It’s just another forgettable movie. The biggest problem was that everything I really loved about it lasted way too short. I’m going to agree with Jim here, this movie isn’t for everyone but I’m sure there will be a lot of people that will enjoy it because they can get past the action and see the drama of it. Check out Jim’s entry here if you haven’t already.