The first movie I checked out on this journey was Driven
from 2001. I’d never seen it before so
that seemed like a good place to start.
It’s about upstart CART racing genius Jimmy Bly (Kip Pardue (The
Rules of Attraction)) and his rivalry with multi-championship winner Beau
Brandenburg (Til Schweiger (Inglorious Bastards)). As these things go they bicker off the track and
naturally fight over a woman (Estella Warren (Planet of the Apes (2001)))
which doesn’t end how you would predict and feels wrong (just one of many unusual
decisions made). Stallone plays an aging
driver who gets asked by team owner Burt Reynolds (Silent Movie) to come
out of retirement to help Bly win the season.
Sly mentors the kid and drives alongside him to keep the other cars from
placing.
First thing I gotta mention is I don’t know jack shit about
professional car racing of any kind. After
some research I found out that this takes place in the world of IndyCar as
opposed to Formula 1. Specifically this
is about CART (Championship Auto Racing Teams) which dissolved in 2003 shortly
after the film was made. If there are
any racing fans out there is this any sort of intriguing glimpse into a bygone
era? Does the movie give an accurate
depiction of this racing style? I mean I
assume it doesn’t but I’m always curious about accuracy in pictures.
Anyway, setting aside my lack of knowledge on the subject
matter the movie is terrible. It reeks
of early 2000’s panache. Way too many
closeup shots, there’s frantic coke-fueled editing, repulsive CGI work
(especially in the last race where it’s overused making certain shots look like
ugly video game graphics) and a nu-metal/angsty soundtrack. Not to mention the incessant ogling of young
hot ladies in skimpy outfits. Jesus,
this combination of puke is too much for one film.
Plus all the characters are remarkably boring and one dimensional.
I didn’t give a shit about any of them including
Stallone. The casting choices are a head
scratcher as well because none of the actors have any chemistry. Relationships are supposed to have been formed
and broken but every move feels contrived.
There were clearly numerous scenes that were either shortened to less
than thirty seconds or excised all together because there are several montages
of these clipped sections pieced together. As a result the character development is very
awkward with strange and abrupt changes.
For example Stallone has a private talk with Brandenburg (aka the
villain) encouraging him to get back together with his girlfriend who’s with Jimmy
Bly now. Bly is the hero and Sly is on
his team so what the fuck is he doing?!
The car racing stuff isn’t all that exciting either. Based on this and Days of Thunder it
seems hard to make official car races (not street races or car chases)
engaging. The human element is more
removed because you can’t see the driver’s face or body. In other sports films that showcase a
different activity like basketball, baseball, arm wrestling, etc. you see the
body contorting and the face wrenching while achieving this majestic physical
feat. With car racing it’s cars passing
each other and not much else. It’s difficult
to make that cinematic.
This is almost boring.
If there wasn’t so much dated crap bombarding your brain all the time
this would be such a slog. In that sense
it’s a time capsule curiosity. Sure The Fast and the Furious came out the same year and exhibits a whole helluva
lot of the same qualities but the story and the handling of the characters and
the action sequences are a million times better.
I wish I could say something positive here because I dig a
lot of the folks involved like Renny Harlin, Stallone (who also wrote this),
Burt Reynolds and Gina Gershon but I’m struggling.
Here’s where they fucked up: several people in the picture
refer to Stallone’s character’s wild past where he drove his car and his life
to such a breaking point that Gershon utterly hates his guts for how he treated
her and Reynolds holds a bit of a grudge because of his old antics. Where the fuck is that movie?
No comments:
Post a Comment