DRIVE - new film from Nicolas Winding Refn

Now that looks like my kind of flick! When does it come out?

That is a complete bummer....

That sucks, but I thought "screenings" were by invitation - no competing for tickets/seats.

larry

Not bad I like it.

I'm seeing this FO SHO! Best trailer of the year so far. Even the simple font for the title is perfect.

Looks like there's 2 posters out, but this one is the money:

Loved it. 80's hardcore action with great acting & character development. The ultraviolence took me by surprise. Vibe, look and feel were on point. Cool framing, angles, slo-mo's, etc. Wicked soundtrack too. There's a few scenes that had me on the edge of my seat and you could hear a pin drop in the theater. YES!

Easily my favorite movie of the year and my wife liked it too (shocking).

I'm thinking you are going to like this one. Hopefully it can live up!

My wife keeps coming over and showing me pictures of Ryan Gosling as a kid on the Mickey Mouse club. Bwahhaa! He's looks like one of those annoying SOB's you just want to strangle.

I've been pumpin' the soundtrack and thinking about the movie. It's not perfect but I could see this being today's True Romance. Drive doesn't has the "love story" that film had but it has enough and if I was in high school today I'd be all over this.

Ahhh 1993. Where did you go?

F^ck1n$ awesome!

The 80's vibe, combined with the sparse(sometimes) dialogue, character development, great acting, a moderate twist or two, and great plot, make this one a winner. It got a little self indulgent at times, but all in all, it was great. Easily one of my favorite films of the year. Just edging out Contagion.

Did I mention the soundtrack was amazing?

I saw Drive yesterday. I liked it well enough but, frankly, was far less impressed than many of the critics were. I should admit up front that I have never been an ardent Ryan Gosling fan and his performance in Drive did nothing to improve my assessment. I believe Gosling's performance was supposed to convince us that the Driver was the quintessence of existential cool. Instead, his Driver seemed to be a none to bright tool with a penchant for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I also thought that the film had far more style than substance.

On the plus side, the action scenes were heart poundingly exciting and the film's plot, although thin, was intriguing. Drive's supporting cast was simply marvelous, especially Albert Brooks as a mob guy and Bryan Cranston as the Driver's boss and partner in a fledgling stock car racing team. Christina Hendricks was also excellent, but in a role that was disappointingly limited.

Drive had enough going for it to convince me to give it 7 Stars out of 10 but that's about all I could see in it. Marginally recommended.

This looks a whole lot like Walter Hill's The Driver, but it doesn't seem to be sourced from the same writing.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077474/

Still looks close enough to interest the lawyers

I SECOND THAT!!! I saw it last night. The score is kind of an atmospheric, almost techno-like beat that pulsate through the film. And the sound design matches the sudden intense fury that the film itself has. Gunshots and crashes will jar you out of your seat.

Have to disagree with the above poster about Gosling, I think he was perfect. He wasn't supposed to be the epitome of cool--he WAS a not-too-bright guy getting caught up in all the wrong situations. However, he did so with a boiling intensity that seemed to idle right below the surface, waiting to explode.

This film is absolutely dripping with "cool"; however, it takes a FILM fan to enjoy it--it is not for mass consumption. It is slow-burning and atmospheric (if you saw Animal Kingdom, it's up there, with less intensity yet more style).

However, I do not think it a perfect film. The pacing seemed to steadily decrease throughout the entire film. They were going for that slow-burning intensity feel, but I don't think they quite nailed it--I found myself waiting for something to happen for far too long as certain parts of the film. And the second half of the film seems to think sudden bursts of violence will replace the adrenaline pumping, white-knuckled chase scenes from the first half; they prove to be an inadequate replacement.

On the other hand, I don't think I've ever seen a film so gracefully self-aware. You know exactly what's going on in the characters heads and the film KNOWS what you're thinking (it shows this in several scenes where it holds the suspense very well and for much long than you think it would.)

Overall, it's very highly recommendable to film buffs, but I'd advise "normal" people to stay away.

Thanx for the review.
Interesting comment about the pacing of dialog....

I'm with you on the pauses in dialogue.

I don't think I took one breath during the parking lot scene!

Finally saw this over the weekend. I wasn't impressed. I read a criticism this morning (after seeing the movie) in which someone called it "shallow, existential noir posturing." That's exactly correct, IMO. The whole time I was watching it, I kept thinking, "This director is such a poseur. He's seen every Michael Mann film but he hasn't understood them." The movie isn't just style over substance. It's ALL style and no substance at all.

I also found myself wishing that I was watching a real '80s movie and not this facsimile. Something like To Live and Die in LA (an obvious influence) has just as much style as this, plus characters with actual personalities, which is something completely missing here. The car chase is better too, frankly.

Albert Brooks has in interesting line of dialogue when he's explaining how he used to be a movie producer in the '80s and made a bunch of bad action movies. "Critics called them 'European.' I thought they were sh!t." I felt like he could be talking about this one.

The worst film ive seen this year! waste of time imo.

While I didn't really like it, this was clearly not the worst movie of the year. Just you wait until "The Moth Diaries" gets released. Whoo-wee, what an embarrassing stinker that is!

The Driver character is obviously designed to emulate the characters of Clint Eastwood, Lee Marvin, Steve McQueen, and other famous tough guy men-of-few-words. The thing is, when those characters stood there without speaking, you could see the wheels turning behind their eyes. You could tell that they were thinking, analyzing the situation and planning all the angles.

Driver isn't thinking anything. He's a blank slate. There's nothing going on behind the eyes.