Drive
2/5
Ryan Gosling has come a long way since his role in the 2004 romance film, The Notebook. Don’t expect to see him kissing any ladies passionately in the rain in Drive. He does, of course, kiss a lady passionately, but then promptly stomps a man’s head in right in front of her afterwards. Yup, ladies love that.
Throughout this movie it’s obvious to see attempts to be different than your usual crime/action movie.
The first attempt was giving the film an ‘80s feel; the title credits are in fluorescent pink writing, the soundtrack is cheesy synth music, and Gosling sports a lovely white jacket with a tacky gold scorpion on it. This would have been cool and not confusing had the movie actually been set in the ‘80s.
The second attempt is making the film as violent as possible. After seeing this film, viewers will have a far better reference point as to what shooting a woman in the face with a shotgun might look like.
The violence in this movie is all shockingly realistic, and extremely well done, but it wasn’t what most would expect from a movie called Drive. Gosling does a lot more killing than driving.
Everything else in the film falls under the category of sub-par; the dialog is boring, the cinematography is bland, and the story is unoriginal.