50 replies to this topic

[hodgsonc]

As the film was released today in the states I wondered if anybody has any comments about it. Regardless of what people say I WILL be going to see - can't help myself!

I know the story line will be thin and the acting ain't gonna win awards but what about the action?

There are a few comments on IMDB but I'd like to hear what racing fans think of it.

PS - I'm behind DC for this weekend! He's on top of the game at the minute.

[Mickey]

No, ain't seen DriveL yet, but will.

PS - I'm behind DC for this weekend! He's on top of the game at the minute.

I hope you do realize what a gem of a sentence you just wrote up there. All dirty jokes are welcome!;)

[Sphinx]

Originally posted by Mickey
No, ain't seen DriveL yet, but will.


I hope you do realize what a gem of a sentence you just wrote up there. All dirty jokes are welcome!;)

[tifoso]

Saw the special on the making of "Driven" on Speedvision Monday. We'll go because any racing movie is better than no racing movie...if for no other reason than to criticize.;) The reviews stink. Here are couple:

Flat-Tired: Sly and Company Run Out of Gas and Ideas in "Driven"

"Driven"

"Driven" Crashes and Burns

[Smooth]

I will try to see it this weekend, though the reviews are, as expected, bad.

I see two strong references to F1, though...... we have a team owner in a wheelchair, and a German champion with a reputation as a ruthless on-track persona.......;)

[miniman]

I happened to pass by Planet Hollywood yesterday on Times Square, came almost face to face with Sly Stalone. One of the cars used in the movie was inside by one of the shop windows.

Later, Styalone was on one of the networks shows and they showed a clip from the movie, something about the car doing a tail skid and picking up 3 coins laying on the asphalt; asinine, really. I have no desire to see the movie.

[McBain]

There is a discussion about the movie at the seventh gear forum. Apparently some had seen the movie prior to the public release. They did not seem to give it a very good review. They mostly said that it was way over the top. Also, a couple of people were quite upset about a scene where a wheel is launched into the crowd during a race. It was quite interesting that they had to remove a scene regarding the death of a driver, but CART aloud them to keep the flying wheel scene, although apparently no-one was injured in the movie scene.

[Viss1]

The trailers make it look like there's extensive use of CG "action." If so, I'll be thoroughly disgusted. Not expecting much to begin with, though.

[tifoso]

Viss1, on the TV special I watched about it on SpeedVision, the director was discussing the CG used...and they are extensive.

[Joe Fan]

I will be seeing it in a few hours. I will report back later.

[Dimo]

I'm expecting to see it shortly...probably next weekend due to plans on this one.

This is my perspective: if you are going to see it for it's ability to accurately represent F1 or CART, you will be disappointed. If you are going to see it for the story value, strength of acting, or intelligent screenplay, you will be disappointed. If you expect to be moved by the drama that unfolds, you will be disappointed.

If the idea of having a theatre filled with the sound of F1 cars raises your blood pressure, the thought of watching racing cars wiz by across a huge screen gets your adrenaline flowing, and you have a high tolerance for schlocky story lines and bad acting, then you'll have a great time.

BTW, I place myself firmly in the second group...

[Cociani]

I have not seen this film but have seen the making of Driven on Speedvision. It looks like over the top crap with no relation to motorsports at all and racing on city streets.
Not to mention the coins, rattling on the tarmac than drifting his rear tires into them. Both Sly and the director seemed to be making appologies to race fans for how over the top the movie is.

The reviews were however very ammusing. I definitly recomend everybody read the reviews posted by Tifoso: Now thats entertainment.

Grand Prix was the best racing movie ever made and though the plot and dialogue are dated, the movies faults are excussable because I think Frankenheimers film was honest. He walked the tightrope of trying to make a movie as realistic as possible but still keep the audience interested. The result was a classic. I suspect Driven will not be a classic. Modern computer generated special effects are the opiate of uninspired directors. Racing films only come out once a decade. Shame on them for blowing their opportunity, there are so many interesting possibilities for a story line yet they chose to produce tripe.

P.S. Thank God Bernie had the good sense to not allow Sly to tarnish the reputation of F1.

[mono-posto]

I always thought a spy driven thriller set during the 1934 Monaco GP could make for an interesting flick?
Not about racing per se, just use that romantic era as a setting?

What do you think?

[arcwulf7]

Somehow computer generated images just don't cut it when it comes to suspense or excitement. In Gladiator I spent a lot of time in the not too difficult task of figuring out what was done by stunts and what was done by computer, but any sense of tension was just lost in the film, knowing it was the product of a few danger swilling computer geeks at their keyboards. Compare that to the chariot race in Ben Hur, all done for real (with an appalling cost to horses and stuntmen btw), but it puts you on the edge of your seat. Same with Grand Prix, that great scene when the drops of rain start to fall at Spa (and every one knows what that means), will undoubtedly have more tension than all the digital cartwheeling, crumpling, spinning graphics Driven can muster for the whole film.

[Mr. Salty]

Just saw it. Enjoyed it. I suspect most here won't like it, you have to suspend what you know as a racing fan to like it. Several silly scenes that of course would never happen in real life, but still a fun movie, at least the in-car stuff. The rain racing scenes were actually very good.

Plot. What we all expected. Not much there.

Action. Over the top, but it IS a movie.

Best scene was of the real CART drivers before the final race, taking their kids to the infield playground, taping signed notes and drawn pictures from their kids onto their chests before zipping up the suit.

Not great, but enjoyable. The soundtrack was relentless though. Pray the theater you go to doesn't have it cranked up too high.

[mkane]

Salty,
I'll take your word for it. I'll see it this weekend.

[Punisher6]

I just saw it as well, not bad, not great either. I did enjoy it though. It was funny, it seemed like a moview about F1 but with a CART cast, at the beginning they flash a stat about 900 million viewers, Yeah right, CART wishes they had that # of viewers!! I enjoyed watching the great camera work and the cars also the ladies in the film are not hard on the eyes!

[Joe Fan]

Warning: This thread will contain spoilers! This is a thread intended for those of us who have seen the movie, so that we can discuss it in great detail which may spoil it for you.

So see ya! You have had your warning and chance to turn away!



Now, for the detail:

Well, overall I was a bit disappointed but this was still a 3 out 4 movie for me, mainly on the strength of the race footage. The racing on the city streets episode was the high point of the movie for me and makes it worth seeing it at the theater instead of waiting for it to come out on tape. This street scene was stated to have occurred in Chicago according to the movie but was actually in Toronto. I know because I have driven through that tunnel before when I was in Toronto in 1990.

The plot of the movie wasn't great but no worse than the plot in the movie Grand Prix. In fact, there were similarities in that the side plot revolved around the driver's relationship with the women in the movie. However, this plot was still miles ahead of the sappy, stereotypical plot found in "Days of Thunder", which I feel was an embarrassment for NASCAR.

As far as my opinion on whether this movie would hurt or help the image of CART or open wheel racing, I would say that it would definately help. Any exposure for open wheel racing should help so long as it doesn't dwell on negatives or stupid stereotypes. However, I will say that the movie had too many spectaculur crashes. This might create an unrealistic perception of what CART is about. At one point in the movie, there was another spectacular crash and my wife turned to me and said, "Is there really that many big crashes in CART?" I told her no that is was overdone a bit. To my surprise, there was yet another towards the end of the movie. But my wife, who doesn't care much for open wheel racing, seemed to still think that the movie was good and that it would help the image of CART and open wheel racing.

[Joe Fan]

It was somewhat of a disappointment to me but I would still give it 3 out of 4 stars. I would recommend seeing this on the big screen at the theater just so that you can appreciate the race footage more. The plot was about what one would expect for a race movie. Not a great plot but not terrible one either.

[f1racer]

Originally posted by Joe Fan

The racing on the city streets episode was the high point of the movie for me...

The plot of the movie wasn't great but no worse than the plot in the movie Grand Prix...

[f1racer]

Days of Blunder

DRIVEN

It's the feel-good movie of the summer! I haven't laughed so hard or so long in ages! I still ache from the guffaws that racked my body. Of course, DRIVEN isn't an intentional comedy, but oh dear gods is it funny.

Crap this bad and this hilarious doesn't happen by accident, and indeed, DRIVEN seems driven by a master plan. Take one movie star with an inflated sense of his own talent -- for instance, Sylvester Stallone -- with a pet script -- about, say, Formula One racers -- that has been turned down by every major studio and probably lots of small production companies. Add producer Elie Samaha, who will bankroll any old vanity project if a big enough name is peddling it -- see John Travolta's BATTLEFIELD EARTH, Bruce Willis's THE WHOLE NINE YARDS, and Wesley Snipes's THE ART OF WAR... or, rather, don't. Finish by throwing together a cast that displays a stunning incompetence, with seasoned pros and newcomers alike who manage to make every word of dialogue, including an and the, ring false. Settle in for two hours of the funniest stuff you've ever seen onscreen.

Not that you have to see this movie to have seen this movie -- even a casual filmgoer will be able to call the action before the lights even go down. There'll be a hotshot rookie driver with no discipline who will be tutored in the ways of racing by an older, wiser ex-driver dragged back into the game. There'll be a "villain" driver, of course. And there's gotta be a girl. Race cars will explode, sending tires flying toward the camera. Narration will be provided by annoyingly chipper sportscasters, who'll fill us in on the relationships between the characters as well as shout things like "An incredible accident!" and "Oh that is horrifying!" with morbid glee.

Jimmy Bly (Kip Pardue) is the rookie, the good guy -- you can tell because his bland, blond face is soft and dewy. Beau Brandenburg (Til Schweiger), with his angular German head and Euro accent? The bad guy, natch. The girl, Sophia, is played by Estella Warren, an athlete turned model turned actress -- you've been warned. Her lip trembles and her eyes well with unconvincing tears as Beau dumps her -- she's a distraction to his racing -- in the opening moments of the film. Twenty bucks says she ends up in Bly's bed.

Sly's insightful screenplay for ROCKY was obviously a fluke, because his script for this film is full of hilariously awful "inspirational" speeches by Robert Sean Leonard, slumming it as Bly's (evil) promoter brother, about watching the 8-year-old Bly beating the pants off the other kids at go-carts, and awful "inspirational" speeches by Stallone himself, as the wise old pro (of course), about faith and will (favorite line of dialogue: "Faith is like a good disease"). He creates absurd characters like Lucretia Clan (Stacy Edwards: PRIMARY COLORS, IN THE COMPANY OF MEN), a journalist who's writing an "expose on male dominance in sports"... cuz it's such a big secret, I guess. He sets up scenes in which enemies start off sniping and griping at each other and suddenly delve into a heart-to-heart chat about racing and romantic relationships. And he omits vital scenes, like how two hot-**** new race cars manage to get from an exhibition hall, with a black-tie party going on around them, to the street outside, ready for Bly and Sly to hop into them for an absurd chase through city streets.

On the other hand, that missing scene could be director Renny Harlin's (DEEP BLUE SEA) fault -- he seems to care less about presenting us with a coherent movie than with a two-hour beer commercial. He pushes the limit on how much second-unit photography (that is, footage with no cast members in it) a movie can contain and still be called a movie. DRIVEN is at least 50 percent second-unit stuff of races and cities around the world, of the boobs and asses of anonymous Barbie-doll girls at racetracks as they suggestively eat hot dogs, of city street scenes lacking context but meant to suggest that his characters actually traveled. Some time-lapse footage of Tokyo at night, a scene of Bly and Simone at a pool with an enormous Japanese flag flying at one end (and an Exit sign in English on the reverse angle)... oh yeah, we are so in Japan. Who cares if the second-unit footage of real European and Japanese racetracks doesn't match up with the ones where the actors are actually driving?

In a year of astoundingly bad movies, DRIVEN still manages to distinguish itself. It could be this year's BATTLEFIELD EARTH.

Enjoy.

--MaryAnn Johanson

[f1racer]

"Why bother with developing a story when you've got fast cars and lots of product placement?"
-- Victoria Alexander, FILMS IN REVIEW

"Pushing his pointless technique way ahead of any kind of content-to say nothing of drama -- Harlin eliminates any danger of intimacy."
-- John Anderson, NEWSDAY

"His Slyness apparently found his characters (especially female) in the deep discount bin at Cliches R Us."
-- Todd Anthony, SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL

"At age 10, I would have loved this film."
-- Ross Anthony, HOLLYWOOD REPORT CARD

"...the total testosterone package."
-- Jeanne Aufmuth, PALO ALTO WEEKLY

"With all the style of a decade-old beer commercial, Driven careens from one confrontation to another."
-- Chris Barsanti, CITYSEARCH

"Packed with abysmal dialogue, ham-fisted acting and laughable dramatic sequences straight out of the daytime soaps."
-- Philip Booth, ORLANDO WEEKLY

"A technically-wretched movie with a negligible plot."
-- Liz Braun, TORONTO SUN

"Driven, true to its hyped agenda, so motorized, so expertly edited, leaves viewers either frantic for speed or ready for golf carts."
-- David Elliott, SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE

"A modestly entertaining, simplistic, paint-by-the-numbers actioner, fuel-injected with race footage."
-- Jack Garner, ROCHESTER DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE

"The dialogue sequences in Driven are so awkward it's a treat each time Harlin brings his cameras back to the race track."
-- Louis B. Hobson, CALGARY SUN

"It's just too dumbed down! No real suspense. No real drama. No real surprises. Just some great action scenes featuring cars swerving around racetracks at many a mile an hour while kick arse songs blare on in the background."
-- JoBlo, JOBLO'S MOVIE EMPORIUM

"Banal screenplays mars good visuals in this drama about racing car drivers."
-- Harvey S. Karten, COMPUSERVE

"But for all its remarkable technology, Driven can't escape the cliches of the genre."
-- Terry Lawson, DETROIT FREE PRESS

"Driven looks as fake as it feels."
-- Tom Maurstad, DALLAS MORNING NEWS

"An amazingly dull movie despite the high number of spectacular car crashes and sexy people on display."
-- Brian McTavish, KANSAS CITY STAR

"A loud, frantic racing commercial."
-- Steve Murray, ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION

"In his first solo writing credit since Rocky V (1990), Stallone has turned out an old-fashioned sports drama that thrives by knowing when to wallow in clichés and when to turn them on their heads."
-- Louis B. Parks, HOUSTON CHRONICLE

"A paint-by-numbers affair."
-- Carrie Rickey, PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

"A film that comes at you like a flashing strobe light."
-- Steven Rosen, DENVER POST

"Plays like the world's first open-wheel racing music video: fast, noisy and flammable."
-- Jay Stone, OTTAWA CITIZEN

"Whenever the movie leaves the racecourses, whenever the tires stop screeching and the fenders slamming, the story lands in a brutal pile-up of cliches."
-- Lawrence Toppman, CHARLOTTE OBSERVER

"Renny Harlin is a brand name you can trust for dumb crocks of B.S. And this one is high on its own gasoline fumes. That's a compliment, by the way."
-- Dave White, IFILM

"Has all the dramatic resonance of a video game."
-- Sean Axmaker, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER

"It's almost a Pavlovian response for your thumbs to develop a joystick tic while watching this movie."
-- Rob Blackwelder, SPLICEDWIRE

"Driven, to put it bluntly, makes Days of Thunder look like Citizen Kane on Wheels."
-- Jay Boyar, ORLANDO SENTINEL

"Shrewdly staying in the background, Stallone helps balance Driven rather than capsize it with the superstar baggage and oversize persona he could have easily brought to it."
-- Duane Dudek, MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL

"Too much emphasis on disintegrating cars, fiery crashes, and spectacular stunts was made at the expense of developing interesting characters and relationships."
-- Michael Elliott, MOVIE PARABLES

"The scenes appear to have been thrown in a hat and then glued together with nonstop voice-over narration from a pair of TV racing analysts."
-- Chris Hewitt, ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS

"Why waste your quarters on the video games in the mall when you can pay $10 to see the same thing on the big screen?"
-- Peter Howell, TORONTO STAR

"Driven is one of those wince-inducing movies that makes you wonder if every single person involved was deliberately trying to embarrass themselves."
-- Doug Kim, SEATTLE TIMES

"If you like action, this is a fun, fun film, but if you like intelligent drama, prepare to be disappointed."
-- Eric Lurio, GREENWICH VILLAGE GAZETTE

"As hollow and fundamentally false as a video driving game"
-- Maitland McDonagh, TV GUIDE'S MOVIE GUIDE

"Director Renny Harlin has a gift for putting the audience in the center of the action, and that is where the movie delivers."
-- Nell Minow, MOVIE MOM

"Driven takes too many detours, and ultimately runs out of gas."
-- Jim Nolan, PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS

"The racing and driving scenes are the best ever done."
-- Ted Pfeifer, REELINSIDER.COM

"The racing footage will blow you away."
-- Malcolm Ritter, ASSOCIATED PRESS

"The most inept and cataclysmic motion picture to get released since Battlefield Earth."
-- Chuck Rudolph, MATINEE MAGAZINE

"Despite all of its souped-up sound and special-effects fury, the racing movie Driven never really shifts out of neutral."
-- Bob Strauss, DAILY NEWS LOS ANGELES

"The slowest-moving vehicle ever endorsed by the CART racing federation."
-- Michael Tunison, BOXOFFICE MAGAZINE

"If you're searching for a story, this baby stalls way before the finish line."
-- E! ONLINE

"Unless you find car racing to be a nearly orgasmic experience, Driven offers little in the way of entertainment."
-- James Berardinelli, JAMES BERARDINELLI'S REELVIEWS

"A race-car drama full of flashy but empty images and a soundtrack that makes you feel as if you're being shaken on a motel rumblebed."
-- Mike Clark, USA TODAY

"A movie by, for and about the Attention Deficit Disordered."
-- Roger Ebert, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES

"Comically corny and crude speedway drama."
-- Jonathan Foreman, NEW YORK POST

"Driven is mostly preposterous, and it has no dramatic center, but the racing scenes hold you in their death-trip grip."
-- Owen Gleiberman, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

"Driven is all over the map in more ways than one."
-- Bob Graham, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

"The target audience of men, young and old, will admire the pedal-to-the-metal action and not be in the least bit put off by its rudimentary characters and silly plot dynamics."
-- Kirk Honeycutt, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

"A good deal of Driven is pure ephemera."
-- Tom Keogh, FILM.COM

"A music video shot by a Cops camera crew on crystal meth."
-- Michael O'Sullivan, WASHINGTON POST

"Even fans of open-wheel racing, the high-speed, high-stress pastime that is the subject of Renny Harlin's hectic new film, may walk away from it more logy than exhilarated."
-- A.O. Scott, NEW YORK TIMES

"A slick, simplistic, and laughable effort that's reminiscent of a bad Jerry Bruckheimer film. A really bad Bruckheimer film."
-- Lawrence Terenzi, MR. SHOWBIZ

"Though Harlin's skill compensates for a lot of narrative preposterousness, even it is overmatched this time around."
-- Kenneth Turan, LOS ANGELES TIMES

"When the film predictably limps across the finish line, you're left with the impression your time would have been better spent sitting in traffic."
-- Michael Vega, BOSTON GLOBE

"A silly, overexaggerated movie."
-- Michael Wilmington, CHICAGO TRIBUNE

"Even the race scenes turn the goings on into Formula One for Dummies."
-- Christopher Null, FILMCRITIC.COM

"The only glimmer of any acting in evidence is by Robert Sean Leonard as Jimmy's heartless brother and Gina Gershon ... The rest of the cast appear to be either escapees from a fashion shoot or wax museum versions of once famous action stars."
-- Steve Rhodes, STEVE RHODES' INTERNET REVIEWS

"Gas -- the hot air variety -- is exactly what Driven is made of."
-- Rene Rodriguez, MIAMI HERALD

"Forget story. Wait for the crashes. Everybody go 'ooo.'"
-- Chuck Schwartz, CRANKY CRITIC®

"No matter how much leaden drama came before it, Driven is one hell of a ride."
-- Tor Thorsen, REEL.COM

"As Driven demonstrates, it's possible for a movie to be so preposterous and so completely clueless about its own stupidity that it's almost fun."
-- Jeff Vice, DESERET NEWS, SALT LAKE CITY

"A contrived, hackneyed and generally overblown and pointless production, this is the sort of film that gives big-budget, Hollywood films a bad name."
-- SCREEN IT!

[BMW_Power]

Four Words - What a **** movie!

[Ivan]

I just came back from it myself. It was ok until the street scene and then the " this wouldn't happen at a real race" driver rescue. The crashes were insane. Frank Williams er I mean Burt Renolds was funny. F1racer - I agree the movie had me laughing hard as well.

[Hi Test]

f1racer: I admire the amount of work you have undertaken to pan a movie that shot itself in the foot by releasing a trailer on TV.

You must be really peeved at wasting $10.

[f1racer]

Yeah, all this cutting and pasting....whew....my finger aches...



;)

[Spaman]

Wow. Sounds like this movie could give some competion to "Cobra, another serious Stallone flick", as greatest comedy of all time.

[Duck]

If for no other reason, I don't think I could possibly endure 120 minutes of watching Stallone in a Sparco two sizes too small.

[bs]

Then there's this review in salon:

http://www.salon.com...iven/index.html

"Driven" Sylvester Stallone's homoerotic car-racing actioner delivers something between "Speed Racer" and gay porn
By Andrew O'Hehir

[ehagar]

They should have dragged James Garner out of bed, even at his age! It would lend some credability!

Hmmmm.... Kind of wish John Frankenheimer (sp?) was the director instead. I don't think he would have let Sly get carried away.

[f1racer]

Originally posted by bs

"Driven" Sylvester Stallone's homoerotic car-racing actioner delivers something between "Speed Racer" and gay porn

[NYR2119935]

I thught the movie was great
I saw it this morning
And I'm gonna see it again later

[HappyDude]

I wouldn't really say that this thread actually contains any spoilers...;)

[gerry nassar]

Originally posted by arcwulf7
Compare that to the chariot race in Ben Hur, all done for real (with an appalling cost to horses and stuntmen btw), but it puts you on the edge of your seat.

I just watched Ben Hur a few days ago and its incredible how the chariot scene echoes bits of F1 races. A brilliant and edge of your seat scene. I dont think they can repeat that today!

[mojo jojo]

As previously mentioned, the best part for me was all the cameos by the real drivers before the last racing scene. (and... wasn't that Jean Alesi shaking Sly's hand just before he goes to the car? Who was the other guy with him?) There were some pretty visuals, but too many of the "racing scenes" were very obviously filmed at low speed with a shaky camera to make it look fast. Too many inconsistencies and impossible scenarios, but it is a film so most can be, if not forgiven, at least tolerated. Ironically, the scene I expected to be the most comical - the street scene - was maybe the best shot scene in the whole movie (at least the first 2/3's of it).

At least it only cost me $5. The 2 minute "Planet of the Apes" trailer got me more excited than the movie did.

As bad as "Days of Thunder" was, it had a tighter plot and story than this crap. They just tried to put too much in. Seems they didnt understand that the drama is already there, no need to go so over the top.

Oh yeah, the entire race in Germany was bogus. They would never race on a track built like that.

As the comic book guy from The Simpsons would say: Worst. Movie. Ever.

[Sid]

Mojo

Yeah, I thought that was Alesi too!!!! and there was some jap with him.... probably related to his wife

Movie was allright..... not for purists, just enjoy the fact that is a racing movie.... u could have been watching a movie on football, or some **** like that...... the racing scenes are good

the german race was total crap (it looked like old Monza to me)

[asterix]

i wondered if there would be any of those 'dedicated to senna and villenvue' references in the movie ...

any bits that may have portrayed these memories?

Probably won't get to see it for a couple of months over here.

[Joe Fan]

Everyone has to remember that this is just a movie, not a documentary on CART. Sure, I was disappointed with the movie but I don't think it was as bad as some people are making it out.

As far as realism, the street racing scene at night was 'movieish' but I enjoyed it because I think it played to most motorsports fan's fantasies. Haven't you ever fantasized about driving a car like that on city streets or highways? Before someone says that this was totally unrealistic, I would suggest they talk to someone knowledable about the US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen. From what I have heard, it wasn't uncommon to see a F1 car drive on the city streets there on Grand Prix weekend.

As far as the realism of a driver getting out of his car to save a teammate in a crash, this too isn't totally unrealistic in motorsport. Back in 1964 at Charlotte, Ned Jarrett got out of his car in the middle of a race to come to the aid of Fireball Roberts, whose car had crash in turn 3 and was up in huge flames. Ned was able to pull Fireball from the car but Fireball died a month later in the hospital from complications from the burns. In F1, I recall an incident where a driver got out of his car to come to the aid of another driver on the grid. However, I can't remember who the drivers were.

The bottom line with the movie, is that it should help stimulate more interest in open wheel racing. My wife, who I can only get to come with me to stock car races, said that she would be more likely to want to see a CART race after seeing the movie. Say what you want about the movie but I think this exposore definately will help open wheel racing in the U.S.

[30ft penguin]

" ... of the boobs and asses of anonymous Barbie-doll girls at racetracks as they suggestively eat hot dogs, ..."

I think I have to see this movie - together with some friends and lots of dark Weizen this might actually be funny :-)

[f1racer]

[917k]

The scene with the drivers giving their loved-ones notes and photo's,just in case the unthinkable,was deeply moving and heartfelt.....NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Come on Joe-bob,that scene had me wretching with its sickly,sweet sentimentality.

That scene was meet with LOTS of groans and snickers in my theatre.

Stallone's fascination with the danger of racing goes way over the top.He said in an interview,''You eat breakfast with these guys and wonder if you'll see 'em again at supper.[pass the bucket!]

TOTAL PIECE O' CRAP![that's the spoiler]

[indysteve]

Here's an article from the Indianapolis Star that may interest some of you. It discusses the involvement of Derek Daly and John Della Penna in the making of Driven:

http://www.starnews....driven0427.html

[SKL]

Yes, that was Alesi near the end. I don't remember seeing him but a friend thought Jacque Lafitte was there too. Also thought it was interesting Sly was wearing a Winfield hat early in the show- wonder what they paid him to do that?

[lomond]

I saw the movie last night and did not think too much of it.
Hollywood razzle dazzle.
The last race in the movie was a joke. Both drivers humming to themselves as they passed the entire field. La, la ,la.

[Greg L]

Originally posted by Ivan
I just came back from it myself. It was ok until the street scene and then the " this wouldn't happen at a real race" driver rescue. The crashes were insane

Actually, I was thinking the same thing about the driver rescue, but then I remembered the Niki Lauda crash that almost killed him were it not for the efforts of two of his fellow racers (whose names now escape me).

As for the insane crashes, I agree. I've watched open wheel racing as long as I can remember (at least 15 years), and I've only seen about half a dozen crashes where cars are launched many feet in the air. This movie had about five!

OK, and one other scene really had me in stitches: on Stallone's warm up laps before Toronto, he casually tosses three quarters out of the cockpit so he can come by the next lap and "pick them up with his rear tire in a slide." Of course, as the pit crew chief explains, "any fool would be able to pick up the quarters with the front wheels." Where did Stallone dream up this beauty? I was absolutely stunned at this scene's foolishness!

Still, I think the movie did what it was trying to do, and I think that even though parts of it are unrealistic and/or over the top (like Sly and the German discussing relationship problems before a race:rolleyes: ), the movie is still entertaining. And this movie still beats the holy living piss out of Days of Thunder - no comparison. I give it 3 out of 4 stars, and it was worth the 4 bucks I paid for a matinee.

[NYR2119935]

I thought the movie was great!

[FlatFoot]

I felt like I was watching Jamie Oliver (The Naked Chef / http://www.foodtv.co...nakedchefindex/)

I knew it would be bad going in ....but thought the in-car footage, etc would make it worth it. Wrong.

Unlikey a movie of this low of caliber will bring in any new fans. If so, it'll be folks who are mainly interested in lots of crashes

[BlackGhost]

I saw it today, I left after the hospital scene, I couldnt take it anymore. Do yourself a favor, if you are not 12 years old forget about this movie.


Its insulting.

[Arneal]

There are some people here who really need to lighten up. It is a movie, not a documentary.

I found experiencing Driven in the theater to be far better than watching Gran Prix on the small screen. The pictures and sound at the local mall are much better than in my living room. The plots are similar (both suck), but Driven has better babes.

If you walk in with low expectations (and you should, lets face it, all racing movies are bad) than you will walk out happy with the race footage, I did.

One other point, the reason that few racing movies are made is because they do poorly at the box office. When this one bombs we probably won't see another one for twenty years.

[NYR2119935]

I thought the movie was great. You people are over critical and expect to much from the MOVIE.