Ralph's Movie Reviews: DRIVE

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

DRIVE

Crime drama

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Ryan Gosling: the Kid, a mechanic who moonlights
Bryan Cranston: his boss Shannon, owner of an auto-repair shop
Albert Brooks: Shannon’s mob contact Bernie Rose
Carey Mulligan: Irene, a Denny's waitress
Kaden Leos: her 7-year-old son Benicio
Ron Perlman: Bernie's nasty partner and pizzeria owner Nino
Oscar Isaac: Irene’s husband Standard
Christina Hendricks: his accomplice Blanche

REVIEW
I love it when movies make use of the visual aspect to tell the story rather than having a bunch of words to accomplish the same task. In this case because the principal is a man of few words (about two dozen in total) his body language and facial expressions are all we have to go on. But that’s enough.

The supporting cast are excellent, the car chases really well done and the tension almost palpable. And it’s almost guaranteed to take your mind off your troubles.

The squeamish like me will have to avert their eyes a couple times as the degree of violence gets quite brutal at times.

CLASSIFICATION

for strong brutal bloody violence, language and some nudity.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
• Regardless of the actual speed he drives, the car’s speedometer never moves off 30 miles per hour.
• This is one of my classic nitpicks: when the driver abruptly hangs up, the person on the end of the line, Bernie, hears a dial tone. In reality the dial tone is only heard when first picking up the phone before dialling. That’s why it’s called a dial tone.

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my ratings system

I've always thought that telling too much about a movie or warning someone about a "twist" at the end deprives the person the pleasure of seeing it as it unfolds, so I don’t do it. You may not always agree with my rating of course, but at least it is an unbiased opinion unlike some of the full time professional reviewers who are on the studio’s payroll.

A few movies you won’t see any review from me:

Scary movies: I’m the world’s biggest chicken and just hate getting the crap scared out of me. I can handle an unexpected door slam, that kind of thing, but a movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat…not for me. Sorry.
Movies geared to the young teen and pre-teen crowd with dialog comprising mostly of crude remarks, awful jokes and lots of rude, socially unacceptable body noises. "The Spy that Shagged Me" comes to mind. (I wonder if the kids know what the British verb to shag someone really means? They probably do; I bet you it’s the parents who haven’t a clue).
Sometimes Hollywood gets on a roll and they produce a series of movies that are all very much alike. For example movies about the CIA were very popular and so we had The Bourne Identity and Bad Company and The Sum of All Fears. They all had the same basic theme and it becomes repetitive. I will see some, but not all of them.

FYI this is my rating system:

0 stars = Terrible: so bad it’s not worth talking about; in fact, I’d pay you not to go
= Lousy: I actually got up and walked out before the end it was just that bad (no kidding)
= Not so good: thought about walking out but hung in just in case it got better (but it didn’t)
= A so-so good movie: I enjoyed it somewhat but wasn’t all that crazy about it
= A really good movie: I recommend seeing it
= An excellent movie you just got to see! I suggest you put it on your "To Do List" it’s that good.

some favourite websites

For those into it, Nitpickers at

has more movie mistakes than you could ever imagine. My contributions can be seen if you check out the Nitpickers Registry and click on the link Nitpickers Listed by Nitpicker Number, select the group 45,401 - 45,500 and drill down to number 45411. Although I have 56 nitpicks to my credit, some have almost 2,000. You wonder sometimes where they find the time to do it.