Review: Drive

For this review, I am going to hand over to a guest reviewer, Paul Mitchell, for his thoughts on Nicolas Wending Refn's Drive.

I can see that Hugo appreciates an informal style of movie reviewing so I'll take that approach. Basically, I went to see Drive because I had free tickets. It's based on a novel, and another film version of the same story has already been made. Maybe it's better than the version I saw. I enjoyed it for the first 20 minutes, as Ryan Gosling's quirky silence and the 80s noir feel had a certain appeal. And the central idea - which is probably why it has been made into films - is really interesting: a Hollywood stunt driver moonlights as a getaway driver. I could see Michael Mann directing a script by someone with ability and this film being a knock out - so many nuances and points of interest for character development. But this Drive is in first gear and never gets out of it. Well, if you like cheap kills and thrills then it might be to your taste. And if you like that guy from Sons of Anarchy that looks like a Neanderthal Man then you might like it. But this film sucked in just about every way imaginable, except for the fact that, unlike so many of the characters, I got to leave the cinema alive.

Score: 3 out of 10

* one star out of five