Anyone else seen it? Not much of a performance from Sly Stallone but the action was pretty good. Some great special effects during car smashes on the track etc. I liked the joy ride scene also.

 

I am sorry I purchased the DVD. Super Speedway was much more excellent. Soap Opera for Formula 1 Drivers, pleaseeee..

Tan

 

I expected Driven to be pretty bad, but it was still a must see. Unfortunately, the movie far exceeded my expectations.

Stallone put in the best performance in the whole movie (that's pretty much saying it all right there). Burt Reynolds barely managed to phone it in, but who can blame him after having such an awful face lift that he could barely part his lips.

The digital effects were a bit better than okay, not bad but you could see every transition easily. And the whole crash/rescue scene (complete with methanol burning orange atop the swamp surface) was a little silly. I bet most of the car owners wished they had telemetry telling them when the driver was applying 3.5% too much throttle though

Aside from that, having attended the Chicago CART race where they did half the filming, it was interesting to see clear shots of bungalows in Cicero while they were racing in Germany, Japan, and 2 other races that I don't currently recall. I may very well even be a single green pixel (Team Kool Green hat) in the Suzuka podiup champagne spraying scene

Anyway Muz, sorry to be the Siskel (RIP) to your Ebert.

Clark

 

I think the scenes were over-exageratted but that's Hollywood for you. The special effects were pretty good and the sound was awesome. The only scenes that I enjoyed was the "Coin bit" scene and the "Joy Ride through the streets" The sound effects were awesome. I didn't care for all that blur effects that they used. Kinda like "Fast and the Furious" making the cars seem like they were traveling at the speed of light or something. I like movies that focuses mostly on actual driving: Gumball Rally, Ronin, and other great driving movies.

 

Taken to another level...don't *ever* boot up the video game, "Driven", for Sony's PS2! OMG, total, utter, complete, stanky, c-r-a-p!!!

 

It was BY FAR the worst racing movie ever made. With the budget they had and the access to digital effects it is a crime that this was the best they could do.

Want to start listing all the bogus crap in the movie?

Champ Cars can not be started from within the car, they require an auxilary starter motor.

The crash scenes show cars with square tube frames, champ cars are carbon fiber tubs.

Champ cars use methonal which burns with an invisible flame.

Sly Stalone gets to the accident scene faster on foot from the pits than the CART safety team does.

Driving through the entire field in tandem like they are standing still.....right.

The already mentioned "Hollywood Telemetry".

Bottom line is that even a casual race fan or even just someone who has watched a real race, should have been disgusted with this movie.

 

I was shocked at how fake the racing was.

I mean, if all drivers were just "scared to go fast", and that all they had to do was mash the pedal (which is what they showed every time someone went to pass someone else), racing wouldn't be a sport.

I just couldn't believe those scenes. The driver was too scared to go faster, so the owner would start yelling at them. Eventually the driver would get the guts to go a bit faster. Then there would be a quick image of the footbox and you'd see the gas pedal get mashed to the floor, and the car would squirt off and pass the car in front.

Just stupid.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by 98TypeR#21
[B]I just couldn't believe those scenes.

 

Yikes, you're right - I didn't notice the upshift.

I take back what I said. It's obviously a perfect movie of racing at its best.

You know - it's too bad all the racing drivers are just too afraid to go faster... And apparently the aren't upshifting.




Seriously, what really bothers me about this movie is that it COULD have been a great venue to draw new people into the sport, helping them understand the fact that drivers are on or near-the-edge almost 100% of the time, balancing everything during a race. If the driver exceeds the limits in one of several areas (acceleration/braking traction, chassis balance, temperatures, machinery limits, physical and mental pressures, etc...), they can lose everything. And of course there's the great competition between the drivers and teams.

Sigh.

 

I thought this movie was a piece of crap too. It was trying to be slick and exciting but it was cliche and stupid. 2 thumbs down.