I don't pay a lot of attention to, well, really anything these days. News, Sports, upcoming MOVIES. So I might have missed out on the hype for this movie if there was any. I've heard the trailer made it seem like the Transporter or Fast and the Furious. The Transporter is one of those words too, but not as bad I guess. Fast and the Furious is obviously a movie, and not confusing. Except that the first 3 are numbered and then the 4th one was just Fast and Furious, and the 5th was FAST FIVE!!! Actually the third one was called Tokyo Drift. But whatever, people thought they were getting an action movie when they were getting an artsy movie instead, and they got tricked, which is awesome. Fuck those people.
Drive: A movie about cars. And Driving...
I on the other hand knew nothing about this movie, kinda hearing it was a love it or hate it deal, but getting mostly "It was Rad" from people I knew and I became really intrigued. I also heard there was a Jacket involved, which made me more intrigued. And I saw the poster for it with it's neon pastel colors, and got way more intrigued. Didn't know who Ryan Gosling was, and was super intrigued for some reason, I guess he's in a bunch of chick movies. And I heard the violence was intense and then got REALLY ultra intrigued to see this movie. So I had this weird kind of anticipation for the movie, where I figured it was just artsy, violent, and stylish enough to be fresh, and went into it hoping I wouldn't be disappointed.
Jason Statham's cameo as Vin Diesel, in an attempt to get more people to see the movie
I already said it was awesome, so yeah, I wasn't disappointed. No, instead the movie opens with this 80's dark electro synthesizer sounding music while the main character drives around the city at night with the credits displayed in pink letters, and I was sold. And that's really the best way to describe the movie. The plot really isn't much, and it's not supposed to be. It kind of actually is similar to the Transporter, kind of. The main character barely speaks and none of the other characters really jump out, so there's little dialog, or exposition. But it's not supposed to be. The movie is about execution. While most people bitch about something being too stylish, and say shit like "it was style over substance" because they're fucking idiots, the truth is that a story's execution is just as important. Like artistically, or something. Or MORE important! Probably not, I don't know, but too many people put emphasis on plot or story, acting like they only find merit in the "meaning" of the movie, like jerk wannabee intellectuals, when it's a fucking movie. Like we haven't already seen every story 200 times. Oh I wonder what the dove at the end of Blade Runner "symbolizes?!?" Fuck you. The style in which a movie executes story, character development, atmosphere, and whatnot is what makes movies unique to other mediums, because if story were the only important part, then you should just read the book.
Deciding how realistic, surreal, over-the-top, or stylized the feel of the movie is, like how the characters talk, or what they say, or how action is done, with it being brutally real, or cartoonishly graphic, or even barely seen but heavily insinuated, is the reason we go to see movies.
And it "Symbolizes" America!
And that's where the Love or Hate part comes in. People either find something fresh and enjoyable in the movie, or try to punch holes in the plot. So you either have taste and like it for it's realistic, yet stylized take on what could have been a genre film. Coming to enjoy it as a character study that takes time to breath life into the people we are watching and make the danger feel real. Or you have bad taste, and I've already made fun of you 5 times. Look at the scorpion jacket you idiot.I don't even know why I like the jacket in this movie that much. It might be because it's Fall and I've been seriously looking for a new jacket of my own and was like "Oh, cool jacket." when I saw the movie. It might be because I've never really seen a white jacket I thought looked cool before, let along a satin one with a scorpion on the back. Or it might be because it makes the character iconic. The same way Indy has his hat and whip, and Travis Bickle has his mohawk, this guy has a jacket. Giving the character presence on the screen so he doesn't need back story, one-liners, or even a name. The guy barely says 10 things the whole movie, but carries every scene with a glance past the camera and a smile. I've looked up this Ryan Gosling guy, and he doesn't seem to be in anything else I'd be interested in watching, but that's kind of the appeal. I've never seen him before, and that adds to the iconic nature of the movie.
I also looked up the director with the weird last name and found out he was the guy that did the Pusher Trilogy, a series of movies I tried to get into but couldn't get past the first one and instead watched a special feature on the dvd about how the director had made a smash hit in his home of Denmark with the first one and it took him like 7 years of fucking up in Hollywood to go back to his roots and make two more. Crazy. I even heard Drive was originally supposed to be a Hugh Jackman vehicle directed by Neil Marshell, the guy behind Dog Soldiers and the Descent, as an actual blockbuster. So it could have been very different.
"Oh, cool jacket."
If there's anything I didn't like, or would have liked to see, it would have been nice to see him as a stunt driver a bit more. It seems so important to the plot, yet we hardly see it. There's only on scene with him as a stunt driver, and only two scenes with him as a get away driver, and one of them is the establishing scene, while the other is part of the actual story. And though I liked the story between him and the cute girl, that was pretty much the whole movie. Not that I wanted less of it, but I read the director wanted to do the movie because he liked the idea of someone with two personalities, one that was a stunt driver by day, the other a getaway driver at night, and we never got to see that. We just come in when he meets this girl at a very plot convenient time in her life, and that becomes the movie. I would have liked to get his day to day a bit more fleshed out, but it's not like the movie was tight to begin with so...
Despite the anticipation I put on the movie, it oddly meet up with exactly what I wanted. That says a lot about a movie. The movies retro feel, with it's dark synthesizer soundtrack and awesome cinematography that makes great use of color and darkness, gives the movie a freshness while still being familiar. The sometimes slow pace never became tedious or boring for me, and the acting is top notch from everyone, which isn't surprising considering the cast is stacked with actors like Bryan Cranston, and Ron "Hellboy" Pearlman. However Ryan Gosling's "Jacket Boy" character becomes the highlight. Its the kind of character I imagine most actors dream of playing as he gets to carry the entire movie with his attitude alone. The fact that I didn't even know who this guy was added to it, since it's always nice to get a new "badass" character that isn't just Jason Statham as himself for the 400th time. You add in some realistic graphic violence that show how ugly reality can be and a cool jacket, and you got a sweat movie.
8 cool jackets out of 10
