JUDGEMENT!: Drive

“If I drive for you, you give me a time and a place. I give you a five-minute window, anything happens in that five minutes and I'm yours no matter what. I don't sit in while you're running it down; I don't carry a gun... I drive.”

I didn’t even want to see this movie. I saw the trailers and commercials for it and it looked like a chase film and if Vin Diesel isn’t driving in a chase film or if it wasn’t made in the 70’s I probably wont like it. But a co-worker told me to see this and after his recommendation on Devil’s Double I decided to check this out. Twice. Yes, I went to The Grove and saw this movie two times in three days.

Drive stars Ryan Gosling (Blue Valentine, The Notebook, Lars And The Real Girl) as Driver. His name is never actually mentioned from what I recall. Even in the book he is known as Driver. He is a getaway driver. Like he says whenever he meets a potential client, he doesn’t take part in any of the planning of a crime. Just the getaway where hopefully nothing stupid happens. There is a scene at the beginning where he helps in a robbery where you are actually nervous from police lights showing up out of nowhere. At his apartment he meets a mother named Irene played by Carey Mulligan (Brothers, Never Let Me Go) who lives a couple doors down the hall from him. After helping her bring groceries in after her car breaks down they become friends.

Driver is also a stuntman driving for movies and a mechanic. He never sits still unless he is eating. The rest of the time he drives around Los Angeles. His boss and agent Shannon played by Bryan Cranston (Malcolm In The Middle, Breaking Bad, Little Miss Sunshine) is a former driver who has problems walking (for a very jacked up reason) and is always looking for a way to get some extra cash. He makes a deal for Driver to race cars with Bernie played by Albert Brooks (Weeds, Private Benjamin, Out Of Sight). Bernie is a mobster along with his partner Nino who is played by Ron Perlman (Hellboy, Blade 2, Sons Of Anarchy).

Irene’s husband Standard played by Oscar Issac (Sucker Punch, Robin Hood, All About The Benjamins) gets out of jail and has to pay some men back for protection he got while locked up. They beat the hell out of him and Driver agrees to help rob a pawn shop since Irene and her son will be hurt next. They rob the pawn shop with Christina Hendricks (Mad Men, Life As We Know It, I Don’t Know How She Does It) and everything goes to hell.

This movie had some of them most graphic violence that I’ve seen since Irreversible. When you see someone gets their head stomped in you see someone get their head stomped in! When someone gets their brains blown out you really see it. The soundtrack is also awesome and I’m pissed I have to wait until Tuesday to get it. Like I mentioned on The DNA Show, this movie has suffered because of bad advertising. This movie is deeper than it appears and is very entertaining.