5/6/2001
Driven stars Sylvester Stallone as Joe Tanto, Kip Pardue as Jimmy Blye, Til Schweiger as Beau Brandenburg, Burt Reynolds as Carl Henry, Stacy Edwards as Lucretia Clan, Estella Warren as Sophia Simone, Gina Gershon as Cathy, Robert Sean Leonard as Demille Blye, Brent Briscoe as Crusher, and Cristián de la Fuente as Memo Moreno.
Driven has launched a new genre of film, the MTV movie. Sylvester Stallone wrote and starred in this story of INDY car racing. Here is the shallow plot: Joe Tanto is called by Carl Henry to help his rookie driver on his way to a national championship. Does he bring driving advice? No! He brings interpersonal relationship advice to the young rookie and any other driver who will listen. How did he get so smart? Well, he's been to the bottom, in fact his ex-wife is married to the driver he will replace on the team. I think that's it for the dialog.
Driven is now about special effects and music. We are now shown cars flying through the air, crashing into each other, and crashing into immovable objects. Several explosions and in your face Flicker-Vision, that annoying slide show to intensify the scene. We see tires flying off of cars and almost achieving orbit. Several other scenes that only the mind of ten year old could devise.
Driven is big budget fluff and meant for any teenager to marvel at and verbalize slang that means awesome or outstanding.
I give it 2 out of 5 quarters: