A modern cult classic, that is not for the faint of heart

Rating: 10/10 (19 April 2012)

If you watch the trailer for Drive you may be expecting a Tarantino style gore fest crossed with films like The Fast and The Furious, but you would be sadly wrong my friend because Drive, Drive is something very special indeed. Drive is from Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn who also directed films such as Bronson and Valhalla Rising, so he's no stranger to gore. The story circles around a nameless Hollywood stunt driver played by Ryan Gosling (Crazy Stupid Love, Ides Of March), who also moonlights as a getaway driver for heist and the like and he meets a girl called Irene played by Carey Mulligan (An Education, Never Let Me Go) and takes a liking to her. I'm not going to go into much detail with the story because I don't want to spoil anything but believe me when I say it is a truly heartfelt film with an incredible attention to detail, it is obvious the director put his heart and soul into making this movie. The performances though are incredible, especially from Ryan Gosling who doesn't say much but is still able to get his point across. Carey Milligan is also fantastic, I truly believe that she and Ryan carried this film, but that doesn't mean the rest of the cast was bad. Ron Perlman (Hellboy, Season Of The Witch) was amazing in which I consider his best role since Hellboy however, Christina Hendricks (Mad Men, Cold Case) was in my opinion the weakest out of all the cast but she was by no means bad she just wasn't up to the standards of the rest. However there is a major part of this film which could turn a lot of people off, and that's the gore. The gore in this movie is infrequent but when it does come it is some of the most brutal and sadistic gore I have ever seen. There were two parts in this film where I winced at the gore levels, and that would take a lot to do that since I have watched Sin City without as much as a recoil. It is also not your typical film watchers film; it's a very slow burner and is not a movie that you could just put on and have a couple of beers whilst watching it, you really need to pay attention otherwise you will get lost. However if you can stick with it, you will be rewarded with some of the most interesting characters, a phenomenal story and buckets of some of the best gore in a film this generation and you have yourself a winner. Just remember the sick bag, believe me, you're going to need it.