A rebuttal of some inane reviews.

Rating: 10/10 (22 September 2011)

One of my favorite things about really liking a new movie is reading the bad reviews to see why people disagree with me and whether they can make me see flaws in a film by giving me a different insight and allowing me to think it over a little more deeply. I was pretty excited to read the "Hated It" reviews on IMDb for "Drive." My friend works at a movie theater so he got us in for free two nights in a row. I loved it both times, and that's not typical for me. I guessed that the bad reviews would mostly be about it being too slow for an action movie – a legitimate response from any stupid person. I was right for the most part, but I found something slightly more disturbing in the negative reviews. There is an ASTOUNDING number of people who expected this to be a remake of "The Driver" from 1978, and complaints that it wasn't more similar.
Okay, so, what the f?
These people are actually going to go on to IMDb and write negative reviews saying that the film wasn't similar enough to a movie that wasn't even being remade? I also don't really understand the mentality of people who seem to really love a movie, in this case "The Driver," but want it to be remade. If it's so good, why do we need to fix it? These are the people who are encouraging studios to do nothing but churn out the same god damn movie every three years because they have such a set comfort zone and don't want to see anything outside of it. These people are killing the creativity of the world's greatest film industry.
"Drive" stands on it's own as a great movie. It pays homage to films of the 1980s while still feeling ultra-modern. That being said, it's fairly slow-moving, especially in the beginning. You need to have an attention span. Some people said this movie had no plot, to which I say: You clearly were texting during the movie. Cut that s--- out.
There isn't a lot of dialog. I actually read one negative review that said that Ryan Gosling's character probably wouldn't get along very well with people if he were like that in real life. My response to that is, why, exactly, do you think his character gets along well with people? He barely interacts with anyone in the film, he doesn't have friends so to speak, and he doesn't talk very much. Something tells me that being sociable isn't high on his list of priorities.
Another big complaint is that Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan spend a lot of time staring at each other not saying anything. This is true, but I don't think it's a flaw. I think it has to do with the fact that neither of their characters seem to do a lot of socializing. They both are shy. They're awkward. They connect with each other in a different way than your typical action hero slickly picking up some bombshell so they can go home and bone. If you're looking for something that cookie- cutter, this movie probably isn't for you, but the good news is that pretty much every other action movie that comes out is. Go waste your money on those. Throughout their scenes of silence I always felt a palpable tension, and that's what I want from dialog (or lack thereof.) Another thing I read a lot of comments about was that Gosling's silence made him seem stupid. I don't know if "stupid" is the right word, but I don't think he's supposed to be a genius. He's a stunt man, a mechanic, and a driver. None of those things require you to be great with words. He has a different kind of intelligence, and I would agree that it's not book smarts, but that that doesn't make his character less relatable or realistic. I think we all have our strengths and weaknesses, and the idea of God-like action heroes who are good at everything is really quite boring. Again, if you disagree with that, fortunately for you, most movies that come out are tailored perfectly to your tastes, go watch those so I don't have to.