My review

Rating: 10/10 (24 September 2011)

The first time I became aware of Nicolas Refn as a director was when I saw about the first quarter of Bronson and was extremely intrigued by how different and out there it was; but I never managed to actually finish the movie and he kind of slipped my mind.
Flash forward three years when the first clip of Drive was released. I was introduced to it on an internet message board and was ecstatic right from the start. Then a while later the first official trailer was released and I found myself even more pumped than before. I made it a personal goal to get a copy of Bronson to finish it before I went to see Drive; Bronson was as strange and out there as I remembered but I generally enjoyed Refn's style and was excited to see what he was going to bring to the table for Drive. Finally after much anticipation I got to see the movie and I was amazed!
With a great cast portraying almost instantly relate able and likable characters that feel very realistic and deep. The main character "The Driver" has an almost super hero like feel to him and his scorpion backed jacket is like his crime fighting costume. Pretty much all of the casting was perfect and I especially liked Ron Perelman, I think it is his best role in a long time and really shows you what he is capable of as an actor.
The film has a very heavy graphic novel feel with both the sleek visuals and the over stylized violence as well as the mentioned before vigilante watchmen like vibe; and yet none of this makes the film seem like it isn't still grounded in reality.
With one of the greatest car chases I have ever seen in a movie and an amazing 80's like soundtrack this film comes together in a way that can only be described as John Hughes meets Quentin Tarantino, making a cross over between Taxi Driver and the 1978 film The Driver. It has pretty much all the qualities of an 80's romance movie and all the qualities of your usual violent Tarantino movie in one.
I think Refn did a really great job at asking the question "how far are you willing to go for someone you love?" And the film also experiments with love at first site; without giving away too much, he hasn't known the women very long and yet is willing to do so much for her and her family including risk his own life. I think the film is also a great look at cause and effect, as certain things lead to other things and it escalates more and more. However the movie does have a slow start it is all very vital to the plot and adds an anticipating build up because you know at any minute the sh*t could hit the fan and the feeling that something bad is going to happen is very evident in the visual story telling.
All and all I think the movie comes together very nicely and is a great break from the usual pop corn flicks that are forced on us now a days. Though there is some backlash due to the advertising misleading people (supposedly. I knew what I was in for from the start) but I am very glad for Refn's success on this and I think this film will have a huge following in the future. I think any back lash on this film is just like the meat heads that hated on Fight Club because it didn't focus on fighting.