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Rating: 7/10 (3 January 2003)

Sylvester Stallone simply can't seem to catch a break. Judge Dredd caused the star to be something of a joke with lines like "I am the law!". An attempt at an independent comeback in "Copland" actually offered quite a good performance, but the film went largely unnoticed. "Driven" was another film that was written by the star (as was "Rocky" and "Cliffhanger"), but reviews and word of mouth kept audiences away. While not quite as poor as many made the film out to be (mainly thanks to flashy, entertaining direction by Renny Harlin), the film relies on cliches instead of bringing anything new to the table. Not that anyone's really brought anything new to the racing genre - "Days of Thunder" wasn't terrible, but it wasn't exactly much of a success, either. "Driven" plays like the racing version of Oliver Stone's football film "Any Given Sunday". This picture has the same sort of flash and striking cinematography, but it forgets the character development that the previous film at least was partially successful with. In fact, the cars remain the real stars of the movie here.
Stallone plays Joe Tanto, a former ace race car driver who's been out of the business for years, but asked to return by old friend Carl Henry (Burt Reynolds), who wants the old pro to ride alongside the new rookie, Jimmy Blye (Kip Pardue). Their competition is Beau Brandenburg (Til Schweiger). There's even a romantic triangle shoehorned into the plot, as Sophia (Estella Warren) moves back and forth between the two young racers.
There's several factors that make "Driven" suffer, though. Besides the lackluster nature of the screenplay, the performances are not particularly good, especially the two newcomers who play the competing racers. The only performance that really manages to shine is Warren. The former swimmer and Sports Illustrated model really does have a terrific presence and, impressively, is able to make the stereotypical lines of dialogue sound genuine. Hopefully, after performances here and in "Planet of the Apes", she'll move on to bigger and better things. Gina Gershon is stuck playing the Stallone character's ex-wife in a shrill subplot that goes nowhere. As for Stallone, he doesn't do a great deal here, nor does he seem to want to as he mostly appears content to set in the background and let the younger stars have their moment.7/10