It's Grand Prix 2001 and worth the view

Rating: Null/10 (2 May 2001)

Other reviewers compare this to "Days of Boredom" (whatever) which really was "Top Gun" in a car. Does Tom Cruise always have to appear helmetless on a motorcycle out of the fog? I digress. "Driven" is a CG update to Grand Prix. Frankenheimer used the split screen and Harlin uses CG shots. Lets compare:****Spoilers*****Spoilers******Spoilers**** 1. Wife/Fiancee leaves man when she feels unloved and gets some excitement with her man's chief rival only to return to her man when she feels that he really does need her. (Sophie is cute, sure, but looks like she should work at The Gap. Jessica Walter was a 10 in her day and was the epitome of 60's youthful vigor and class. Jess, call me...) 2. Hero gets hurt in a crash and has to drive wounded. 3. Hero fogs out while driving and is lucky to hold on. 4. A car goes into the water and the driver is lucky to get out. 5. One race in the rain and, of course, it is more dangerous. 6. Pre-Race rituals like the family photo over the heart (Driven) and blood type bracelets in Grand Prix. 7. The big wreck involves a car flying through the air, over trees and landing burning with minor hero getting hurt/killed. 8. Owner of team as heartless ogre who plays mindgames with drivers. Celi has Montand's car arrive late, Reynolds holds Stallone back in pits. Celi, of course, was great, but Reynolds stunned me with the energy he put into this role. 9. Marching band playing on the racetrack. 10. Lots of girls and disco shots. 11. Both Stallone and Garner finish a race with their car in disrepair and about to blow. 12. Both Stallone and Garner are "washed up", have alternate careers and get called back to help the team because they know "how to win". 13. Lots of feet and clutch shots. 14. Both have an absence (thankfully) of "real race footage" interspliced which is obviously not taken anywhere near the subject matter. See "Red Line 7000" for 50's footage in a 60's movie. 15. A female journalist becomes a love interest. Eva Marie Saint and Stacy Edwards are both very classy and well cast. 16. In the end the Hero wins, the right man gets to keep the girl (but doesn't win) and the owner appears to have a heart of gold after all. All that being said, if Grand Prix was great, and it was, so is "Driven". Oh, sure, the manhole covers and tires go slo-mo in the air (see Jurrasic Park: The Lost World) and some of the CG cars look like a video arcade (or is that the Director trying to make us think that the driver is flashing to his computer simulation...Hmmmm?) but the violence of the wrecks is accurate. Gina Gershon is the perfect ball-buster X and even she comes around. You can complain about the continuity or other goofs (beach volleyball scene in Detroit has "Chicago" in the background, Canadian flag in background of the Detroit or Chicago race, etc.) but the real story is good, remarkably wholesome and has a happy ending where nobody gets killed. Is that bad? No, so go see it... besides that, it is No. 1 at the box office.
Brewski-2