More crap from Hollywood

Rating: 3/10 (7 May 2001)

How bad can big-budget Hollywood movies be? See Driven to find out. I should have loved this movie - I am a car fanatic and expected to be wowed by the racing. However, piss-poor direction wins again. (Note: possible spoilers in this review.)
Let's start with the computer-generated special effects. In technical terms, they suck. The worst is the flying tire that seemingly goes into a full Earth orbit before plummeting into the grandstands at supersonic speeds. Thankfully in Driven racing spectators are able to dodge race car fragments at speeds faster than the cars themselves are capable of. This scene is actually offensive given that fairly recently several people were killed at one race due to a flying wheel/tire. The street racing between Stallone and Pardue is chock full of terrible special effects that erode the narrow thread of reality that was needed to support such a ludicrous scene anyway. CART race cars do not have onboard starters for one.
Stallone is ok if a bit wimpy. Kip Pardue is entirely unremarkable and not the least bit sympathetic - don't even get me started on perhaps the worst haircut since Tom Cruise in MI:2 or the fact that he spends the whole movie covered in a sheen of greasy sweat. Estella Warren is beautiful yet underutilized (except in her magical ability to change shirts in a bar). Til Schweiger's Beau Brandenburg was far and away the most compelling figure in the movie. Burt Reynolds came across as just over-dyed.
Abandon your intellect if you choose to see this movie. Logic will just be a piece of cumbersome baggage in the theater. I know if I was a team owner and my ROOKIE driver could ONLY manage to run neck and neck with the WORLD CHAMPION I would just have to cut him loose and find a new driver, too. Yeah, right. Of course, I too would stop and help rescue my fellow driver after a horrible wreck, because, yes, I am more highly trained in rescue procedures than all the track safety personnel, and am able to know exactly where he lays trapped in the wreckage despite have been traveling at speeds near 200 MPH when it occurred. Cristian de la Fuente looked so fey going into the scene that the only shock is that he doesn't die!
Add in a healthy mix of editing that was either done by a 13 year old boy or to attract them to the theaters. Really, how many shots of busty women spectators or race-groupies eating sticking phallic foodstuffs into their mouths do we need? Oh wait, how many shots of busty racing spectators in general do we need? Lots, according to Renny Harlin. The only thing I and my two female companions got out of this movie was the vague idea that race tracks are a great place to pick up women.