Decent Racing Movie That Makes The Same Mistakes

Rating: 6/10 (10 May 2003)

Movies about auto racing have never done well as movies. Attempts to tell stories related to racing have been made since early film, but virtually no fictional treatment of racing has ever told the story properly.
Driven is the most recent attempt, focusing on the now-moribund CART championship circuit. The cast is intriguing, headed by Sylvester Stallone and Burt Reynolds, and the special effects are surprisingly good. Much of the racing footage is impressive.
But the film makes all the mistakes racing movies make - the driver rivalry over a girl (which never happens in real life); the racing footage that is always quick-cut montages, never the very-long takes that are vital to communicating the essence of racing (racing is never about quick-cut montages); the use of real life announcers as if race teams ever pay any attention to their commentaries (let alone even hear them); the preposterous crashes; the preposterous driving maneuvers; the preposterous shortness of the races portrayed (why can a racing movie never show a race in its entirety - all 200 laps or whatever distance?), and so on. Why Hollywood constantly makes these mistakes is a mystery.
Give Stallone and Reynolds credit for putting in a good effort and salvaging something from the typical Hollywood butchering of racing.