DRIVE (2011)
a review by Evan Landon
I have not written an article in a while, so I thought I would start with the greatest Ryan Gosling movie made (so far). That's right, La La Land! Just kidding, could you imagine me reviewing that piece of shit?! Sorry, that award-winning piece of shit..?! Not yet. Just kidding, I never saw it. Will I ever see it? Nope.
The movie I am speaking of is the 2011 Nicolas Winding Refn vehicle (no pun intended), “Drive” which stars that very same actor, add Bryan Cranston, Ron Perlman, Oscar Isaac, & by far my favorite Albert Brooks performance outside of The Simpsons. Not many people know this, but it was adapted from a novel written by a science fiction writer from Arkansas named James Sallis in 2005. That's right, you can actually learn some interesting facts to accompany my weighted snark here in Villainous Cinema!
Where was I..? Oh yeah.
When I first heard of this movie, I was living in Gainesville and one of the cooks would not shut the fuck up about it. Y'know when people do that, you tend to not want to even see it. Kind of like people who watched Breaking Bad when that was a thing; it's almost like in order to watch it, you have to sign an agreement that you will tell every single fucking person you meet about it. Hey, Bryan Cranston was in that too!
It was played at Cannes Film Festival, Refn received a Best Director Award, blah blah blah, etc... Who the fuck cares? It's an awesome movie. Who would have guessed that the sniveling dickhead from The Notebook could be a Steve McQueen-esque badass?! I mean, I know I didn't. I think the silver scorpion jacket he wears is supposed to be an homage to McQueen, but do not quote me on that.
The soundtrack is pretty dope too, not a very common thing in many movies. I think the last one I really liked was from Tron: Legacy, and that was all Daft Punk. This one has a great song that bookends this called “A Real Hero” by College & Electric Youth. Check it out, when you get the chance.
There is something kind of funny about this one too: a woman actually sued the production company for a misleading trailer. Apparently, she thought she was going to see a Fast & Furious-style movie. I think I would probably sue anyone who tried to make watch one of those movies tbh..
Anyways, Drive is awesome. It cleaned up at the box office, pulling in 81 million against a 15 million dollar budget. I would give it 5 stars, but that one guy at my old job wouldn't shut the fuck up about it.
4.5 out of 5