Sticking with
Drive for the moment, here's some unfavourable reviews I pulled off the web (there are plenty of glowing ones as well):
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"Drive" is the most overrated movie I have ever seen. When I got out of the cinema the other night I was outraged. But not in the "I want my money back!" or "I want my two hours back!" way. I was outraged because this movie is rated higher than "Leon", for example. I can name a hundred movies that are better than "Drive" but have lower ratings.
In my opinion it's a 6/10 movie. Full of clichés, weak plot, no dialogue and uncalled for explicit violence scenes. The cinematic was good and the soundtrack was OK, but that doesn't add up. Everybody is talking about the acting. Well, what acting? There are no characters, not even one line of dialogue to be remembered. Ryan Gosling acts like he is the most awesome person in the universe. Moving around with his hands in his pockets or with his arms crossed on his chest, with a toothpick in his mouth like he's Stallone in "Cobra". A man of few words but who looks smarter than anybody else. He is ridiculous taking himself so seriously.
And what's with all that violence? Broken skulls, throats cut, blood everywhere all of a sudden. These scenes just don't fit in the movie. It seems that they were added just to shock the audience and to impress the 12 year-old who managed to get tickets. And don't get me started on the screenplay flaws...
Anyway, there are so many things that I didn't like in this movie that they wouldn't fit in 10 reviews. I believe though that his rating will eventually go down. I mean, 8.7? Lets have some sense. That's how "Matrix", "The usual suspects" or "Forrest Gump" are rated... "Drive" is just a "B" movie and doesn't deserve to share the spot with any other film above.
Unless, the world turns upside down.
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Wow!! Did I miss something here? The biggest drawback of this movie is the plot: it's barely believable and lacking in substance. While the soundtrack is very good, it also cannot save the weak dialogue which is mostly Ryan Gosling staring at people and things and not saying much at all -- we're supposed to think that's really cool. He also likes to wear that scorpion jacket even when it's been bloodied. Becoming best buddies with the neighbor's kid on the first try - really? And then willing to risk his life even after the neighbor's boyfriend comes back from prison even though she previously hit on him - really? Also, outsmarting a police helicopter in LA in the first chase scene - really?
The whole movie has that whole trying really hard to be cool vibe but it's really not. Overall an extremely disappointing effort. This movie just barely makes it above the big B.
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First the good: Drive is cast with excellent actors. Now for the bad. Based on this picture you would not know that most of the cast could act at all. Gosling's performance makes wooden seem lifelike. This must be due to direction because Gosling has been in several recent pictures and has acted up a storm in all of them. Gosling, Mulligan, Cranston, Brooks, and Hendricks are all interesting, accomplished actors. My question is: how did they get sucked into this horrible picture? Either the script that was shot was different from the script they read, or they had guns pointed at their heads.
Every plot element of Drive was so unrealistic that I found it impossible to suspend belief. The characters are equally unbelievable. Less than an hour into the picture I knew how it would end. The only question was whether Gosling's character would survive, but by that point I didn't care. All the characters were too stupid to live. Violence has its place in film, but it is not a substitute for characters, a plot, and a story even when the stupid are getting their just deserts.
Nothing in this picture hasn't been well done in other movies. Drive is derivative of Layer Cake, for example. If you want to see what Drive was trying to be, rent Layer Cake.
I do have to largely agree with the above sentiments; seems this is a real "Marmite Movie". Also,
Layer Cake was indeed definitely the film that was at the edge of my subconscious, when I watched this. However, I rather enjoyed that.