Thursday, February 23, 2012

Drive


Well, its midnight and I went home this weekend so I am not really in the school state of mind. I have no idea what to blog about; so I will do a blog on the movie I just finished two minutes ago, Drive. For those of you that don’t know, Drive is a movie that came out this year starring Ryan Gosling, Albert Brooks, Bryan Cranston and a few other famous people. It is about a driver whose name you never really figure out who works as a stunt driver for movies during the day but is a getaway driver at night. That sounds really lame and gimmicky but the movie is actually awesome. It’s a really good story that is expertly acted.
Ryan Gosling and Albert Brooks in particular were especially good. Gosling only opens his mouth maybe once every other scene in the entire first half of the movie, using his silence and body language to give him a really unique, almost awkward attitude for a protagonist. Albert Brooks on the other hand, who was the voice of Marlin in Finding Nemo for all you Disney fans out there, is really powerful as the main bad guy. Both actors play smart, realistic characters that can be both relatable at times and downright vicious in the uber-violent second half. For those of you who have seen the commercials, you might be thrown off by this movie in the first half hour. Besides a slick opening getaway, the first half of this movie is comprised completely of dialogue and developing the relationships between all the characters.
Those looking for a straight up action movie will be turned away, but those looking for something deeper to connect with will find a lot to love. Around the 45-minute mark the talking tones down and the action picks up. It almost reminded me of a Quentin Tarantino movie where the story is mainly progressed by smart dialogue and all the sudden, along the way you are treated to scenes of overwhelming violence that you did not see coming (the first head that gets blown up in this movie reminding me a lot of the first scalping in Tarantino’s Inglorious Bastards).
I don’t want to ruin the movie for you by describing much else, all I can say is that it is an extremely quality film and that I enjoyed every minute of it. I didn’t even mention my favorite part which had to be some of the most cinematic camera shots that saturate the screen with color and style that have a very 80’s style to them, including the cover arts pink neon font. However, the visuals are best left to be seen, not described, so if you’re looking for a good movie, I highly suggest Drive. (465)

3 comments:

  1. Sounds like a good movie, maybe I'll have to watch it sometime

    Ed

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  2. I have also watched this movie, unfortunately I do not have the same opinion. I really did not like this movie at all mostly because I am not a big fan of Ryan Gosling I actually can not stand him, so he basically ruined the movie for me.

    -Max Garbis

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  3. Excellent film review. I think project two will come easy for you, Mike. I watched Drive the day I got my wisdom teeth out and highly enjoyed it for its cinematic style and avant-garde storyline. I thought the silence of the film was very powerful and the focus on their bodies was a throwback to genre films of the 70s. It did remind me of Tarantino films, although Drive was much less mainstream in terms of dialog focusing on pop-culture. My only issue that I had with the film was their representations of the women characters. They were mere objects in the film and served no purpose besides either being a pawn in a plan or object that needs protection. I really wish that they would have stepped outside the norm in this aspect.

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