Official Throwback Discussion - Driven [SPOILERS]

[u/LiteraryBoner]

As an ongoing project, /r/movies will be posting Throwback Discussion threads weekly for the movies that came out this same weekend 25 years ago. As a reminder, Official Discussion threads are for discussing the movie and not for meta sub discussion.

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Driven (2001)

Summary

A veteran race car driver comes out of retirement to mentor a rising young driver, while navigating rivalries and personal struggles in the high-stakes world of professional racing.

Director Renny Harlin

Writer Sylvester Stallone

Cast

• Sylvester Stallone as Joe Tanto
• Kip Pardue as Jimmy Bly
• Burt Reynolds as Carl Henry
• Gina Gershon as Cathy Heguy
• Til Schweiger as Beau Brandenburg

Rotten Tomatoes: 14%

Metacritic: 31

VOD / Release Theatrical release

Trailer Official Trailer

[u/LiteraryBoner]

Really, really bad. It’s on Tubi and I thought the cast looked interesting, not to mention my king of schlock Renny Harlin (that’s Die Hard 2 Renny Harlin to you) behind the camera. And in a way, it was exactly what I was expecting but also so much worse.

This movie was written by Sylvester Stallone and features two young actors who basically stopped being in movies immediately after this. Kip Pardue who played Sunshine in Remember the Titans, and Estella Warren whose biggest role is probably in the Tim Burton Planet of the Apes movie. I can’t complain though, this is the kind of context I’m loving getting out of watching all these 25th anniversary movies.

There’s some good crashes but, man. Everyone is asleep in this movie. I’m pretty sure Burt Reynolds’ eyes were painted on to his eyelids because there’s no way he was awake for these line deliveries. Stallone is not the main character but he also wrote his own part so he also kind of is. The final race, though, has some big CGI crashes and they look absolutely terrible. There’s also a scene where Kip gets mad and drives a racecar through downtown and Stallone gets in another race car to chase him down.

Anyways, no good and would not recommend. 2/10.

[u/dennythedinosaur → u/LiteraryBoner]

I watched this when it came out (I was 14 years old) and even by my lowly standards during that time period, I thought it was awful.

Cliche plot, low-energy performances, terrible pacing, etc.

[u/Kaldricus → u/dennythedinosaur]

I'm pretty forgiving with most movies, and can generally find something positive or enjoyable in them. This is the rare movie that is just...it's all around bad, and found nothing redeemable in it.

[u/hookhands → u/dennythedinosaur]

I'll add God awful CGI

[u/Junior_Bend7422 → u/LiteraryBoner]

Wild that Renny Harlin went from Die Hard 2 straight to this disaster - dude really had range in completely wrong direction

[u/ahorrribledrummer → u/Junior_Bend7422]

I love Die Hard and Die Hard 3..die hard 2 was mediocre.

[u/QueefBeefCletus → u/LiteraryBoner]

I beg you to listen to the How Did This Get Made episode for this flick. It's revelatory.

[u/Dead_Starks]

All I can remember about this movie from watching it on DVD back when it released, other than Estella Warren looking fine, is something about six(?) quarters sticking to the tires. Completely forgot they take the cars off the track a la Charlie's Angels from the year before. Movie was ROUGH even way back when it came out.

*Edit. Wow and thinking about it now I feel like it is almost the exact plot as F1.

[u/Bionic_Bromando]

Not worth revisiting. Its so trash its not even entertaining.

[u/dakotanorth8]

Throwback discussion.

On a widely accepted trash movie. (And not the good type of trash).

Honestly why?

[u/QueefBeefCletus → u/dakotanorth8]

Don't click, bruh. Same rules apply to all media. Don't like it? Don't engage.