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  Directed by
  Starring
  Specs
  • Widescreen 2.35:1
  • 16:9 Enhanced
  • Dual Layer (RSDL )
  Languages
  • English: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  • English: DTS 5.1 Surround
  Subtitles
    English - Hearing Impaired
  Extras
  • 9 Deleted scenes - with optional commentary by Sylvester Stallone
  • Theatrical trailer
  • Audio commentary - Director Renny Harlin
  • Cast/crew biographies
  • Featurette - Conquering Speed Through Visual Effects
  • Animated menus
  • Awards/Nominations - The Making of Driven

Driven

Roadshow Entertainment/Roadshow Entertainment . R4 . COLOR . 112 mins . PG . PAL

  Feature
Contract

Welcome to a year in the world of open-wheeled, Indy car racing - the drivers, their lives and their loves - all set against a backdrop featuring such exotic locales as Japan, Germany, Australia, Brazil, Canada and, erm, Detroit. A world with more blonde hair than the entire population of Scandinavia, commentators that are so over the top they make Murray Walker sound like a snooker commentator on Mogadon, and more product placement than you'll be bombarded with in your average supermarket.

Jimmy Bly (Kip Pardue) is the star new Indy car rookie, blitzing the field at the commencement of the season, and throwing down a serious challenge to defending world champion Beau 'Iceberg' Brandenburg (Til Schweiger). The problem is that Jimmy is losing his edge as the pressures of celebrity are mounting - not helped at all by his manager brother with his dollar sign eyes, so after his golden boy goes into a spinout, team boss Carl Henry (Burt Reynolds) calls in his secret weapon - Joe Tanto (Stallone).

After a successful racing career early on, Joe hit the skids after, well, hitting the skids and having a major accident, and subsequently turning to drink, drugs and a somewhat reclusive lifestyle. He sees this call-up as a chance for redemption and to resurrect his career, however Carl has other plans for him - as a sort of cautionary example and potential mentor for the somewhat overwhelmed Jimmy, whose position in the team is looking more and more insecure as he continues to lose his way with the season's progression.

"I'll see you in my rear-view..."

Intertwined amongst the racing stories is a spider's web of relationships. Beau dumps his fiancée Sophia (Estella Warren) as he sees her as a distraction - so she starts hanging out with Jimmy, adding to his team's concerns for him even more. Joe's ex-wife Cathy (Gina Gershon, seemingly trying for, but failing miserably at, a Bette Davis-like ice queen performance) has married driver Memo, who happens to be the team member Joe is replacing, but that's OK as there's a reporter, Lucretia, for him to flirt with - but is Cathy really over him?

Really, that's about it. There's lots of spectacular, rapidly-cut thrills and spills-packed racing to behold, but way too much time is spent on boring tat such as relationship issues - leaving Driven to come across pretty much like Days of Our Lives on four wheels, going around and around in circles at phenomenally high speed. From wading through the supplemental bits and pieces included on this disc, it seems that the Stallone-penned screenplay was originally intended more as a kind of Rocky goes high octane-type drama rather than an action film, which explains the sometimes befuddling, usually superfluous attempts at getting into the behind-the-scenes lives of the characters. The problem is that when you pitch a film like this to audiences in the way it indeed was, it could easily be argued you've taken one heck of a wrong turn at Albuquerque with such attempts at, well, plot, when those who would be lapping up the previews just want action with a capital A, C, T, I, O and N and more of it, without all that lovey-dovey, leadenly serious stuff to bog it down.

There are some seriously preposterous scenes to behold, too. Whilst my knowledge of the world of motor racing could be written on a postage stamp, and in very large letters at that, surely I'm not remiss in surmising that two opposing drivers that are fighting it out for a world championship throwing a race entirely to pull over and save another from a burning wreck would never actually happen? And just how and why do they get there simply ages before the millions of emergency vehicles and crews that seem to be dotted every 100 metres around these racetracks manage to? If this had been left as a simple BDAFâ„¢ (that's "Big Dumb Action Film") and nothing more, then perhaps such questions wouldn't be asked...

  Video
Contract

Another beautifully vivid transfer is on offer here, coming to us at the original cinematic ratio of 2.35:1 and anamorphically enhanced. The brightly coloured world of Indy car racing is rendered quite magnificently, black levels are most pleasing and detail is at a premium all around. There isn’t anything worth noting in the aliasing department, and really the only downside to all the detail on offer is the way in which it makes some - although certainly not all - of the CG effects stick out like a Volkswagen hooning around Bathurst trying to take on a flotilla of Commodores and Falcons. The layer change absolutely blows however, it may be quickly navigated, but it occurs mid-scene and is incredibly conspicuous.

  Audio
Contract

Well, if those neighbours won’t keep the sounds of their wanton lust down, neither shall my stereo stay quiet! Basically, if you want a loud, sonic boom of a movie experience, Driven is most certainly a good way to go. DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes are included, and as is pretty much usually the case to all but those with oscilloscopes for ears they sound pretty much the same, except that the DTS version is mastered a LOT louder.

Right from the film's start you will get an inkling that your subwoofwoof will be in need of a major service when this is over, as the many prangs and bingles, engine roars and the predominantly techno-driven soundtrack explode into life all around. Surround usage is superb, as sonic bits and pieces fling themselves around the room much like the wreckage in the wake of your average Volvo driver - really the only let down is that there are boring talky bits in the film to break up the noisy fun! Regardless of all this glorious noise on offer, dialogue is balanced exceptionally well, and as we should and do expect from a recent film, synching is spot on (although as Stallone rarely moves his lips we are giving a little of the old benefit of the doubt here).

The man responsible for the score here is noted DOOFmeister BT, and his pumping and very suitable original works share the stage with tunes from the likes of Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim, Crystal Method, Filter and those absolute soundtrack slappers Apollo 440. Oh, there's also an unfortunate LeAnn Rimes moment, and the de rigueur schmaltzy end credits 'soulful' ballad. Bleah!

  Extras
Contract

One of the few relative subtleties to be found on this disc is the main menu. A chequered flag waves away in the background as a combination of screaming cars, breathing and heartbeats fire at us from the speakers. Within there is an array of varying quality extras to take the wheel of...

Director's commentary: Renny Harlin provides quite the fun little commentary, explaining all manner of things about how his little project was brought to fruitation (sic). The usual info about casting choices, effects and creative licence taken are all here, plus he mentions the excitement of "shooting guerrilla style" in Japan, and simply managing to keep his head. He does go on rather a lot about the cuts and restructuring that the incredibly long original story underwent before being finalised - his first cut was four and a half hours long (!) - so we can all at least be thankful that they got to it with the scissors well and truly before release.

Deleted scenes with optional commentary by Sylvester Stallone: Sometimes cuts are something to be thankful for, as evidenced by the nine deletions totalling over 38 minutes that are included here, although some of them are just BIG extensions of scenes that actually made the final movie. Anybody looking for action is warned to do a drive-by, as it is ALL character development stuff which to be honest was much better left on the cutting room floor. The non-enhanced 2.35:1 vision is pretty dreadful, and polluted throughout with a giant 'Property of Warner Bros' graphic, whilst the original production sound is muffled at best. In the optional commentary, screenwriter Stallone manages to wax on rather seriously about character arcs, metaphors, symbolism, philosophy and Machiavellian motives. Need more be said?

The Making of Driven: (15:02) A full frame HBO special soaked in DOOFy guitar music, featuring the usual combination of brief cast interviews, film clips and behind the scenes shots. We even get to see Sly cry - aww, the big sweetie-pie lug!

Featurette - Conquering Speed Through Visual Effects: (9:54) An interesting full frame look at some of the truly remarkable digital effects used in the film, complete with interviews featuring many of the clever nerdboys behind them rabbiting about frames, morphs, landmarks, joins and gigabytes. As well as a peek at some of the physical technology such as the speccy cameras used, much of this concentrates on a mostly computer rendered scene involving a pit fire that took around two months to create digitally, and then didn't even make the final cut.

Theatrical trailer: An action packed, remarkably brief (1:14), rapid-cut teaser trailer in anamorphically enhanced 2.35:1.

Biographies: Quite thorough biographies and filmographies on Stallone, Reynolds, Warren, Schweiger, Pardue, Gershon and Renny Harlin.

Dolby Digital trailer: The one that looks like it belongs on The Mummy.

DTS trailer: The one that would have the likes of Elton John and Liberace (were he alive) rather excited.

  Overall  
Contract

The DVD presentation of Driven is fairly impressive, with sparkling vision and a soundtrack to give your foundations nightmares for months to come. The extras vary in quality greatly, whilst the commentary on the main feature can be quite fun and the effects featurette is interesting, anybody who can sit right through the deleted scenes twice - once with commentary and once without - deserves their own championship cup (I await mine with great anticipation.)

So, if you ignore the silliness and the clumsy attempts at drama, and just let your jaw hang loose at the amazing racing action, and some often spectacular CG effects, Driven definitely delivers some amusing no-brainer action thrills.


  • LINK: http://www.dvd.net.au/review.cgi?review_id=1113
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      And I quote...
    "Days of Our Lives on four wheels, going around and around in circles at phenomenally high speed..."
    - Amy Flower
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Pioneer DV-535
    • TV:
          Sony 68cm
    • Receiver:
          Onkyo TX-DS494
    • Speakers:
          DB Dynamics Eclipse RBS662
    • Centre Speaker:
          DB Dynamics Eclipse ECC442
    • Surrounds:
          DB Dynamics Eclipse ECR042
    • Subwoofer:
          DTX Digital 4.8
    • Audio Cables:
          Standard RCA
    • Video Cables:
          Standard Component RCA
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