Drive (4 Stars - 4 Stars)

            Never has there been such an action movie where the main character acts like a real relatable character. I haven't seen this in other movies since "Leon the Professional," and "Spider-Man 2," where the main character is in a real dilemma where he has to come up with real decisions, despite being an action hero who can get out of any situation. The movie, "Drive," seems like an action movie, but it's a well thought out professional looking movie that actually received a standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival. An action movie that received a standing ovation from professional film goers.

            This movie has the same concept and idea with the "Transporter" franchise. However, the style is done in a totally different and mature way. For a movie that's called "A History of Violence," the tone is very subtle in order to add a tremendous amount of carving out a proper character. Here, the same thing follows, where we actually know who the driver (Ryan Gosling) is, without even knowing his name and his mysterious past.

            For all we know, the driver is a stunt driver in the day time, while at night, he's a getaway driver for hits and bank robbers. The driver uses his wits to elude the chaser or the police and yet, his driving abilities are extraordinary. When he puts on his leather gloves, he'll mean business. However, aside from his action status, his neighbor, Irene (Carey Mulligan), and her son, Benicio, seems to be his small ray of happiness as he tries his best to slow down and develop a relationship between them and act as a father figure. Because of this new found family, he has but a weakness for them. When the real husband/father shows up, they tries to help pull off a heist that goes terribly wrong and the family, as well as the driver, is at risk.

            Because the action is very limited, when there is an action scene, it's not cool, but extremely graphic. The violence in this movie is there in order to shock the audience, rather than to incite them into some dazzling cheers. I guess it's extremely violent because we actually care for the characters and we too seek the long awaited catharsis. When we see a really cool car chase, we don't keep in track of the cool moments, but the idea that these characters are in trouble. However violent it is, there are some moments that happen off screen. When the driver kills someone he's extremely angry at, the killing is shown off screen.

 However, beside the action scenes, there are some utterly beautiful moments in the film that kept me captivated, and it has nothing to do with violence. There is the elevator scene where the driver, Irene, and the hit man are all in the same elevator. We know that something bad is going to happen and the driver is going to have to kill the hit man. Instead, he turns Irene away and start kissing. The lights fluctuate from elevator lights to warm lights and the music used is sweet, sweeping, and elegant.

           
            For an action movie, "Drive" is really subdued for an action movie that has car chase scenes, shoot outs, and personal vendettas. To me, people judge action movies by the quantity of action set forth upon the screen. We are trained to have a certain amount of violence in certain chunks spread around the movie in order to keep the dumb audience in their seats. In this movie, there are long moments, moments that are simply dialogue, and moments that dumb people will be bored with. There are many moments of silence, very little dialogue, and prolong takes that are often unprecedented in a normal action movie.

            This movie is actually based off of a novel, which goes to show that the major emphasis is the story. We know that Irene and Benicio will be in danger and the driver will save them in some shape or form; however, the execution is done with real production value. They actually utilize suspense, a real non-clichéd villain, moments that are shown off-screen, a certain dark tone, real characters, and real conflicts.

            This movie is a message to other action movies on how a proper action movie can be done. To me, it's an action movie for smart movie goers. "Drive" is even labeled as an independent movie with a small budget for an action movie, and yet it works too well for me to label this as an action movie. To me, a mainstream action movie would, by definition, be a movie about actions (cause) with no effect.