Drive

Last night I went and saw the movie Drive at the UAB movies. It felt like a movie designed specifically for me. It had all the action, violence, plot twists, and of course driving scenes, that I could ask for. The entire cast was incredible from the lead  Ryan Gosling , who played a very Steve McQueen/Clint Eastwood mold lead, to the ruthless villains played by Albert Brooks and Ron Perlman, down to the supporting cast. I especially wanted to make note of the beautiful Carey Mulligan playing the love interest, and the brilliant Bryan Cranston as the wise mentor to Gosling. Finally I want to include Kaden Leos who played the kid in the movie. Good child actors are incredibly hard to find, and have the potential to assassinate a smart, well written movie. However Kaden was right on par with the excellent cast.

I was actually very shocked by the amount of violence in this film. However, the sex and gore I found were very responsibly handled so as to add to the film without distracting us with gratuitous scenes much like the Fast and Furious series. The driving scenes of course stole the movie and were very gritty and suspenseful like I haven’t seen since the Bourne Identity series. It all looked and felt real, with a very minimalist approach to CGI if there was any.

This movie was excellent in a very unexpected way to me. It had a real soul that I find rare in a lot of the blockbuster hits filling the Hollywood landscape today. I recommend this movie to any action movie fan.

I’m so glad that UAB had this free opportunity available to see such a great movie before its even released on DVD. I found the quality of the Wells projection to be improved since the last time I was there, and the sound quality was great. I was a little disappointed there was no popcorn available, and for that I got to call you out