Drive

See Ryan Gosling in the picture? He's repairing a car. I chose the pic for the idea of "repairs"...this film needs a real overhaul!

OK, let's not get all worked up over an action-for-action's-sake film. It's only fair to expect less of the flicks that involve heists, shootouts, gangsters, thieves, and crooks! If a film appeals to our baser instincts, should we seek masterful themes? Probably best not to look for Downton Abbey in Drive!

That said, many action films are top-notch. This one is not. The problem is that Drive lacks good dialog, acting, plot, characterization, pacing, and believability. Just a few areas to improve!

NO spoiler, as usual, but here's the gist: Ryan is a cool dude who speaks NOT. No need to speak when you can just stare your way through a film for two hours. If there's a record for a main protagonists speaking the fewest words in a film, Drive's Gosling would win hands down.

Ryan is a fringe gangster, who drives getaway cars for a living. He meets pretty Carey Mulligan, offers to drive for her felon husband as he pulls a heist, and then things go awry.

Now I've admired Carey in a number of films, particularly An Education. But here she is also a mute starer, and with all that she has to say about her sorry plight in life, she needs to speak!

Will someone say something???

Al Brooks plays a solid gangster. He stands out in an otherwise fair to poor flick. Yet: The film does keep your interest, and, sort of, entertains. So let me say that for a night's amusement, the action flick will take your mind off such enjoyable themes as death and taxes.

I think the makers of Drive wanted to add to the Film Noir genre. The film was not noir. It was gris...for grey