Driven (2001)

User Rating:

4.2/10   

Director:

Renny Harlin

Writers (WGA):

Jan Skrentny (story) &
Neal Tabachnick (story) ...

Release Date:

27 April 2001 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Sport

Tagline:

Get ready for the race of your life.

Plot:

A young hot shot driver is in the middle of a championship season and is coming apart at the seams. A former CART champion is called in to give him guidance.

Plot Keywords:

Romantic Rivalry | Teamwork | Car Crash | Automobile Racing | One Word Title

Awards:

1 win & 7 nominations

Cast

Sylvester Stallone	...	Joe Tanto
Burt Reynolds	...	Carl Henry
Kip Pardue	...	Jimmy Bly
Stacy Edwards	...	Lucretia Clan
Til Schweiger	...	Beau Brandenburg
Gina Gershon	...	Cathy Heguy
Estella Warren	...	Sophia Simone
Cristián de la Fuente	...	Memo Moreno
Brent Briscoe	...	Crusher
Robert Sean Leonard	...	Demille Bly
Verona Pooth	...	Nina (as Verona Feldbusch)
Jasmin Wagner	...	Ingrid
Chip Ganassi	...	Team Owner
John Della Penna	...	Team Manager
Dan Duran	...	Commentator #1

Also Known As:

À toute vitesse (Canada: French title)
Champs (USA) (working title)
Formula One (USA) (working title)
Into Thin Air (USA) (working title)
Ruutulippu (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for language and some intense crash sequences.

Runtime:

116 min

Country:

USA | Canada | Australia

Language:

English | German | Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

USA:PG-13 (certificate #38169) | Iceland:L | Malaysia:U | South Korea:12 | Australia:M (TV rating) | Argentina:Atp | Australia:PG | Brazil:12 | Finland:K-11 | France:U | Germany:12 (w) | Hong Kong:IIA | Netherlands:AL | Norway:11 | Singapore:PG | Sweden:7 | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | UK:PG

Filming Locations:

Chicago Motor Speedway - 3301 S. Laramie Avenue, Cicero, Illinois, USA

Company:

Franchise Pictures

Trivia:

Sylvester Stallone's original script was 220 pages long.

Goofs:

Factual errors: Clearly, the race in Germany was americanized for the movie. Commentators would not say "Welcome to Germany", but "Welcome to City, Germany". In addition, German TV does not announce temperatures in Fahrenheit, ever. And German weather maps show Germany, not half of Europe for their forecast. If they do, the countries are named in German, not English. In the movie, the temperatures are in Celsius and Fahrenheit and the weather map shows 'Poland', not Polen, 'Germany' and not Deutschland.

Quotes:

Sophia Simone: Hi, I'm Sophia.
Demille Bly: That's your problem.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "HBO First Look: Driven (#8.3)" (2001)

Soundtrack:

Official Chemical

Nice Cars, Nice People & Film Non-Racing Fans Can Enjoy

This movie was definitely better than I anticipated. There are some fantastic Formula I driving and crash scenes in here, and the sound of engines was fun to hear. I make those statements despite not being much of an auto racing fan, either. If I was, I would have really loved the movie.

Another appealing aspect was that the three lead characters were all good guys. There are annoying "bad people" in the movie but they are all minor characters.

The ending is predictable and, yes, there are some of the typical things you see and hear in many Sylvester Stallone films but not as dumb as many of them (the bad ones, that is.)

Because of the superlative visuals and audio, this is a good movie to see on a nice TV and a nice surround system. Mine are okay but I can imagine what this would look and sound like on something really good. I wish I could appreciate auto racing more, but I liked the film anyway and recommend it to non-racing fans.