Jimmy Bly (KIP PARDUE) is the rookie race car driver of the year in open wheel racing, a point that doesn’t sit that well with the current champion, Beau Brandenburg (TIL SCHWEIGER), particularly since the two are locked in a heated battle to be this year’s champ. Beau dumps his long-term girlfriend, Sophia Simone (ESTELLA WARREN), claiming she is a distraction to his focus. In Bly’s camp, team owner Carl Henry (BURT REYNOLDS), a former driver now confined to a wheelchair, decides to call in veteran driver Joe Tanto (SYLVESTER STALLONE) to replace the rookie’s driving partner, Memo Moreno (CRISTIAN DE LA FUENTE). Joe hasn’t driven in years, but Carl believes in him, particularly since they go back a long ways through the racing circuit together. As Jimmy’s manager and brother, DeMille (ROBERT SEAN LEONARD), tries to keep his sibling focused and away from Sophia, Joe deals with his still bitter ex-wife, Cathy (GINA GERSHON), who’s married to Memo; an ambitious journalist, Lucretia ’’Luc’’ Clans (STACY EDWARDS), who wants to cover the sport and his return to it; and Carl’s ruthless approach at winning. With only ten races left in the season, Joe does what he can to deal with all of those and other external factors and complications, all while trying to help Jimmy grow as a racer and not forget what got him into racing in the first place.
Starring and written by Sylvester Stallone, Driven is a movie infected with fast cars, unrealistic events, inconsistencies, bad dialogue and a laughable plot. As you watch the movie you wonder at the unrealistic events presented to you. Then there are inconsistencies and the plot or the lack of it? One of the messages that this film gives? Racecar drivers are invincible. One completely unrealistic event is forgivable, two is tolerable, and three is laughable. But more than that is an insult to one’s intelligence. The plot is so simple that you will not even notice that it is not there.
This movie has a redeeming quality: Estella Warren. Aside from cars going at 250 miles per hour, she is your other source of adrenaline. She is hot as hell and she can actually act. If you are in search of an actual plot and life-changing dialogue, you better skip this movie. But if you’re in the mood to see fast cars race, fast cars crash, and fast girls expose themselves, you just may find ’’Driven’’ to your liking.