Before I get started I just want to say thanks to those of you who read my piece on 9/11 and gave me some nice feedback. I know you don't come to GenePick.com for that sort of writing but it was something that I felt like needed to be said. Now on to your featured presentation:

I realized this morning that it has been 10 days since I saw Drive in theaters and I still haven't written a review. Stupid real life and work travels. Please accept my apology loyal reader.

I had a friend that recommended I go see Drive, and with Ryan Gosling in the lead role it took me approximately 0.0000001 seconds to convince my loving wife to tag along. I had checked out what I thought was the official trailer on YouTube (only later to find out that it is basically just the first few minutes of the movie) and thought it looked great. Another bad guy running away from the police, helping people pull off robberies. Can't go wrong there.

Turns out that once you get past the first 10 minutes or so, the script takes on a whole different feel.

Gosling's character (who by the way doesn't have a name) has a day job in a body shop working for Shannon, played by one of my favorites Bryan Cranston. After meeting, and presumably falling in love with his neighbor Irene (Carey Mulligan), he finds out that her husband is getting out of jail and may have some problems that he needs some help with.

What follows is a surprisingly gory, and violent movie that while making me close my eyes for a few scenes (yeah, I'm that guy), was actually quite entertaining. I thought Gosling did a fantastic job, although he probably only had about 2 pages of dialogue to memorize. Come to think of it, that may be the way to get the most out of his acting skills.

Drive is nothing like what you expect it to be. It is not a movie to see if you don't like violence, but it will keep you entertained for 2 hours.

Plus it allows your wife to ogle Ryan Gosling, win win.


Drive
Directed by: Nicolas Winding Refn
Written by: Hossein Amini, and James Sallis
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, and Bryan Cranston
My Rating: 3.25 out of 5
Would Gene Pick it?: Yes