accessAtlanta

Grade: C-

Verdict: A loud, frantic racing commercial.

Details: Starring Kip Pardue, Sylvester Stallone and Gina Gershon. Rated PG-13 for profanity and some intense crash sequences. One hour, 56 minutes.

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Review: Even though it's feature-length, by the end of Driven you may still feel as if you've only seen the trailer. That's because screenwriter/co-star Sylvester Stallone and action-mad director Renny Harlin have stripped their racing movie of any trace of pesky things like character development and sometimes basic logic.

The movie is a nonstop montage of cheering crowds, bouncing buxom gals and lots of burning rubber. Translation: Teenage boys and guys with Dale Earnhardt dreams will totally love it.

Anybody who's not a racing fanatic need not apply. This is strictly a niche flick. Not that there's anything wrong with that . . . but for nonfans, the movie is a headache waiting to happen.

Kip Pardue plays Jimmy Bly, a rookie driver poised to steal the title from top racer Beau Brandenburg (Til Schweiger), who breaks up with girlfriend/groupie Sophia (Estella Warren) to focus on his career.

Jimmy takes up with Sophia -- kinda-sorta, one of the many things the movie isn't really clear about.

Meanwhile, Jimmy's team's owner Carl (Burt Reynolds, in a wheelchair) calls former racing star Joe Tanto (Stallone) to play backup on the track to help Jimmy to victory.

Between the races, Driven keeps the decibels high by throwing in a steady stream of confrontations between a) Jimmy and Beau, b) Joe and ex-wife Cathy (Gina Gershon, having catty fun with a slutty role), c) Jimmy and his slippery manager-brother (Robert Sean Leonard), d) Joe and Carl, and, e) anybody else who can shout. None of this shouting much matters, though; the characters are stick figures, and it's hard to give half a hoot.

Driven is at its best when it's taking curves at 200-plus mph. Some of the effects are terrific. Some aren't. The computer-generated crashes are often distractingly fake, as hokey as the sharks in Harlin's last flick, Deep Blue Sea.

Off the track, Harlin keeps the movie jammed in the middle of action, editing at hyperactive speed. It's sometimes more disorienting than the hand-held camerawork in The Blair Witch Project.

It would be nice to report that a star is born via the performance of Atlanta-raised Pardue (Remember The Titans), but the movie basically just uses him as a baby-faced foil to Schweiger's Germanic scowl. Let's just say he comes through intact. But so do most actors in beer commercials.

— Steve Murray, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution