93% Drive

All Critics (197) | Top Critics (38) | Fresh (182) | Rotten (14) | DVD (2)

In grabbing our attention, [Refn] diverts it from what matters. The horror lingers and seeps; the feelings are sponged away.

The extreme and escalating violence will prove off-putting to some-frankly, I'm surprised not to have been among them-but for the rest, Drive is a needle-punch of adrenaline to the aorta.

In reworking genres without quoting shamelessly, Refn proves himself his own man and a guy quite capable of taking us places we didn't even know we wanted to go.

Drive is pedal-to-the-metal stuff. Don't get behind the wheel unless you can take the rush.

This is no antic-frantic affair; instead, it's a cerebral game of stop-and-go, hide-and-seek, as the director behind the camera handles things exactly like the guy behind the wheel - with a stylish mixture of cold calculation and cool aplomb.

The pace of this film is a beautiful thing to behold, as Drive is a patient but taut thriller.

That rarity of rarities, an arty actioner that requires almost no excuses.

Refn's style is to draw out scenes to make a slow film punctuated with strong violence.

The film treats the audience with intelligence; it doesn't lay everything out and instead leaves you to do a little legwork too.

...the film's irresistibly stylish atmosphere [compensates] for its general lack of context and substance.

Punctuates its long stretches of cool, carefully calculated menace with splattery spasms of shocking violence.

full review at Movies for the Masses

One for fans of Taxi Driver and TV's Dexter, Drive is a film whose considerable style at first obscures just how much it'll get under your skin and stay there for weeks to come.

From its opening shots, Refn's movie is as cool and controlled as its protagonist... at once unhurriedly stylish and intensely gripping. You'd like to lean back and admire, but the action keeps pulling you to the edge of your seat.

High-octane excitement for the art-house set ... Think 'Two-Lane Blacktop' meets Kubrick's 'The Killing' meets Bresson ... Gosling's King of Cool may be the new McQueen.

Like the novels of Raymond Chandler and the paintings of David Hockney, Drive is both an accurate view of southern California's intoxicating sleaze and glamour and the filtering of it through a European sensibility.

A film that moves relentlessly forward, carrying you along so completely that it's only afterwards, if at all, that you begin to wonder about origins and plausibilities.

In proving that less is more, Rifn has sent out a message to Hollywood in this age of austerity.

Like watching rats fight in a gorgeously lit bucket, this is compellingly nasty, but for those with stomach for it, Drive is a lot of fun.

An artful, impressively made film, and one sure to excite cinephiles, everyday adrenaline junkies, and fans of stylized car chases set to an indie synthpop soundtrack.

An unusually upscale, and surprisingly satisfying, action film.

The tension is agonising... then rubber burns, the engine revs and we hold on tight. For the next 90 minutes, we don't let go.

Hold on tight and prepare for the ride of your life.

Winding Refn steals with such intelligence and thoughtfulness that there is a boldness and creativity to the film even though hardly a single moment of it is "original" in any way.

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/drive_2011/

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