ROADSHOW ENTERTAINMENT.

DRIVEN (dts)



Release Date: January 09, 2002
Roadshow Entertainment
Rating: PG
RRP: $39.95


    SPECIAL FEATURES AND SPECS

  • Director Renny Harlin's commentary.
  • Deleted Scenes with optional audio commentry by Sylvester Stallone.
  • Theatrical Trailer
  • Conquering speed through visual effects.
  • The making of Driven.
  • Biographies.
  • Running Time: 114 minutes.
  • English Dolby Digital 5.1 & dts 5.1
  • English subtitles for the hearing Impaired.
  • Aspect: 2.35:1 widescreen 16:9 enhanced.
  • Dual layer/ Single sided.


CAST

Sylvester Stallone, Burt Reynolds, Kip Pardue, Til Schweiger, Gina Gershon, Estelle Warren.
DIRECTED: Renny Harlin.


FROM THE BACK COVER

IF 400km/h IS YOUR KIND OF SPEED, THIS IS YOUR KIND OF MOVIE.
Beau Brandenburg (Til Schweiger - JUDAS KISS) is a world champion racing driver with his first real threat in years. Rookie driver, Jimmy Bly (Kip Pardue - REMEMBER THE TITANS) is the hottest new name on the circuit and if he keeps his eyes on the finishing line, he will cross it first. But the media attention and female distractions are affecting his performance, Bly needs the support of former hotshot Joe Tanto ( SlyStallone - Get Carter) to stay on track.
A veteran with a wild reputation, Tanto is the perfect mentor He's lost crowns, cheated death and knows that it only takes just one momentary lapse in concentration and the driver is history.
Prepare for full-throttle, top-gear, extreme racing action as the director of "DIE HARD 2: DIE HARDER" and "THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT" puts you in the driver's seat of the planet's fastest cars. Don't forget to buckle up - it's the only protection you've got.
Featuring coverages of real races from around the world including the fastest car chase and racing sequences ever filmed.

AUDIO/VISUAL

Driven has Dolby Digital 5.1 and dts 5.1 tracks and they won't let you down.
The dts 5.1 track is outstanding and is noticeably a lot louder than the DD 5.1 track.
All speakers get a very good work out and there's some good directional sound and panning between the speakers. The race scenes obviously stand out with you being very well immersed in the action.
Music, which varies in styles is used a lot in this movie and it also sounds great.
Speech is fine in all aspects and I'll spare you all from doing a Sly Stallone joke about the speech. Heh,heh...
You may need to go around the sides of your room after the movie and check if there's any plaster that's cracked or fallen off from the walls. Play this loud people!

Driven is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 which is 16:9 enhanced.
Yet another superb looking DVD from Roadshow.
Colours look very bright and vibrant, which is a good thing since there's a fair bit of colour used in the movie such as the use of sponsor adverting on the cars, uniforms, race signs etc.....
Blacks and shadow detail are spot on and the picture is very smooth and clear at all times with a great deal of fine detail to the picture.
You won't be let down with the quality of the picture in this movie, that's for sure!
It looks superb!



EXTRA FEATURES

Audio Commentary by Director, Renny Harlin. -
Director Renny Harlin, provides us with a very informative and enjoyable commentary on this DVD.
He shares a lot of information about filming, casting, the special effects etc....
It was interesting to hear about the original length of the movie and how it had to be cut down to what it is now.
The commentary is very satisfying and I'd consider it a must if you enjoy this movie.

Deleted Scenes with optional audio commentary by Stallone. -
You can watch the 38 minutes of deleted scenes with the original audio or with comments from Sly Stallone (it was his screenplay). The audio visual quality isn't that great and the content is pretty slow.
A lot of the scenes are basically extended versions of the final cuts and are more focussed on the characters than any of the cool action in the movie.
It is worth a look if you are a fan, but I feel that many viewers may find it a tad tedious without the commentary.


Making Of Driven -
Just on 15 minutes and isn't bad at all.
It has the usual content that you'd expect and contains cast interviews, scenes from the movie and behind the scenes stuff.

Featurette - Conquering Speed through Special Effects
Another good feature here that runs just short of 10 minutes.
It goes into detail about the digital effects used in the movie and in one case an elaborate effect that wasn't even used in the end. Various people involved give a bit of detail on what was done and it's an interesting feature that is worth a look at. After seeing this, it's interesting to see if you noticed that particular scenes were actually digital and not real.
Theatrical Trailer
Good looking, but short trailer that sells the movie well. It only goes for about 1:13, so it'll be over just as you are getting into it.

Biographies-Cast & Crew
This offers some good information in the form of filmographies and biographies on the major cast and Director Renny Harlin.

OVERALL

I'll be straight up and say that Driven isn't the greatest movie in the world and although it tries hard to be taken seriously, it just doesn't prove itself to be more than a big budget thrills and spills action flick with a ho-hum love story and the occasional cliche'.
Having said that, I don't think to many people will go into it thinking that it's more than what I described and many people should be able to sit back and enjoy it for what it is.
The DVD itself is fantastic to watch when it comes to the audio/visual and Roadshow must be commended for yet another quality transfer.
The extras are a bit hit and miss, but the Director commentary is well worth a viewing and shouldn't be missed if you enjoyed the movie.
Play Driven loud and take it for what it is and you should have an entertaining couple of hours.





VIDEO QUALITY 9.5/10
AUDIO QUALITY 9.5/10
EXTRAS 7.5/10
THE MOVIE 7.5/10
OVERALL 9/10


Thanks for reading…