Drive.

This might just contain spoilers. Not long back from watching the much talked up new film Drive, directed by Nicholas Winding Refn who brought us The Pusher Trilogy and Bronson (2008) Drive stars Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson 2006, Lars and the Real Girl 2007) though it was his role as a skinhead nazi thug who just so happened to be Jewish in 2001's The Believer where I first saw him.
Drive is a pulp style thriller centered around cars and car chases in the same vain as old school style erm, drive 'em ups. Adapted from the novel by James Sallis, Drive sees a part-time stuntman (Gosling) who moonlights as a getaway driver with a strict five minute window, he's a loner, chewing on a toothpick for the duration, a great driver but a bit of a dark horse, he befriends a local lass; a single mother who's partner is due to be released from prison with an ensuing shitstorm to follow. Carey Mulligan is the love interest and a little miscast if you ask me, she reminds of them Sasha dolls my sister used to play with many moons ago, shy and a tad awkward with her frump and sensible hair, she doesn't strike me as the sort of girl who'd date a wrong 'un. But date a wrong 'un she did and meeting and falling for her turns our anti hero into a bit of a psychotic avenger in this slow starting, fast burning and at times sickly violent LA love story.
With remnants of Bullit (1968) and Thief (1981) and car chases nearly as good as To Live and Die in LA, I enjoyed this one, though I couldn't get as carried away as the critics and festivals have, nor not nearly as excited as the boy who tore my ticket who applauded me for my choice of afternoon filmage, I guess it's better than that Inbetweeners shat he'd probably been admitting people into all day. Maybe boy racers and petrol heads would get more of a kick out of the central action sequences? I dunno, it's not to say it didn't float my boat, it was decent. I was also looking forward to seeing a bit more of the buxom Christina Hendricks (Mad Men's Joan) upon seeing her in the trailer, but I was wanting more tits and ass than seeing her head blasted all over a motels grubby mirror. As the driver tries in vain to help a rather tense situation, it turns into a rather big fuck up, with bodies left right and in the elevator, and mobsters on the war path, with Albert Brooks playing the baddie more than convincingly and Hellboy himself as a Jewish pizza flipping bad motherfucker, you're left with a very decent and at times tense and blood curdling thriller, shot really perfectly with a nice haunting soundtrack, but I personally thought it was ever so slightly lacking some of the amazing plaudits I've read myself. 3/5