Drive

After wasting time seeing "Dream House" on Saturday, I decided I would see a GOOD movie on Sunday. I had been hearing all sorts of great buzz about "Drive" and well, Ryan Gosling is damn pretty. So on a sorta whim, I chose to head down to little-attended theatre St. Anthony Main. Boy, that place is drab, but in a nostalgic way. At the counter, I bought my ticket and then stepped over to the concession stand to get snacks. I stood there for about a minute before the guy who sold me my ticket (one of only three people working there), hurried over to sell me my popcorn and soda. Unlike the AMC experience I get at Block E, there are no looooong commercials for 10,000 TV shows, cars, and sodas before the trailers. Heck, there wasn't even any music. The seats aren't stadium and they are ripped and make you think twice about sitting in them. And there wasn't a string of trailers, just two if I recall correctly.

I chose St. Anthony Main figuring there wouldn't be a whole lot of people there. Turns out there were 11 of us at this particular screening. That is more people than where at "Dream House" and that was a new release.

Anyway, the movie. I think I saw something quite different than all the critics because I was not enamored of this film. It came across like a really long music video with bouts of random bloody violence. I like Ryan Gosling, but he is not someone I think of when I think of movie badasses. Maybe that was the point, but I just couldn't buy him as this tough guy who is threatening mob bosses. He was not helped by spending most of the movie wearing skinny jeans and a satin jacket with a scorpion EMBROIDERED on the back. The film is beautifully shot, but some of those came off as (forgive me for using this over-used word) pretentious. Lots of unnecessary slow-mo. I think I hate slow-mo. Overall, the acting was good but I didn't always get the characters' motivations.

All this to say, I came away a bit disappointed. Maybe I don't like Ryan Gosling as much as I thought. This is the second movie of his ("Blue Valentine" was the first) I've seen that so many people LOVE that I thought was just meh and the third ("All Good Things", anyone?) that I, personally, where I wasn't dazzled by his performance. I have liked him in things and I hope he redeems himself in my eyes in "The Ides of March".

On a side note: Bryan Cranston was in "Drive" (and "Contagion"). Good for him. Last night's "Breaking Bad" kicked ass!!!