The opening chase sequence is nearly perfect. It's more of a chess game, and the 'driver' character really shows a lot of thought and complexity in how he deals with the challenges he goes through in succeeding in his plan. It really met my expectations for the quality that I wanted from the rest of the film, and set the bar very high. So, where it totally lost me was the pawn shop heist. I loved how they kept the focus outside, the tension, the anticipation. But as soon as Standard got shot, it all went out the window. Chick in the backseat starts overacting, and I thought well cool, get to see this '10 Mustang GT in action.
UGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH. Okay. I'm a car nerd, admittedly. But this was just plain terribly done. For those who do not know, 'Driver' wisely selected a 412hp absolute beast of a car to steal for this heist job. This car is no joke, it turns 0-60 a hair over 4 seconds, and is in the realm of Porsche 911, BMW M3, and Vette in overall performance. In short, it's a damned monster. And the whole premise of the film is that 'Driver' is just that, one holy hell of a good driver. So .. when I saw the mid-trim Chrysler 300c not only catch up to the 'Driver' after he had an obviously decent head start, but weaving in and out of traffic like a ninja, I just wanted to throw something at the screen. Imagine writing a screenplay where you have Usain Bolt running from a bad guy played by a fat man with one leg, yet somehow the fat man with one leg is always magically right on Bolt's ass. It's just lame and preposterous. The third and final 'car' themed sequence was a letdown as well. Cool styling on it with the night / stalking angle, but after 'Driver' rams the baddie's car so hard that it flies through the air like a pinwheel and gets out, his headlights and front clip are magically perfectly intact. Augh. And that brings me to my final complaint, which ultimately sunk the film for me. It's clear that 'Driver' isn't an idiot as a character, but suddenly he becomes one. He shows great adaptability and the ability to 'hunt' and kill the murderous mob character played by the big guy. That makes sense, right? You know who the bad guy is, you know where to find him, you're obviously not afraid to straight up kill the people you want, so WHY in the fucking WORLD does he make some stupid arrangement to go meet this middle-aged wannabe slimeball on his terms? He didn't do that with the previous guy, because why? It's fucking retarded. Did his brain fall out? Surely he already saw that there were no 'deals' to be made with those people.