Driven.(Brief Article)

``I have yet to see a really true, great racing film. Maybe once I see Driven in its entirety... I'll reserve judgement for that moment.'' -Mario Andretti

That moment has arrived. Driven is out now-and while we're not keeping Mario's calendar, we're pretty sure that he still hasn't seen a great racing film.

No, Renny Harlin's opus about a washed-up CART driver (Sylvester Stallone as Joe Tanto) who's brought back to help a hot rookie (Kip Pardue as Jimmy Blye) make a run at the championship is merely mediocre. If you can get past the myriad pickable nits, like the Detroit Grand Prix as the final race of the season, you might even call it ``not bad.''

As racing fans, we are fortunate that it's not embarrassingly bad, considering the inherent potential for disaster. There are some unbearable scenes in the movie, most involving Gina Gershon (playing Tanto's ex-wife) or Burt Reynolds (as team owner Carl Henry in a called-it-in-on-my-cell-phone performance). Thankfully, there's a lot of watchable racing action, slick editing and innocuous techno music to keep things entertaining. Passable acting by Stallone and Pardue is complemented by above-average supporting work from Christian de la Fuente and Til ...