Written and co-produced by its star, Sylvester Stallone, 2001’s Driven is set in the now-defunct world of Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) open-wheel racing.

In the midst of his rookie CART season, talented young buck Jimmy Bly (Kip Pardue) is starting to buckle under the weight of expectations from team boss Carl Henry (Burt Reynolds) and Jimmy’s overbearing manager-brother, Demille (Robert Sean Leonard).

When the pressure to perform, compounded by on- and off-track aggro from fierce rival Beau Brandenburg (Til Schweiger), sees Jimmy make a series of silly driving errors, Carl calls on veteran driver Joe Tanto (Sylvester Stallone) to return to the championship and guide Jimmy back into contention for a series win.

However, Joe has some off-track issues of his own to navigate. His return to the track sees him having to sideline his racing buddy – and Jimmy’s current team-mate – Memo Heguy (Cristián de la Fuente). Further complicating matters, Memo is married to Joe’s ex-wife, the acidic Cathy (Gina Gershon). If that isn’t enough, Beau dumps his fiancée, Sophia (Estella Warren), believing her to be a distraction from his racing, and she immediately starts knocking around with Jimmy. That burgeoning love triangle won’t be easy for Joe to iron out, as his break from racing was precipitated by him almost killing Beau in a crash.

If all that sounds a little too Days of our Lives, that’s about as complicated as Driven’s plot gets, and in any case, we’re really here for the car action, which, for the most part, is on-point.

At a party revealing the next season’s prototype cars, Jimmy angrily confronts Beau and Sophia, before taking off in one of the new cars. Joe jumps in another car to chase him down, and the ensuing pursuit through Chicago streets is undoubtedly the film’s action highlight. It also leads to the pivotal moment where the off-track drama gets put aside so that Joe can get on with guiding Jimmy through the critical last few races of the season.

VERDICT: 3/5

I’d avoided watching Driven for years, as I’d heard it contains some questionable CGI effects, and while that’s true, it seems only fair to cut a film from 2001 a bit of slack. That said, while Driven starts off with plenty of promise, exuding something of a ‘Rocky on wheels’ vibe, the middle gets bogged down by the off-track soap-operatics. The awesome Chicago street chase does restore some goodness, and by then I was just along for the ride to see how the predictable ending would play out. While it’s no masterpiece, Driven has its moments, and those of a certain age will enjoy seeing old-school icons Stallone and Reynolds sharing screen time.

BREAKDOWN

VEHICLES:

• 2001 Reynard 2K1
• 2000 Lola B2K-00
• 1996 GMC Sierra
• 1997 Dodge Dakota
• 2000 Chevrolet Impala
• 1998 Mercedes-Benz ML320
• 2001 Toyota Tundra

STARS:

• Sylvester Stallone
• Kip Pardue
• Til Schweiger
• Burt Reynolds
• Robert Sean Leonard
• Estella Warren
• Cristián de la Fuente
• Gina Gershon
• Stacy Edwards
• Brent Briscoe

DIRECTOR:
Renny Harlin

ACTION:
Street and circuit-track racing feature heavily, but an impromptu late-evening city race steals the show.

PLOT:
A veteran race driver comes out of retirement to guide a talented rookie struggling with on- and off-track pressures.

AVAILABLE:
Blu-ray, DVD, streaming.

COOL FLICK FACT:
The sequence where Joe throws three coins onto the track before picking each one up with his car’s rear tyre was inspired by a somewhat similar trick by legendary Formula One driver Juan Manuel Fangio.