Director Renny Harlin has made a surprisingly successful career for himself by making B-grade blockbuster entertainment. His 1999 film, Deep Blue Sea, was the surprise hit of the summer. It was a skillful blend of cheesy entertainment mixed with cheap thrills and some genuine surprises; you could never guess just who would live until the end (Harlin masterfully knocks off a starring character one third of the way into the film -- but you’ll never guess who!).

Driven doesn’t have near the surprises of Deep Blue Sea, but it does have enough good-natured fun and cheap action thrills to keep audiences happily in their seats until the credits roll. Sylvester Stallone, who’s still trying to pen another Rocky, wrote this. In this film he plays Joe Tanto, an over-the-hill racecar driver brought back from retirement to help a new upstart understand the complexities of the sport. The smartest thing about this film is the fact that Stallone realizes he is over-the-hill now too. As a result, when it comes to matching up the film’s love interests, they pair him up with someone only 10 years younger, instead of 30.

If you go to Driven not expecting much, it will deliver quite a bit. This is purely summertime entertainment, complete with riveting races, hair-raising crashes, and melodramatic love stories. It’s certainly not great (and it definitely isn’t a Rocky), but it is fun and worthy of a *** rating.

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