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Drive (2011)
Artful rather than Artistic.
Pretentious and derivative. Overly-stylized violence distilled to its basest essence -- neither visceral nor intellectual -- that, it doesn't so much shock as desensitize.
The director,Nicolas Winding Refn, hasn't a creative -- or an original -- bone in his body; mimics Brian De Palma, Martin Scorcese, Quentin Tarantino et al.
Ryan Gosling does his impersonation of the remote, existentialist anti-hero. But instead of appearing preoccupied and intense, he just looks 'blank'; not too unlike a damaged adult Opie. (Ron Howard in Andy Griffith Show).
So many plot holes that a Learner Driver could easily negotiate his way through them all. The child serves no purpose, other than provide a saccharine-sweet metaphor.
Cinéastes, avoid.
3:10 to Yuma (2007)
Execrable Formulaic Vapid Dreck
Pure unadulterated trash. A transcendent existentialist cowboy who experiences a moral epiphany while practicing yoga and sipping herbal tea. A cloying, emotionally manipulative movie of the very worst kind; topped off with the requisite sickly, saccharine sweet 'giddy-up horsey' ending.
The script was littered with modern-day idioms and, for a period western, it was cringingly ridiculous. So many glaring anomalies: our one-legged hero, fitted with what must have been a crude, artificial limb, having the speed and agility in dragging his prisoner across rooftops, leaping from building to building, dodging bullets meant for him, but conjoined to his captive like a Siamese twin. Seriously, this one-legged superhero was so spry he'd qualify to enter the 200-metre hurdle event at next year's Olympic Games. Right 'down' there with The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption. Meant to entertain the undiscerning, uncritical, gullible, and vacuous movie-goer. Junk heaped upon junk.