Driven

Pace is fantastic as DeLorean and Sudeikis proves (again) that he can do much more than goofy comedies. Many here expected this film to focus on the famous engineer, but this is not a biopic. This is about the unlikely but fascinating events that led to the end of his career. We still get a good look at his personality, even if the focus is slightly more on Jim Hoffman whose story is also fascinating. Well worth a watch.

...if it wasn't for the terrible writing. The screenplay had many plot and technical issues. The pacing was terrible that the 108 min run-time felt much longer. Too many long dragged out/unnecessary scenes that should've been edited down/out to fix the plot issues - e.g. why the briefcase (without giving away any spoilers) - an important omission of that detail, no? The editing wasn't any better. The sound/score was off and out of place in some scenes. Directing/camera work and cinematography was decent, but the production overall still felt like a low budget B-grade film from inexperienced filmmakers. On the plus side, casting was great and all actors where convincing, especially Lee Pace and Jason Sudeikis. Overall it was still an enjoyable biopic on John DeLorean. It's a generous 7/10 from me

We saw this movie at it's premiere in Venice. Although a great story and depiction of the final demise of John Delorean, the film only barely touched on Delorean's meteoric rise through GM and barely touched on those accomplishments. Jason Sudeikis steals every scene he is in as Jim Hoffman, but Lee Pace's portrayal of John Delorean is spot-on of the methodical genius. Presented as a "based on true events" biopic, I feel a lot of dramatic licenses were taken in bringing the final story to film.

If nothing else, the colorful clothes, cars, music, and hairstyles of the '70's and '80's are a hoot here. The film can get muddled and disjointed with its flashbacks, but I felt there was enough here to keep me engaged and it does end strongly. Inspired by true events, I remember seeing the FBI tapes involving John DeLorean on the national news as this story did have a national impact.

All in all, not a great movie as I see it, but engaging enough for a watch.

...of former business Titan John Delorean's dream gone wrong.

Based on the true story of John Delorean's struggle to create a brand new automotive sportscar line in the late 1970's, the same car made famous in "Back to the future". The Delorean was a mid-engined, all stainless steel bodied sports car, designed from scratch by Delorean's designing team to be an alternative to the GM and foreign sports cars. Buyers were underwhelmed by the anemic performance of the dodgy Renault-Peugeot-Volvo V6 engine, and despite the innovative gull-wing doors, the car turned out to be under-performing and trouble prone (if only because too few units - 9,000 - were ever produced in Delorean's Northern Ireland plant so the bugs could be worked out of the design). By 1982 lackluster sales of the car meant the company was facing bankruptcy. Desperately trying to keep his dream alive, and how he tried to do it via selling cocaine is the topic of this movie.

The film moves along briskly, with every scene foreshadowed by the opening shots of FBI informant Hoffman (Jason Sudeikis) being grilled in a courtroom by Delorean's defense attorney. Hoffman is in a bad place himself, having been caught flying in millions of dollars worth of cocaine, and so his FBI handlers need him to bring in a really big fish to prosecute - and through a series of strange events Delorean himself falls into their net. The resulting story is told in a way I found very engaging, with some really good performances being turned in by Judy Greer (as Hoffman's wife) and a show-stopping performance by Lee Pace as John Delorean. For me, watching Pace as Delorean was the most interesting part of the movie, since his acting is so good you definitely get the impression that this must have been the way Delorean was in real life. And even though I already knew the story, I found myself sympathizing with Delorean and glad the story turns out the way it did.

I thought this was a movie that did a whole lot with very little, and although the movie could and should have been a bit better, I think this movie's worth a watch.