Big Driver

If you're at all familiar with the work of Stephen King then you wouldn't even need to be told this was an adaption of one of one of his short stories to know it. It has his signatures written all over it from the talking GPS, the elderly character from one of our heroines book who is an extension of herself, the dark humour - it's all there. I'm told this sticks very faithfully to the book and I've always felt adaptations of King's work are at their best when they do this.

It's very similar to Jodie Foster's 2007 film 'The Brave One'. A woman taking revenge for a heinous crime committed against her. These days the revenge genre, when the lead character is a man, has become a little stale so filmmakers are having to think up creative ways to keep it interesting with unique killing styles and traveling half way across the globe to find their prey. It seems the female lead character is still fresh enough though that the revenge can be enacted in a pretty straight up and down way.

For a TV movie the quality is certainly all there. The acting is very decent and the story never drags nor feels rushed. Maria Bello impressed me in the lead role. She was gritty and believable and never makes you turn against her which is very important in this type of film. It never really does anything original enough to be considered great which is the only thing holding it back. But overall a good watch.

First let me say that the books from Stephen King are always better then the movies they made from it. The movies from his books that were well made are The Shining, Carrie, Stand By me, The green Mile and maybe a couple more. But most of the time the movies don't even come close to the actual quality or suspense of the novel. Anyways, for this movie I didn't read the book so it is difficult to compare them. The movie was okay, a typical revenge movie with typical Stephen King characters. Maria Bello gave an okay performance playing the leading role of the raped woman. The music and sound effects were a bit mediocre. It will not be remembered as the other good adaptations of his books but it's an all right movie for TV. Overall I would give it a 6,5 rating.

'Big Driver' is a dark and unexpectedly violent made-for-television adaption of horror master Stephen King's novella of the same name from his 2010 collection 'Full Dark, No Stars.' I haven't seen many Lifetime movies so far, but this one is probably one of the best ever. The movie is dark and graphic but it also includes some comedic elements at the right times. The movie clearly doesn't take itself too seriously, which is a good thing, especially since it's an adaption of of a novella by Stephen King, whose stories are known for their often not all too serious tone and quirky humor. In that regard its very fitting that rock queen Joan Jett has a small role in 'Big Driver.'

The movie has a great revenge story, an evocative setting, and an excellent cast led by Maria Bello ('A History of Violence') and including the fantastic Ann Dowd ('Compliance'). Also highlighted must be Will Harris' ('In Time') both charismatic and terrifying performance as the titular villain Lester 'Big Driver' Strehlke. I don't really remember seeing him in anything else besides 'In Time', but I guarantee that you won't forget him after seeing his performance as Big Driver. Good job! Director Mikael Salomon already directed another Stephen King adaption, namely 2004's two-part television movie 'Salem's Lot', which was a decent effort. Salomon is probably best known for directing the 1998 action movie 'Hard Rain,' which has received generally negative reviews, although I've always liked it. I see stylistic similarities between 'Hard Rain' and 'Big Driver'. Both movies feature good actors in an exceptional setting and both are pretty grim at times and witty at others.

'Big Driver' has the right combination of darkness and humor, which is a feature of every great Stephen King story. I'd say Salomon did a good job bringing King's novella to the screen. It's definitely one of the better Stephen King adaptions and one of the best ones made for the small screen.

This is written after my second viewing, not having remembered the first viewing when I first got a copy of it, judge that how you like.

Unabashed fan of anything Stephen King and almost anything that Maria Bello is in, this is a good watch. It starts off at a pedestrian enough pace, has a shocking bit that he viewer has to digest then powers on and builds to the climax like almost all Stephen Kings writing does with twists along the way.

Some of the story is a little predictable, but the acting by all concerned is well above average which made the movie quite believable. No silly mistakes and drawn out sequences where the villain gains a temporary upper hand like most revenge movies was a nice change.

Overall an enjoyable movie, but not for the faint hearted.

It's not great but it's not bad. I rarely feel this ambiguous about a movie to be honest. It seems to be a revenge thriller with an odd light- hearted "Murder She Wrote" sensibility, which honestly makes no sense but results in something quite bemusing & unexpected. I really don't know what I think about this flick but I sort of enjoyed it. Some of the reviewers here giving it negative reviews are so incorrect in their comments I actually wonder if they even watched the movie. Certainly it's doubtful if they DID watch it that they actually paid it much attention. For example, there was no "dead relative" talking to her, that was clearly one of her novel's characters and the other women were part of the "knitting circle" from her books. The point was that she was having trouble separating reality from fantasy, but many have missed that point. There is a lot more to this story than some seem to think so if you are the kind of person who needs everything spelled out to you carefully and/or have the attention span of a flea then you won't like this flick. Others might like it tho. Worth giving a shot but don't expect too much. It just could have been done a whole lot better.