MovieChat Forums > Big Driver (2014) Discussion > My Criticisms of This Movie

My Criticisms of This Movie

posted 9 years ago by soylentmajority
9 replies | jump to latest

1) I understand that if a woman is raped, she may not think rationally afterward, even to the point of concealing the fact that she was raped for fear of being publicly condemned as a result. However, every other move she made afterward was rational and well-thought out. Everything from researching the old lady, to concealing her moves to avoid getting caught.

2) I know it wasn't like this in the King story, but I think that the ending would have been much more satisfying if she was wrong about the old lady 'leading' her to Big Driver. I think that would have been a nice change to make from the story, because it would have shown how unbalanced she really was during her quest for revenge. Instead, we only know because of her hallucinations, which she had before her rape. I think it would have helped the story to show how the rape really affected her.

3) The acting was decent overall, but Big Driver was terrible and the bad dialogue didn't help that. For example, his line "how about I screw you" (sorry, I don't remember the exact wording) and his stumbling about in the workshop toward the end were both laughable and distracted from the story. I also didn't like Joan Jett as the barkeep.

4) One thing that they can never seem to get right in these Stephen King adaptations is the Maine accent. Either no one has it, or they all have some ridiculously exaggerated caricatured accent ('Graveyard Shift' might be the best example of the latter). The little things like believable accents really add to the realism of these things.

At any rate, this wasn't as terrible as I expected given the network and its track record, but it could have been a lot better with a few small changes, in my opinion.

[–] CalendarGirl 9 years ago

It wasn't set in Maine. She lived in Connecticut and travelled to Massachusetts for the book club meeting (or the other way around).

[–] soylentmajority 9 years ago

Ah, thank you for that! Apologies for my mistake, but I still think that a realistic Massachusetts accent would have improved the film a bit.

[–] casak36 7 years ago

I've noticed that a Mass accent is not near a Bostonian accent. Yet people seem to think everyone speaks like that.

[–] btc8 9 years ago

I would have to agree with all of these points.

The movie was a bit like "I spit on your grave" type revenge. In fact, it was pretty much a ripoff of it, in my opinion; if not a bit less graphic and gratuitous.

I'd have to agree that acting was decent. Maria was OK, but there times when it felt like she was 'off' in some scenes.

[–] casak36 7 years ago

The story was conceived and written long before ISOYG was created. The only commonality whatsoever was the category- rape revenge film. That's like saying every movie in space was ripped off from Star Wars. There was literally no other common thread. lLifetime loves their rape revenge movies. But I've seen no others like that piece of trash.

[–] chilone (17251) 3 years ago

I Spit on Your Grave was conceived in 1974 and written no later than 1978.

[–] Moonglum9 (10699) 3 years ago

Then this must be a very early King story. Hey casak, they made movies before the year 2000 and many after that date are remakes. Keep scrolling down next time.

[–] casak36 7 years ago

She didn't hallucinate the character. Many authors think of their characters as real. Tom was her only true hallucination. The point was that she wasn't insane- just as a soldier suffering PTSD isn't insane but still may have random delusions. And sometimes they make no sense to anyone else and are relatively harmless. Tom was a comfort. A friend who knew. The embodiment of a support system she didn't have in real life. I'm not sure what you mean about "how the rape really affected her" because it was made clear. It drove her to do things she never thought capable of.

[–] casak36 7 years ago

Also, while I agree about the accent (I was just speaking with my mate about this today), this wasn't set in Maine. It was CT.

I've spent several years in New England and the accents seemed appropriate for that area. It truly does drive me to distraction when southern accents are mangled (TX, LA, and GA being the worst, imho) so I understand how bothersome that can be.