…Hill’s realistic, tarmac-hugging approach to the action was out of touch with the high-flying stunt-driven action of the period, but the film has endured due to the labyrinthine plotting and the sweaty, physical intensity of the LA locations…

| Original Score: 5/5 | Dec 9, 2023

It’s a film that exists in the bleary hours between dusk and dawn, with Hill emphasizing shot economy and patience in his visual storytelling while his characters trade barbed-wire, matter-of-fact dialogue.

| Original Score: 10/10 | Sep 29, 2023

An effortlessly cool crime thriller which has never looked better

| Dec 1, 2022

This influential petrolhead classic stars O’Neal as a taciturn getaway driver (think Ryan Gosling in Drive) caught in a cat’n’mouse game with Bruce Dern’s crazy-eyed copper.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 11, 2022

This is a thoroughly watchable, hardboiled, thrillingly cynical and ruthless drama and Dern’s flinching, beta-male face – in contrast to O’Neal’s tough purity – is a joy.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Nov 10, 2022

A highly stylized, pretentious thriller.

| Jul 17, 2019

While we can readily identify these characters, we can't identify with them simply because Hill never bothers to tell us what makes them tick.

| Aug 7, 2018

The closing chase -- two great Drivers in a final showdown -- had me on the edge of my seat for two good reasons: I was thrilled. And I couldn't wait to leave.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 16, 2018

The car chases are breathtaking.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 8, 2017

The peak of [Hill]'s austere stylised purifications of Hollywood genres.

| Aug 8, 2017

A fair-to-middling auto-noir.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 8, 2017

Bruce Dern, merely one of the best actors of the 1970s, is in his element here as an arrogant cop with a Cheshire-cat grin.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 17, 2013

Hill has remained a steadily stylish presence in the idiom of action cinema. His genres of concern tend to be the Western and the urban crime drama, and the twain meet in neo-noir The Driver. [Blu-ray]

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 8, 2013

Even a claustrophobic vision is preferable to none at all, and I want to like Hill's movies. But The Driver is almost impossible to travel with.

| Sep 18, 2010

The most direct manifestation of Walter Hill's continuous desire to remake Pickpocket

| Feb 5, 2010

You can almost smell rubber burning.

| May 28, 2008

By the end of The Driver you might wonder if you were in a car accident.

| Original Score: B | Apr 29, 2008

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 19, 2007

A combination of brilliantly edited car chases and existential thriller which recalls the sombreness of Melville and the spareness of Leone.

| Jan 26, 2006

A terrific neo-noir that was sadly dumped by its studio in the summer of 1978. Filled with exciting car chases and cynical, hard-boiled exchanges.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 21, 2005