This is the first movie I've seen in a month, so why did I choose it in favor of other fine movies that I've wanted to see like "Along Came a Spider" or "Someone Like You" (which seems to be tanking at the box office, but it's still a movie I'd like to see)? Beats me. I think I was just in the mood to see a racing movie.

"Driven" is the project that Sylvester Stallone has been trying to get done the last few years, a movie he wrote about a sport he apparently loves. It starts out with some statistics that I've mostly forgotten. Something about 20 races a year, some x-million fans, and one championship. We're talking about the CART (Championship Auto Racing Teams) circuit, not to be confused with Grand Prix or NASCAR or Formula-1 circuits. The CART tracks are mostly in the US, though a couple in Canada and ones in England, Germany, Japan, Australia and (in the movie) Brazil give it an international flavor.

In any case, the movie intro flashes scenes from the first 10 races as you hear an announcer commenting on the race results. It seems Beau Brandenburg (Til Schweiger), current CART champion and winner of the first three races this year, is being seriously challenged by upstart Jimmy Blye (Kip Pardue), a talented rookie but one who is starting to feel the pressure of success. Jimmy and Beau are neck and neck in the standings, but with Jimmy starting to fold under the media pressure, team owner Carl Henry (Burt Reynolds) calls on the services of former racer Joe Tanto (Sylvester Stallone), urging him to come back to racing and be a mentor to Jimmy.

The movie is really about racing, about Jimmy and Beau and Joe and a few people around them. Joe Tanto is actually not an important character, though he is significant. But it's really about the drivers. Beau breaks up with his girl friend, Sophia Simone (Estella Warren), because he thinks she is just a distraction. Sophia and Jimmy become friends, causing Beau to realize how wrong he was and leading to a confrontation.

Meanwhile we have Cathy Moreno (Gina Gershon), Joe's ex-girl friend who is now married to Joe's good friend, fellow racer Memo Moreno (Cristi‡n de la Fuente). Cathy is still mad that Joe self-destructed after being one of the best CART drivers, while Memo is the good friend who gets seriously race in one of the races. We have Carl Henry who is in a wheel chair, a ruthless owner who wants a championship and can't let emotion enter into the equation. Lastly there's Lucretia Clan (Stacy Edwards), a reporter working on a story about CART, who hooks up with Joe.

The racing scenes are very good. A few obvious special effects trying to show the driver's point of view, but most of the effects are relatively subtle. Sure, spectacular car crashes are special effects, but they're not done in a flashy and unrealistic way. There are a couple of hard-to-belive situations that develop, including Jimmy and Joe racing through the streets of a major city in two race cars. But for the most part it's a very believable storyline.

"Driven" is a good movie. I guess it's a drama. Certainly there's action but it's not the focus of the movie. Romance there is only a bit of -- there are relationships, just not very romantic ones that make one gush. Certainly the racing is done well and the ending is all nice and cheery, even with the bad guy of the movie (Jimmy's brother Demille, played by Robert Sean Leonard; Demille is Jimmy's manager and a bit sleazy at times) smiling along with the others at the end. A nice movie and well worth a look, though with "The Mummy Returns" opening this weekend this movie will quickly drop out of the top spot.