Drive was ok. Had a few nice things about it visually. But Refn isn't a good dialog writer. Mann knocked it out of the park in a few scenes in Thief. The coffee scene with Jesse and the adoption office scene come to mind. Solid gold. Refn wouldn't know how to make a character say that stuff.

I think Thief's main resemblance to Drive is in it's font style, it's soundtrack, and it's opening scene. Still, I think the opening scenes of Drive and Thief serve to show our characters in their element, but have different tones overall. Drive's opening scene has an impending sense of danger around every corner. I never got the sense that anyone was about to caught during the opening of Thief. I also thought Drive's opening getaway scene was a more nuts and bolts breakdown of how the escape was actually executed than Thief's opening heist was. You get a pretty thorough run down of The Driver's methods in Drive but not so much in Thief.
The big heist in Thief I felt was akin to something like the heist scene in Rififi. Two crews scouting security, infiltrating, and executing a plan. There's nothing like that at all in Drive really.
The soundtracks are also similar in style but different in tone. Tangerine Dream's Thief soundtrack is much more prominent, while Cliff Martinez's Drive soundtrack is a lot more ambient and atmospheric. That's not even mentioning the pop songs in Drive, which underscore it's themes quite a bit and make it distinct from Thief.
Beyond that the more apt comparison to Drive is Walter Hill's The Driver. Both are set in LA, both have stoic hero who says very little but is supernaturally good at a very specific job. Drive and The Driver's protagonist heavily recall La Samourai Jef Costello (The Driver is basically a remake of Le Samourai, while Ryan Gosling's unnamed character shares a lot of Costello's stoicism and mannerisms.) James Caan's Frank is a lot more flamboyant and outwardly aggressive than Gosling's character is.
Drive and The Driver are also both quintessential LA movies and borrow from LA's cinematic charm. Thief is mainly set in Chicago and it's as grimy as it sounds

When I saw the new criterion DVD for this movie, I was surprised how much it looked like "Drive", so I checked it out. Really great flick with mesmerising style, enjoyed it more than "Drive" itself.

Absolutely. I saw DRIVE first! Then when I saw Thief- I couldn't believe how much it was like watching the total inspiration for Drive.
I love Thief even more! It's a better movie for sure. But DRIVE is also great and also benefits from the great performance of Albert Brooks.
THIEF also has amazing performances and CAAN is the ultimate bad ass!!! This film makes you absolutely love CAAN. He kicks so much ass in this it's amazing.

They make great companion films that's for sure.

I love both films and I can definitely see the influence Refn gained from Mann in his film.

indeed, looked like some location were the same

Just seen Drive, I agree its very similar to Thief except Gosling is younger and has another accent to that of Caan's

They definitely share similarities.
Thief is a better movie. Drive was enjoyable too.
Drive was quite good visually. Thief is more interested in telling a story.

Is drive a great film then or is it just a poor remake of thief?
Really want to watch Drive now.

So the critics that loved Drive are also fanboys? I like both films.

Both are good films. I like the villains in Thief better but Drive is more atmospheric. And it's far from being a "carbon copy".
Thief 7/10
Drive 8/10
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Drive is based on a book. The writer might have been influenced by The Driver.
They're all good movies, though I liked Thief and Drive more than The Driver.

Thief is a Masterpiece plain and simple and it stands alone!

Go over to the Drive board and see how many fan boys are talking about what a "brilliant, artistic, masterpiece" Drive is. If you complain about any aspect of the movie, they immediately break into tears and shout how "You just didn't understand it!" as they clutch a copy of the DVD to their breast. Little do they know it's just a carbon copy of Thief, with worse music and a less talented actor in the lead. I did like the action better in Drive though.

I haven't seen "Drive" yet. (Yes, I know, that's crazy, but hey!)
"The Driver" is great! I saw it most recently at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, with Walter Hill in attendance. We got to see a new print too, which looked great! I love the ending of that movie. Classic!
"Thief" is great too! Classic Michael Mann. And, the Tangerine Dream score is too perfect!
"I. Drink. Your. Milkshake! [slurp!] I DRINK IT UP!" - Daniel Plainview - "There Will Be Blood"

hahaha! I was thinking the same thing! Wasn't entertaining even the slightest but saw it twice by choice spending 3+ hours of his life watching it. Love it.

both are good obvious refn took a lot from mann in general not just thief, but also manhunter and others but the last 25 minutes of Thief is some of the best stuff I've seen on film.

VladDrac_OU81 wrote:
"I saw "Drive" twice and it didn't blow me away. It wasn't even entertaining for me in the slightest. Massively overrated movie."
Why don't you see it a third time while you're at it?

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Drive was good. Thief was good. Driver was good. End of story.

I just saw Thief and find myself amazed how much "Drive" bears resemblance to it. Any thoughts?
Why are you "amazed"? Hollywood's been ripping itself off with sh!tty remakes for years.
Get a clue.

Drives a second rate knock-off of just about every every big league crime director that has ever lived and which only received such positive attention cuz its not totally idiotic, thus setting it apart from 99% of Hollywood slime anno 2011. A rather unremarkable, cheesy movie, all in all.
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan

Says SamuelLJedi.