I feel like Drive had a lot of promise, but, at least in my viewing experience, floundered in the execution. I agree that there are plenty of parallels to be drawn in Gosling's role from some of the characters you mentioned, ESPECIALLY Clint Eastwood parts in Leone's films. That was the one that seemed to be a pretty blatant comparison the director attempted to make. Hell, I almost make the connection myself in my first post but decided to leave it out, haha. After reading your post and some other reviews of the film, I can see how Gosling was meant to come across as a little unhinged, but I gotta say, it didn't seem that apparent in his performance. Maybe chalk it up to his acting or perhaps the cinematic direction, but I didn't get as much of that vibe as was probably intended. It's odd though, since it's well known what wonders the long hold on an actor's face can do for hinting at the underlying mental state of their character (A Clockwork Orange comes to mind), so maybe just the fact that it was used so goddamn much in this film made it kinda passe and not carry a lot of weight for me. Like I said, for me he just came off as not the sharpest tool in the shed, which was another aspect that bothered me since it directly conflicted with what his character was supposed to be and had done. Albert Brooks was pretty satisfying, I will say though. It was a bit of a different take on the sympathetic villain, so I did enjoy that.
I actually give Sucker Punch credit, haha. It's still a terrible movie, but I went into it totally expecting nothing but schlocky, video-game action and titillation, so the fact that it had somewhat of an interesting premise was a pleasant surprise. I left the theater fairly satisfied simply because I did expect it to be complete shit. Honestly, I think had it cut out all the gratuitous Comic-Con garbage and not been in the hands of Zack Snyder, it could have been a decent flick.
As much love as I have for Bryan Cranston, I wouldn't say he's anywhere near the level of Oldman or DDL. Maybe Oldman, but both of them are so much more method that it's like comparing apples and oranges. If I had to compare him to anyone, it would probably have to be Philip Seymour Hoffman, in that both actors, instead of molding themselves into the role like DDL or say, Jack Nicholson, perfectly tailor the role to themselves. Which is likely just as rare in actors and makes them just as badass as ones that do go the method route.
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