Saw this few months back.

Stephen King's name pulled me.

But u know u r heading towards a bad movie when the makers write Stephen King's name in big bold letter on the poster. Jus trying to cash in on the success.

Stephen King has lost the charm. Gone r the days of Salem's Lot, Carrie, It, etc.

While viewing this movie Deathwish, Jodie Foster's Brave One, I Spit... and many more will come to ur mind.

Maria Bello is a very talented actor.

The way her character dies in the tv show Beef is brutal.

But in this made for tv movie she looks a bit tired.

The movie does have a sense of dread but the imaginary character around Mario Bello takes away the tension n scare.

'Big Driver' is a dark and unexpectedly violent made-for-television adaption of horror master Stephen King's novella of the same name from his 2010 collection 'Full Dark, No Stars.' I haven't seen many Lifetime movies so far, but this one is probably one of the best ever. The movie is dark and graphic but it also includes some comedic elements at the right times. The movie clearly doesn't take itself too seriously, which is a good thing, especially since it's an adaption of of a novella by Stephen King, whose stories are known for their often not all too serious tone and quirky humor. In that regard its very fitting that rock queen Joan Jett has a small role in 'Big Driver.'

The movie has a great revenge story, an evocative setting, and an excellent cast led by Maria Bello ('A History of Violence') and including the fantastic Ann Dowd ('Compliance'). Also highlighted must be Will Harris' ('In Time') both charismatic and terrifying performance as the titular villain Lester 'Big Driver' Strehlke. I don't really remember seeing him in anything else besides 'In Time', but I guarantee that you won't forget him after seeing his performance as Big Driver. Good job! Director Mikael Salomon already directed another Stephen King adaption, namely 2004's two-part television movie 'Salem's Lot', which was a decent effort. Salomon is probably best known for directing the 1998 action movie 'Hard Rain,' which has received generally negative reviews, although I've always liked it. I see stylistic similarities between 'Hard Rain' and 'Big Driver'. Both movies feature good actors in an exceptional setting and both are pretty grim at times and witty at others.

'Big Driver' has the right combination of darkness and humor, which is a feature of every great Stephen King story. I'd say Salomon did a good job bringing King's novella to the screen. It's definitely one of the better Stephen King adaptions and one of the best ones made for the small screen.

If you're at all familiar with the work of Stephen King then you wouldn't even need to be told this was an adaption of one of one of his short stories to know it. It has his signatures written all over it from the talking GPS, the elderly character from one of our heroines book who is an extension of herself, the dark humour - it's all there. I'm told this sticks very faithfully to the book and I've always felt adaptations of King's work are at their best when they do this.

It's very similar to Jodie Foster's 2007 film 'The Brave One'. A woman taking revenge for a heinous crime committed against her. These days the revenge genre, when the lead character is a man, has become a little stale so filmmakers are having to think up creative ways to keep it interesting with unique killing styles and traveling half way across the globe to find their prey. It seems the female lead character is still fresh enough though that the revenge can be enacted in a pretty straight up and down way.

For a TV movie the quality is certainly all there. The acting is very decent and the story never drags nor feels rushed. Maria Bello impressed me in the lead role. She was gritty and believable and never makes you turn against her which is very important in this type of film. It never really does anything original enough to be considered great which is the only thing holding it back. But overall a good watch.