I absolutely loved Drive. LOVED IT.
That said, I completely understand everyone that thought it was pretentious garbage.
I loved Drive for the first hour. Then in the last 40 minutes or so, it lost me. I think it was the degree of violence that really bothered me. I thought it was senseless and unnecessary, and actually detracted from the film.
With that being said, I can't particularly quibble with the quality of the acting. Gosling, Mulligan, Cranston, et al. were great. And I'll echo what many others have said, Albert Brooks was absolutely robbed of an Oscar nomination. I've seen a ton of Albert Brooks movies and that's the best acting I've ever seen the man do. He really was fantastic as Bernie Rose.
In conclusion, using Gary Tha Squirrel's rating scale, I give Drive two and a half nuts.