Review of Drive: Special Edition, Director`s Cut

Introduction

Toby Wong (Mark Dacascos) is a Chinese operative with a difference. He has a special implant in his chest which gives him incredible strength, stamina and reflexes making him the ultimate fighting machine. However he`s at odds with his ex-boss and is on the run to America where he can sell the implant and pocket a cool $5m. It`s not going to be easy however and Toby has hunters on his trail who will do almost anything to get him back to China.

He bumps into downbeat Malik (Kadeem Hardison) in a bar and ends up kidnapping him to make good his escape from the police. He then forces him to drive to the west coast to deliver his implant and thus begins the buddy-buddy relationship upon which many a Hollywood has been made. Malik is the wisecracking songwriter just minding his own business when he gets unwittingly caught up in the crossfire and with some reluctance decides to help Toby, especially with the promise of $2.5m, half of what Toby will collect.

In dogged pursuit is Vic Madison (John Pyper-Ferguson) with Hedgehog (Tracey Walter) who never seem to give up, but who always take a beating, and then come back for seconds and dessert too. Mr Lau (James Shigeta who played Mr Takagi in Die Hard) grows weary of Madison`s excuses for failure and sends in his advanced model to help recover the errant Toby Wong. The advanced model eventually catches up to Wong and they have to sort out their differences.

The premise is very simple, after all, we just want to see the action, right?

Video

Presented with a 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer, Drive for the most part looks good. Colours are reproduced well, though there`s little to really test it since the locations themselves are quite plain. Detail and black levels are also good throughout. There are minor amounts of dirt around however with an element of grain too, but ultimately it won`t spoil your enjoyment of the film.

Audio

Turn up the speakers and just immerse yourself in the action. You get both a DD5.1 and DD2.0 soundtrack here. Let`s concentrate on the 5.1 audio. The front stage is well realised with the surrounds adding to the general ambience rather than getting specific sounds. It does sound good though with a rumbling LFE channel to boot. Dialogue is pretty clear from the centre, though some words were lost on me and there aren`t any subtitles. Good all round sound though, well designed sound effects and a solid score.

Features

For a low budget picture, this DVD sure packs a punch in the extras department and has full screen moving menus (clips from the film), but I thought the menu execution could have been improved. First up is the audio commentary with Steve Wang (director), Koichi Sakamoto (stunt choreographer), Mark Dacascos (Toby Wong) and Kadeem Hardison (Malik Brody) and this is one stunningly good track to listen to. It`s not only very informative on the goings on on the film, but there`s all kinds of banter going on too. You can tell that they had a good time recording this and it just cracked me up!

The theatrical trailer makes the film look like a low budget 80s movie but at least it only tells you the salient points of the story without spoiling it too much. Photo Galleries has 73 stills covering the Production Gallery, Behind the Scenes and Candid Camera. It`s good and worth while going through at least once. Biographies covers quite a few pages on each of the main cast and crew and is interesting to read.

Deleted Scenes covers 6 scenes with 2 extended ones. It`s good to see the scenes here and there`s an explanation as to why these were cut. I think the pacing and tone of the film would have changed with these in. Interview Gallery contains interviews with key cast and crew, and while these aren`t very long, they do make for interesting viewing.

One of the big features on this DVD is `The Force Behind the Storm` making of. It`s 47 minutes long and is a well made piece. Again it`s members of the cast and crew just talking freely about the film, there`s little overlap between this and the other interviews on the disc, and they all seem to be quite self congratulatory.

Lastly, there aren`t any subtitles at all which is a big omission.

Conclusion

Drive is one of those vastly underrated films and I only heard about it a year ago when I borrowed the DVD. What I saw kept me glued to the screen so I knew I had to buy it for myself.

This isn`t a story based movie by any stretch, it`s an action packed martial arts film made on a low budget, made to entertain, which it does very well. There are scenes where an attempt is made to get into the characters a little more, but this doesn`t really work well. For example, the whole thing about Malik`s failed marriage just doesn`t get enough screen time to make it important and only serves as a plot device in the story itself. There are comedic elements too to the story, some of these work, others just don`t, but I guess this is part and parcel in writing humour for a film audience.

Mark Dacascos can fight! Watching him on screen with his fluid martial arts, coupled with sidekick Kadeem Hardison produced a good screen partnership. While the film won`t score points in original storytelling, it does score well on the action side. This is probably the only Hollywood martial arts movie around, I can`t think of any other right now, and it`s impressive. The only annoying thing I found is the character of Deliverance Bodine (Brittany Murphy). Her over the top enthusiasm and other mannerisms just irritated me. The rest of the cast however are fine. I have to give a nod to John Pyper-Ferguson (Vic Madison) and Tracey Walter (Hedgehog). These guys are the most likeable incompetent pairing I`ve seen in quite some time, and it`s a pleasure to watch them on screen.

There`s great stuntwork in play here too, delivering very intense action, with Koichi Sakamoto`s Alpha Stunts who doubled up and did the majority of the work here, and these guys are good! There is some wirework here and other special effects but it`s not overblown and just adds to the film rather than take centre stage.

Director Steve Wang is no stranger to the film industry having worked as a conceptual artist on a lot of A list Hollywood pics, plus he directed Guyver and has shown he definitely has what it takes to make an action film. With Wang`s sharp and lively directing and Ivan Ladizinsky`s attention to detail in the editing, you get a film with real kinetic energy which is pretty well paced throughout the 112 minute runtime. The $3.5m budget has certainly been well used and delivers a movie with impact.

Region 2 is the disc to go for as R1 has been trimmed by about 16 minutes, losing a lot of back story which I think is essential for the film. One feature I would have liked to see is a gag reel, just to see numerous outtakes ala Jackie Chan movies. Maybe the next Steve Wang film. Before I forget, there`s a layer change at 1:37:22 which is very noticeable and in the middle of an action scene no less! Maybe they thought we wouldn`t notice it...

While I did laugh at moments through the film it`s the commentary that had me in stitches. If you get the chance, listen to it, it`s superb! This is a very good package of an entertaining film which puts some of the bigger profile DVD releases to shame. If you like martial arts movies, there`s much to like here and I`m pretty sure you won`t be disappointed. At the time of writing (August 2002), Drive could be had for a mere £8.99 from Splash DVD. I urge you to seek out a copy of this gem of a movie as soon as possible!