Product Description
-------------------
Director's cut of the high-octane action thriller. In the year
2008, Malik (Kadeem Hardison) is sitting in a bar, despondent
after losing both his job and his wife. Matters do not improve
when four men burst in, and Malik finds himself seized and
used as a human shield by the men's target - highly skilled
martial arts fighter Toby (Mark Dacascos). Toby takes Malik on
the run with him, and reveals that he is being hunted by a
powerful corporation who want the physical strength and
performance enhancing bio-system he has imed in his chest.
Together, the pair must take on their pursuers, and Toby must
face a technologically superior assassin in a final showdown.
.co.uk Review
-------------
Drive takes the standard American mismatched-buddies action
comedy formula and turbo-charges it with furious Hong Kong
wirework and martial arts. The result is a three-and-a-half
million dollar "B" picture which looks like it cost 10 times
more. The perfunctory story crosses Universal Solider (1992) with
Rush Hour (1997) as a biologically enhanced Mark Dacascos flees a
small army of Hong Kong assassins through California, teaming up
with comedian Kadeem Hardison and delivering an almost
unbelievable a of bang per buck. Director Steve Wang stages
the action with flair and clarity, the stunts, wirework and
fights being exceptionally well-choreographed and . With
Hardison's patter, two offbeat redneck assassins and a TV show
about a frog with Einstein's brain there's abundant surprisingly
genial humour, aided by Brittany Murphy's ditzy performance as a
Twin Peaks-like teenager with hormones in overdrive. The cyborg
aspect simply justifies the superhuman combat, but nevertheless a
huge showdown in a retro-space age club is clearly styled after
the "Tech Noir" bar sequence in The Terminator (1984), adding
motorcycle killersstraight out of Rollerball (1975). Drive
captures the rush of Hong Kong action movies yet almost has the
feel of a musical, the mayhem replacing song and dance and
offering more popcorn entertainment than many a bloated summer
blockbuster.
On the DVD: For such a low budget movie the 2.35:1 anamorphically
enhanced image puts many far bigger features to shame, being
pin-sharp throughout, with strong and accurate colours and
minimal grain. The Dolby Digital 5.1 sound is equally strong,
with sound-effects and music both having considerable impact,
explosions ripping thorough the room like the latest Arnie shoot
'em up. There is a 47-minute retrospective documentary which is
particularly interesting on the way the film was cut and restored
for American release--this DVD presenting the director's cut
which runs over 16 minutes longer than the US version. Six
deleted/extended scenes are presented in a variety of formats,
and it's easy to see why they were deleted. Also included are the
original theatrical trailer, three photo galleries, cast and crew
biographies and interview galleries with director Steve Wang and
four of the main stars totalling about 20 minutes of material.
The informative commentary track has Wang, Dacascos, Hardison and
stunt co-ordinator Koichi Sakamoto revelling in their sheer
enthusiasm for the movie and for Hong Kong action in general.
--Gary S Dalkin