Drive (1997) - A Review

 

This movie lives up to the hype!

Drive is an American action/martial arts movie released in 1997 that stars Mark Dacascos, Kadeem Hardison, Brittany Murphy, John Pyper-Ferguson, Tracey Walter, Sanaa Latham and Masayo Kato. Steve Wang directed Drive, with Koichi Sakamoto in charge of fight choreography and stunts.

In Drive, Marc Dacascos plays Toby Wong, a man who is on the run from the Chinese government because he has a bio-engine that they implanted in his chest. This bio-engine gives him enhanced strength, speed, reaction time, and keeps his adrenaline high during action. Toby arrives in America on a cargo ship and is met with a crew of business suited bad guys! He fights them off in spectacular fashion and escapes. Vic Madison (played by John Pyper-Ferguson) and his main lackey (played by Tracey Walter) vow to capture Toby no matter what!

Mark Dacascos is the MAN in Drive!

 Toby makes his way to a bar, where Malik Brody (played by Kadeem Hardison) is working on his next big song. Malik is out of work and is separated from his wife (played by Sanaa Latham) and daughter. He at least has a friend in the bartender. Vic takes Malik as a hostage, but Toby turns the tables on him! The police arrive, and Vic acts like he was victimized by Toby, so Toby takes Malik as a hostage to escape! Despite this rather traumatizing  way of meeting, Toby and Malik become friends...eventually.

In Malik's sweet car, Toby tells him that he is not going to hurt him, and that he needs to get to Los Angeles. Malik refuses at first, but changes his mind after hearing that Toby will pay him half of the 5 million dollars he will get for selling the bio-engine to a corporation there. From here, a fun, fight-filled road trip happens. When Toby proves too difficult to capture, the Chinese government send in an Advanced Model (played by Masayo Kato) to deal with him.

Mark Dacascos and Kadeem Hardison have great chemistry!

Drive is one of those movies I heard about for decades, but was never able to watch. My friends and family all watched it before I did in the 90's, telling me how great it was. I could never catch it when it came on HBO or Showtime back then. It wasn't even available at my local video rental store! At most, I caught the motel scene once. As of this writing, Drive is available to watch for free on Tubi, Pluto TV On Demand, and YouTube in America. A remastered Director's Cut blu-ray was released in America last year (which I am planning to buy), and will be released later this year in Europe. The version I watched was the edited version first released in 1997. So, did it live up to the hype? It sure did!

The plot isn't complicated, but that doesn't matter when the fight scenes are this good! Also, this movie is really funny! I didn't expect it to be this funny! Kadeem Hardison is hilarious in this! Mark Dacascos and Kadeem Hardison have great chemistry together. Kadeem Hardison's Malik is quite the ladies magnet! Even Mark Dacascos has some funny lines in this! There are also homages and shout outs to Hong Kong movies, and a certain director and movie star (now legend)!

Brittany Murphy is very funny in this! My crush on her is reignited!

Brittany Murphy is so great in this. She plays Deliverance Bodine, a motel owner who is a bit of a wild child. She has a thing for Malik and just wants to party. When the bad guys come to the motel, she doesn't hesitate to save Toby and Malik in certain instances. Her absolute glee in shooting a machine gun is cute, not going to lie. Brittany Murphy is so funny in her scenes, and the whole motel segment of the movie is lifted higher because of her performance. I will say, you can see some of Luanne Platter (who she voiced in King Of The Hill) in her performance in Drive. I had a crush on Brittany Murphy back in the day, and it was reignited after seeing this movie!

The fight scenes are fast and hard-hitting! They do not disappoint!

There are four main fight scenes in Drive, and they are all awesome! The first fight scene on the ship happens at the beginning of the movie, and it shows how Toby is a fighting dynamo. Mark Dacascos performs every move with with precision and grace. He is really great in this, and it sucks that he is so underrated as an action star. In the quarry fight scene, Toby and Malik are handcuffed together, so Toby uses the environment and the thugs themselves to defend himself and Malik. It is reminiscent of Jackie Chan in Project A: Part II.  The motel scene involves fighting in close quarters, as Toby fights in a motel room and a car garage. Toby uses a bed to do some cool acrobatic moves. Brittany Murphy gets in on the fun in this scene as well. The final fight scene is at a night club, and Toby has to fight off Vic Madison and his thugs, along with the Advanced Model. Toby goes all out in this scene, but the Advanced Model is a bit too much for him. He has to dig deep within himself to beat the Advanced Model. Malik also has to fight Vic, who uses a very hateful weapon on him.

Koichi Sakamoto was the fight choreographer, and he did an excellent job showcasing Mark Dacascos' skill. All the fight scenes are different from each other, so you won't get bored by them. The fight scenes are Hong Kong-style, and they hit fast and hard. Why Sakamoto was never hired for big Hollywood productions, I'll never know. You may know Koichi Sakamoto as the action choreographer and executive producer for Power Rangers (starting in season three, one of the worst seasons along with Zeo in regards to lack of fight scenes, Turbo was where the action got back on track) and other Super Sentai shows. It is cool to see Koichi go all out with his choreography in this!

I highly recommend watching Drive if you enjoy martial arts movies or action movies in general. It moves at a fast pace, and it is really funny. The fight scenes are plenty and turbo charged! It even stars Tracey Walter (who you may remember as Joker's lackey Bob in Batman 1989) as a lackey to Vic! This is one of  Mark Dacascos' best movies, and his chemistry with Kadeem Hardison is fun to watch. Now I need to watch the Director's Cut, as there are a lot of character building scenes cut in the version I watched for this review. The final fight scene against the Advanced Model is also longer in the Director's Cut. Whichever version you are able to see, you won't be disappointed!

Reviewed by David Williams