Drive (1997)

The near future. Toby Wong (Mark Dacascos), a former Hong Kong government agent turned involuntary killer for a Chinese company/government/organized crime entity goes on the run from his employers and makes his way to the USA. Here, he plans to sell the biological reactor implanted into his chest that gives him basic super soldier super powers to a company and retire somewhere nice, free from the hassle of the violent life.

Of course, his former bosses do not take this sort of thing lying down, particularly since Toby’s reactor is still a one-of-a kind prototype. So they send a team of American assassins (led by characters played by John Pyper-Ferguson and Tracey Walter) on his trail, with orders not to kill him. Which is a bit of a problem for these guys, since Toby has no such orders holding him back, plus superpowers (though he always goes out of his way to protect civilians). Still, during the first encounter with his hunters, things escalate a bit, and Toby takes innocent bystander Malik Brody (Kadeem Hardison) and his car hostage for a little road trip to Los Angeles. Of course, the two will become squabbling buddies while being chased and shot at.

Among the connoisseurs of these sorts of things, Steve Wang’s Drive has the reputation of being one of the very best direct to DVD action movies, and it’s difficult to disagree when you look at the action scenes in the film. Unlike quite a few directors working in Hollywood at the time, Wang had clearly learned the right lessons from Hong Kong action films, realizing that it’s not the guns akimbo and the slow motion birds that make classic Hong Kong action cinema great, but a sense of dynamism, of mobility, a way to use the camera in fast yet clear ways, and an emphasis on movement. Well, that, and a whiff of madness, with stunts which often do not look the slightest bit safe for the performers.

So that’s exactly what Wang (and action director Koichi Sakamoto, a guy with extensive experience in the Japanese Tokusatsu realm) bring to Drive’s action, as well as a very Hong Kong cinema use of objects of daily life and gimmicks during fights to make things more interesting as well as funnier. And really, if you can’t laugh about Mark Dacascos making a classic kung fu movie “come on, fight!” gesture while wearing shoes on his hands, the problem’s with you and not the film.

Having said that, the film’s humour outside of the fight gimmicks is certainly an acquired taste, seeing as it is low-brow, goofy and often more than just a little annoying. On the other hand, the film’s humour is also often just plain weird, and therefor interesting. Just watch whatever the hell Brittany Murphy is doing in her part as a mentally disabled motel owner’s daughter who can not shut up for a second, and be weirded out completely or look puzzled at the film’s climax taking place in an Apollo 14 themed night club, including an inexplicable musical interlude with Dacascos before the fight starts.

I have to admit I would have preferred less humour and more melodramatic mugging, but there’s something so companionable about that humour’s goofiness and weirdness in combination with some of the most inventive action I’ve ever seen in US action cinema, I find myself completely unable to resist Drive’s rather peculiar charms.


Also: if you can find it, go for the film’s director’s cut.