Drive (1997)
8/10
Hidden Gem!
19 March 2007
This unknown movie maybe one of the best action movies I have seen. To my surprise everything works. Mark Dacascos is great. This is one of the few where he has gotten the chance to show what he can do. Kadeem Harrison isn't annoying in the supporting role and has some good chemistry with Dacascos. Even Brittany Murphy performs well. Although again she plays a socially awkward but endearing character. I wonder how much of that is acted and how much of it is real. It is very fascinating since it is hard to tell whether she is insane or just happily disturbed.

Like I said the action is top notch. MD delivers on this front like he did in Crying Freeman. Very reminiscent of Hong Kong style action. And this should not be a total surprise since Koichi Sakamoto and the Alpha Stunt Team was behind the stunts for Drive. They were attached to the Power Rangers franchise if that means anything to you. The martial arts sometimes is used in combination with wireworks. But it is not obvious. In this way it intensifies the action scenes. I must admit that the climax: fight between MD and other "super" man could have been much longer but still it is a great finale. The main highlight is the sequence in the motel where we get introduced to Brittanny Murphy's character. It's a very long but very rewarding scene interchanged with a lot of comedic bits. For a low budget production the movie looks great. The plot is adequate and provides a good background for the main characters. (At least it was in my version: director's cut).

Overall it is a very fun and fast paced movie and still holds up today.
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