Drive (1997)

far from a sunday drive

I never thought a film with simply the title of "Drive" would have such good martial arts action. Yes, Mark Dacascos stars in Drive, but the choreography and intensity of the fights is unlike anything I have evr seen him do before. Only The Strong is maybe the closest Mark gets with the Capoeira fighitng style in that movie. In Drive, it is obvious that wires are used quite a bit, but the results are Matrix-like effects that outdo alot of the compeition such as Romeo Must Die and The One. Mark's fighting is also combined with stunts in Drive, sometimes even resembling Jackie Chan.

The story is basically a no-brainer, where the main charcater (Toby Wong - Mark Dacascos) is always on the run from the bad guys. Once involved with a corporation in Hong Kong, Toby has fled to America carrying a high-tech piece of equipment in his chest that makes him nearly invulnerable. The corporation wants it back, sending a fleet of men after Toby, including another super-unit, played by Masayo Kato. While I am not familiar with him as a martial artist, his skills were quite impressive as well.

Other main characters include Malik Brody played by Kadeem Hardison, who provides the comic relief throughout the film accompanied with some agression of his own. Surprisingly, some of the humor was actually funny, for I don't expect B-action movies to make me laugh very much. Brittany Murphy plays "Delieverance", another person who gets tangled up in Toby's mess in the film. Her charcater is just silly, weird, and ditsy - running around laughing with a gun in her hand like its a game. Oh well.

Its the action that makes this movie most memorable, and makes it one of Mark Dacasco's absolute best. Long and plenty of action scenes fill the movie, right down to the exciting final fight that is just beautiful, set in a night club. Mark Dacascos fans will love this, and a fan of wonderful choreogprahy will love it even more. June 15, 2007

Great movie!

I love this movie, AWESOME choreographed fight scenes that are very well filmed, great humor, and how can you say no to a love crazed Brittany Murphy and great martial arts! :) April 21, 2007

Fun Movie with Lots of Senseless Action!!!

This movie is one sequence after another set-up for one reason, to display the martial arts of Mark Dacascos. The plot, lame, the budget - lame, the action - spectacular!!! The acting from support characters like Kadeem Hardison and a young Brittany Murphy as well as John Pyper-Ferguson are just fun.

Dacascos is one of the more exciting martial artists to watch, but he garners few quality roles. Even in movies that he does not get a good role, he generally makes the best of it. This movie is a great choice for action fans, silly plot, but one great action scene after another. Bring in the popcorn, soda, and chips. recline and enjoy.
December 7, 2006

cut version, btu still good if you don't have all region player, though why you wouldn't get one I don't know

I wish I could answer that but I don't have one myself, I'm just lazy I guess. But the movie even in the 95 or so minute version is still very good. It does feel like it was taken straightt form tv, but still one of the best tv movies ever. Mark dacoscas gets his real starring role in this one. And you will find out that this guy is a true martial arts master. His athletic ability is uncomparable to other actors. He has that somerican looking face, I don't see why he can't do more roles like this, it is sad.

Now the movie itself, starts out showing you that you will be seeing at least one super human in this movie. So the guy from speed(and speed 2), gets taken hoistage sort of just because he is around and has a car. While the movie never really gets going with a great storyline, it doesn't need to. The action just absolutely explodes. And the storyline is good, it's just that it could have been a bit deeper, but the comedy was outstanding. There is a part where the 2 get pulled over, black guy pulls out his licence, all is good. The cop asks for dacascas's name and he tells him "Sammo Hung". I was not expecting that and it had me rolling. So certainly a 5 for the action and probably a 3.5 for the story. With a 4 for the acting. And the music was around a 4 too, very good.

Now the concept in this is kind of like a classic kung uf movie, guns, but not really allowed to use them. In enter the dragon, they were not allowed on the island, in other movies, it can just be an honor thing. But the reason behind it in this is the fact that dacoscas is a super weapon in the near future and he has a certain device implanted in his chest and is worth too much money to kill. So they have to try and shoot him in the legs. This showcases mark to his full capabilites. His acrobatics are truly unbelievable for a guy who should be a top notch action star up there with anybody.

So I would like to see the version with like 12 extra minutes, but this is good enough for now. So I got this for like 7 bucks with shipping and I woudl say itr is worth it. You are not going to find a better american style action movie until unleashed came out. And jet can't do the crazy jumps and flips mark can, but could definitely woop the shoot out of him. April 26, 2006

Mark Dacascos got skills!!

The plot of this movie allows the underrated actor, Dacascos, to truly show off what a major talent he his. All the different body twists and turns in the movies. He must have been particularly exhausted. I can only imagine how many times he had to repeat those scenes. And then a lot of his moves corresponded like a robot. And I'd hear people rave about "the first green ranger's" moves, Jason David Frank, and granted he's superb at karate, but after seeing this, Dacascos is unbelieveable. Someone on imdb even was gutsy enough to say that he was better than Jet Lee!

It's ashame this movie didn't hit mainstream even though the storyline is a bit off sometimes. The plot is meant to be weird to keep the story interesting, but when Brittany Murphy and Hardison come in to play, it is just totally off the wall. It's so random that its supposed to be funny, but to some it will come off as just plain stupid and just put together so fast to place another character in. Other characters who you think might be dead might not quite be, and they randomly show up. It happens in lots of movies. So it's not particularly eye catching to me.

The disco they were at and some of the other locales really melded in with the story well.

People keep saying how Dacascos should be in karate movies, but maybe a movie more like a Terminator would show another side of his acting. His moves in this movie show that he could probably make a Terminator 4 do better thatn T3 and maybe even T1 (not T2 cause that just caught on to "the mainstream" like it was the thing to watch of all time). Part of this karate thing is obviously his moves, but even within his physical features. On the cover, he looks like say maybe Cole Hauser a bit or something like that, but then when you see the movie, it looks like he has Asian roots as well a bit. With other Japanese characters in the movie, that only helps invigorate the karate phenomenon you see come out of watching this movie.

You'd think the movie is an action movie by looking at the cover, and it is, but it is an off kilter comedy in disguise as well. April 16, 2006

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