your thoughts on "Drive"

[sevenhooks]

I remember catching part of this on HBO late one night many moons back and was very impressed by what I saw.
For an American (?) production they got the early 90's HK fight action down better than pretty much any other western film I can remember.

[theportlykicker]

Yep, very good film! It had great action (though many people don't like the finale) and it was funny. The only thing that slightly ruined the enjoyment for me was the obvious doubling of Dacascos during certain parts of the action.

[sevenhooks]

Is there a specific DVD release you would recommend?

[jmungus]

10 years of praising the movie has made me a little tired lol.
but yeah, its damn entertaining, fun (s/t a little goofy, s/t hilarious), fast paced, skillfully done.
great performances from mark and his stunt double as well as kadeem hardison (but how wrong was i thinking he`d make it big in hollywood after "drive" :( :p ) they did write (and cast) some fun henchmen too, so props where props are due.
the action/stunt coordinator is the same guy that worked with the director of "drive" (steve wang, wong ?) on "guyver 2". got considerable talent.

just make sure u get your hands on a copy of the DC. running time of the dc is 112 mins.
i havent heard of any new dvd releases of "drive" in the last couple of years; theres a nice 2 disc set, german language area release i think, but it has english dts audio. picture and extras may not be reference quality but still good.
i suppose if u can find a release more recent than ~2000-2002, it might have gotten a better transfer, higher bitrates & an additional mastering job on top of it (but im really just speculating here; in fact i strongly doubt it).

[limubai2000]

I like this film a lot. I wish it would have seen widespread theatrical release, it might have made some of the things in Matrix less impactful on the populace at large.

It is a well executed film, I hadn't noticed the doubling of Dacascos though.

[Beat TG]

It's great yeah, the fights are brilliant (except Dacascos being doubled) and the humor cracks me up all the time.

[Skrotnissen]

Very good film.

[The Running Man]

Honestly, it's one of my favorite films of all time (talking about the far better Director's Cut). Perfect blend of smart credible comedy, ace action, and all around top notch entertainment.

A damn shame the movie is only a cult. It shouldn't be. It deserves all the success of the far far far inferior Rush Hour films.

Also a grand shame Mark, Kadeem, and Steve Wang never got to build from this.

[theportlykicker]

A damn shame the movie is only a cult. It shouldn't be. It deserves all the success of the far far far inferior Rush Hour films.

Also a grand shame Mark, Kadeem, and Steve Wang never got to build from this.

I agree completely.

About what dvd to get, I have the Medusa Entertainment/HKL version. It's great if you can find it. The commentary, in particular, is very funny.

[Chinatown Kid]

Great choreography, there should have been a sequel.

[morgoth]

WHile I think the 1-on-1 fights could have been better, it is a very good movie. After seeing almost all of the Marc Dacoscos movies(some look to horrible to watch), I have to say this is definitely his best.

[Chen Zhen]

fantastic movie. the group fights are awesome..to say the least, and while many ppl hated the finale, i enjoyed it very much. and the comedy was actually really funny too...haha cant say i have any real complaints about this movie.

[Sifu Socky]

Drive was good fun. Actually, I think I did a review a while ago.

*rummages*

Ah, here we go (http://www.wayofthesocky.co.uk/review.php?id=11).

[Senor Quack]

Sevenhooks,

As others have stated, the director's cut (unavailable in the U.S. unfortunately) is the one to get as it has about 17 minutes of story/character development added back in that make it, in my opinion, a much better film.

The UK DVD from Contender is probably the cheapest bet. It's a nice print, anamorphic widescreen and DD 5.1. My only complaint on this is that I found the bass to be mixed VERY low on this disc. This was remedied easily by boosting the levels on my subwoofer, but this is the only disc I've ever had to do that for.

Either the German or the Polish version (I forget which it is) is a 2 DVD set of the director's cut (with a lot of extras) and also features DTS (which some would prefer). The cost was too prohibitive for me (I was able to get the UK disc for like $17 delivered (hell, Amazon UK sells it for 5 pounds), the 2 disc set would have been in the $36 to $40 range), but if you're a big fan of the movie, it might be worth seeking out.

[Sifu Socky]

Actually, I might look into that. After all, my Region 2 copy doesn't quite play properly in my player for some reason (is it just me who has this issue?)
Presumably this European version comes with the original English-language soundtrack? Mark Dacascos' acting is painful enough without having it dubbed in Polish as well :-p

[Senor Quack]

Sifu Socky, to answer your question, the Polish edition (I now believe it's the Polish and not the German as amazon.de didn't show a 2 disc edition for this movie) does have the English soundtrack in DTS. One word of warning, however, some Polish companies have a bad habit (bad for English speakers that is) of overdubbing a Polish announcer over the non-native speakers in the interviews, etc. I can't recall if this set is a "victim" or not, but it's possible that some of the extras on disc 2 (such as the interviews, making ofs, etc.) may have a Polish announcer dubbed over the English speakers. The movie itself is fine, though.

[mits777]

Yeah its very enjoyable. heres my review of it.
rants-raves-and-reviews.b...-arts.html (http://rants-raves-and-reviews.blogspot.com/2006/09/best-recent-american-martial-arts.html)

[jmungus]

here it is, found it- german edition i was talkin about; 'mediacs' distribution.

www.dvd-palace.de/dvd-review-r5t395.htm (http://www.dvd-palace.de/dvd-review-r5t395.htm)
www.ofdb.de/view.php?page...&vid=51943 (http://www.ofdb.de/view.php?page=fassung&fid=889&vid=51943)