Drive (1997)

(note: I watched the Director’s Cut, apparently the original U.S. version cut about 20 minutes of jokes/character beats/backstory (and a few seconds of action) out of the movie and added a generic techno score)

Drive (1997) is a low-budget, high-effort buddy action comedy with a quirky cast that makes the most of its modest means. Mark Dacascos (more like Da-kicks-ass am I right?) stars as Toby Wong, a man on the run from mercenaries and the Chinese government due to the experimental “bio-engine” implanted in his chest. This is a fun conceit for an action movie. It gives him enhanced strength and reflexes, which explains how he can fight a dozen dudes (not necessary for an action hero, but welcome). More importantly, it explains why the bad guys can’t just kill him. They need to retrieve him/the engine intact, so the most they can do is yell “Shoot him in the legs!” before Toby’’s fancy footwork dances and leaps away from the sparking ricochets. This also leads to a nice mix of gunplay and hand-to-hand, as Wong is not a murder machine but is willing to use a bad guy’s gun when handy. The bad guys have no compunctions about killing anyone else, though, which leads to danger for Wong’s unwilling driver Malik Brody (Kadeem Hardison).

Malik is wallowing and writing songs in the bar that Toby happens into. The mercs catch up with Toby and the place descends into violent chaos. After multiple Mexican stand-offs, Toby ends up taking Malik hostage to drive him to Los Angeles. Toby has found a company who will remove the bio-engine and pay him $5 million for it. Along the way they follow the typical mismatched buddy trajectory- bicker, banter, bond, backstory and then brotherhood. They have solid chemistry and both actors/characters can be pretty funny. In many generic buddy pictures the humor ranges from grating to appalling, so I was happily surprised that this one leans more towards chuckles than groans. There are a couple clunkers, the usual half-written lines or improv that probably sounded better on set, but there were also multiple gags or lines that made me laugh out loud. They have exactly one conversation based in racial stereotypes, which is brief and broad enough that it just feels silly instead of nasty.

The main mercenary pursuing them is Vic Madison (John Pyper-Ferguson), a cartoonishly cowboy-clad Southern shitkicker with ‘stache and soul patch. Vic grows increasingly frustrated with Toby’s escapes and his angry overseas bosses. Inexplicably his partner (henchman?) Hedgehog is played by character actor Tracy Walter (“Miller” in Repo Man). Walter was 50 at the time and his character is constantly eating and suffering the effects of junk food, dumpy, dishevelled and dim. I thought this must have been the only time that Walter played a role that required a stunt double to do flips and fall for him, but glancing at his wikipedia I just realized he was also “Bob the Goon” in Batman (1989)! They travel around in a camper arguing over the television. In one of the welcome bits of weirdness that color in the edges of this movie, Hedgehog’s favorite show is the bizarre original creation Frog Einstein (precursor to Hypnotoad?). The prosthetic frog in these brief clips is one of the only hints of director Steve Wang’s previous work. He was mostly a make-up artist and creature designer for sci-fi/horror creations. His previous directing gigs were co-directing The Guyver and then solo-ing the sequel, Guyver: Dark Hero. Those were very make-up/creature heavy productions, so they made sense for him. Beyond the fact that those movies also had some martial arts/tokusatsu style action, it is odd he went on to direct this, but he acquitted himself well.

Another oddball character comes along when Malik’s mangled and machine gunned motor vehicle finally starts to die. They need to find a place to hide out and do repairs, and they luckily(?) encounter a local girl, Deliverance, whose parents left her in charge of their motel and garage for the weekend. Deliverance is played by the late Brittany Murphy. If you (like me) were a fan of her sadly all-to-brief career, this is like unlocking a secret bonus level in her filmography. Her aggressively quirky and horny performance as Deliverance falls closer to her unhinged lesbian pyromaniac in Freeway (1996) than her turn as a naive New Yawk girl in Clueless (1995). I could see this character/performance grating on some people, but Murphy’s wide, wild eyes and manic energy completely worked on me. This might also be the most adorable she ever looked in a movie, rocking black hair and a vintage sweater. Deliverance immediately has the hots for Malik. It makes him (and with one particular “chocolate” line, me) uncomfortable, but this puppy-dog affection does help her take it in stride later when her motel gets blown the fuck up. 

The sequence where the mercs raid the motel is a great example of the movie getting a bang out of a few bucks. Having to film a melee and firearms fight in a tiny motel room would usually be a compromise, but the creativity on display turns it into a uniquely fun set piece. Toby bounces off mattresses and walls while firing a ridiculous hand cannon, a rolling chair gets a workout, a goon gets painfully flipped on to an end table. Eventually the fighting spills into the garage, where Malik has been doing his best to hold his own without Toby (including a truly inspired gag with a chainsaw). We get a fun new wrinkle with the mercs bringing stun batons to try and stop Toby (and his creative countermeasures). Gimmicks like that and the variety of environments keep the frequent action scenes from getting repetitive. After Toby once again whups all the asses, Vic grabs a multiple-missile launcher and destroys the motel in a combination of miniatures and seemingly full scale explosions (including one behind Dacascos, Hardison, and Murphy that doesn’t look green screened). Beyond compositing green screens/wire removal I don’t think there is any CGI used in the whole movie.

Toby and Malik escape again and end up meeting the company agents at a kooky Casino, complete with a bad karaoke singer. I thought this was an obvious set up for songwriter Malik to perform, so I was quite surprised when Toby gets up and does a big swinging musical number instead! This is a great example of Dacascos’ dorky charm, the whole thing is cheesy but delightful. Unfortunately he is interrupted by the arrival of another bio-engine powered bad guy the Chinese dispatched to retrieve or destroy Toby. AND the arrival of a bunch of dirt bikes driving through the windows and tearing ass around the casino! More fighting and shooting commences. The one notable bit for me was when Vic pulls out a bullwhip and attacks Malik with it. A cowboy wielding a whip and calling a black man “boy” is pretty loaded, even if I don’t think the character of Vic is actively racist as much as he is a cowboy cosplayer. He may not realize the implication, but when Malik gets the upper hand he makes sure to let Vic know how fucked up it is, as he pistol whips the shit out of him for emphasis. Eventually the good guys win and leave to sell the engine and split the money. Their dialogue lampshades their destructive tendencies as the casino explodes behind them.

Calling this a hidden gem might be overselling it, but I think I can adjust expectations by narrowing it down to “hidden gem of Hong Kong-influenced 90s Western action movies.” It's a bummer the original release was heavily edited and dumped to HBO, as the characters and humor are significantly better than most buddy action-comedies. No one is going to confuse this for a Shane Black script or anything, but it is more fun and funny than the majority of DTV-level fare and better than plenty of major studio buddy flicks with name stars and bigger budgets. The Director's Cut is nearly two hours but it is well-paced with action delivered throughout. I appreciated the touches of weirdness from the script and director Steve Wang.

The action choreography comes from Koichi Sakamoto and Alpha Stunts Production. Sakamoto grew up a fan of martials and tokusatsu shows, and by the time he formed Alpha Stunts they were supplying the majority of 2nd unit footage for VR Troopers and Power Rangers (which he would eventually become a director and producer on). He also worked on Guyver: Dark Hero with Wang, which I assume got him this gig. I didn’t look at his resume until afterwards, the only distinctly Power Rangers-esque action I remember is the side flip that Toby does a couple times (usually out of a window), most of this feels more like hard-hitting Hong Kong fights. 

If you are the kind of person who appreciates mid-to-low budget action and martial arts, check this shit out!