Drive: Special Edition – 88 Films (4k UHD)

Theatrical Release Date: USA, 1997
Director: Steve Wang
Writer: Scott Phillips
Cast: Mark Dacascos, Kadeem Hardison, John Pyper-Ferguson, Brittany Murphy, Tracey Walter, James Shigeta, Masaya Katô

Release Date: September 13th, 2022
Approximate Running Time: 117 Minutes 50 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Widescreen / 2160 Progressive / HEVC / H.265 / Dolby Vision HDR10
Rating: NR
Sound: Dolby Atmos English, DTS-HD 5.1 English, DTS-HD Stereo English
Subtitles: English SDH, English
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: $44.95

"When special agent Toby Wong (Dacascos) is fitted with an advanced bio device giving him super-human powers he fears that he and the new technology will be exploited for ill gain when the Chinese government takes back control of Hong Kong. Fleeing to San Francisco he plans to sell the device to a company in Los Angeles but when he teams up with down on his luck singer Malik (Hardison) he finds himself being pursued by ruthless assassin Madison and his band of mercenaries." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 5/5 (Extended Director’s Cut), 4.5/5 (Theatrical Cut)

Here’s the information provided about the director's cut transfer, "from a brand new 4K scan of the original camera negative."

Drive comes on a 100 GB triple layer 4K UHD

Disc Size: 90.7 GB

Feature: 74.6 GB (Director's Cut), 12.2 GB (Original Cut)

As good as MVD Entertainment’s 2021 Blu-ray looks, this new transfer from 88 Films improves upon that release transfer. Areas of notable improvements include image clarity and black levels. Also, there are no issues with compression; the grain looks healthy, and the image retains an organic look.

Included as an extra for this release is the original cut of Drive, and it is given a new transfer that is vastly superior to the transfer that was used for MVD Entertainment’s 2021 Blu-ray.

Audio: 4.5/5 (Dolby Atmos English)

This release comes with three audio options, a Dolby Atmos mix in English; a DTS-HD 5.1 mix in English; and a DTS-HD stereo mix in English. For this review, I listened to the Dolby Atmos mix. It sounds great for a new remix track. The action sequence sounds robust and, range-wise, this audio mix does a fantastic job of maximizing the sound spectrum. Included with this release are removable English SDH and English subtitles for the Cantonese dialog.

Extras:

Extras for this release include reversible cover art, a slipcase, a poster, a theatrical trailer (1 minutes 42 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), six deleted scenes (8 minutes 1 second, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an archival making of documentary titled The Force Behind The Storm (47 minutes 43 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), archival interviews with actors Mark Dacascos and Kadeem Hardison, director Steve Wang, second unit director Wyatt Weed, and stunt coordinator Koichi Sakamoto (24 minutes 41 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an audio commentary with Steve Wang, Koichi Sakamoto, Mark Dacascos and Kadeem Hardison, an interview with actor Jason Tobin titled Highway to Nowhere (20 minutes 1 second, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), and Drive the original cut in 2K HD (99 minutes 48 seconds, 2.35:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC, Dolby Digital stereo English with removable English SDH subtitles and a second removable English subtitle track for Cantonese dialog).

Summary:

Honestly, going into the Drive, I was not sure what to expect. Though the premise has all the elements one would expect from an action film being made in the 1990’s, the result was actually a film that far exceeded expectations by maximizing the sum of its parts.

Also, though there have been American-made martial arts films, the best martial arts films made in America feature Hong Kong action stars making their English-language film debut. With the bulk of the American-made martial arts films lacking the dynamic action set pieces that have become synonymous with Hong Kong martial arts films.

There is no denying that the action set pieces are the main focal point of Drive. Its heart and soul are its two leads; Mark Dacascos (Crying Freeman) in the role of Toby Wong, a special agent from Hong Kong who is on the run from a hit squad, and Kadeem Hardison (Def by Temptation) in the role of Malik Brody, a reluctant hostage who becomes Toby's righthand man. Their onscreen chemistry is off the charts.

From a production standpoint, Drive does a great job exploiting its absurd premise, and the narrative does a good job balancing action set pieces and humorous interactions with its two leads. Ultimately, Drive is a wall-to-wall action extravaganza that martial arts fans should thoroughly enjoy.

Drive makes its way to 4K UHD via an excellent release from 88 Films that comes with a solid audio/video presentation, two versions of the film, and a wealth of informative extras, highly recommended.

Note about the 4K screenshots: It is not possible to make Dolby Vision or HDR10 screenshots that faithfully match the experience of watching a film in motion on a TV. Instead of not having any screenshots, all of the 4K screenshots are m2ts taken with a VLC player and lossless PNGs.

                                                        Original Cut screenshots.

Written by Michael Den Boer