Drive (1997) Review
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
the spoilers are very vague and not related to the plot.
this is a heads up to martial arts movie fans who can't stand sped up fighting.
it's too bad that so much of the thoughtful 'drive' fight choreography was undercranked/sped up or had "hidden" jump cuts. it was cut offline on an avid, so it's very easy to pick an choose frames.
after seeing this movie, i can't actually tell how talented donnie osmond--i mean dacascos--actually is. about 60% of the final fight appears sped up or altered and about half of the bar fight and hotel fight are similarly falsified.
martial arts movies are different from other action movies in that most of the best examples are not technical displays of cinematographic bravura, but showcases in which the martial artist and choreographer can show their stuff, and oftentimes, years of training.
so something like 'drive'-- a movie loaded with sped up shots and jump cuts-- deflates the most important element of a martial arts movie and is an automatic fail for me, especially with a terrible plot like this one has, weak villains and 60+ minutes of situation comedy that yields about 6 or 7 laughs.