Director: Brian Trenchard-Smith
MPAA Rating: NR
Purchase: Amazon
After giving the cover of Drive Hard a cursory glance, I thought, “Oh boy, this one will be a doozy.” A generic floating-head cover featuring Thomas Jane and John Cusack in a generic-looking action film. Then I read that the director was none other than Ozploitation godfather Brian Trenchard-Smith, the man behind such B-movie greats as Dead-end Drive-In, Turkey Shoot and Stunt Rock. While Drive Hard is certainly an entertaining B-movie, there’s nothing about this movie that makes it stand out other than how comically bad it is.
Thomas Jane plays Peter, an ex-racer living in Australia and working as a drivers ed coach. One day, he meets up with a new student, who turns out to be John Cusack, another American who supposedly just moved to the country. Peter quickly discovers this man is not who he initially claims to be after the pair drive to a bank, Simon (Cusack) robs it and then he forces Peter to become a getaway driver.
The premise in and of itself is an interesting one, but that’s where any interest in this film ends. After the two men begin their cross-country getaway, what proceeds is a dull road trip filled with dozens of tossed burner phones and a fair amount of Cusack vapin’ on his e-cig. The handful of shootouts are underwhelming and poorly choreographed, and the car chases – while done using practical effects – are slow and uneventful. There’s only one standout scene that occurs, however, but it has little to do with the actual plot of the film.
And yet there’s a certain quality about Drive Hard that makes it both odd and indescribably fascinating. The poorly developed script lends itself to two of the strangest performances I think I’ve ever seen featuring Jane and Cusack. Thomas Jane plays a greasy-haired dolt, who, in one moment, is woefully ignorant about everything happening to him and in the next is a crazed dude-bro overflowing with machismo. His character, like most everyone in this movie, has no consistent personality traits and goes from hot to cold in an instant.
Cusack is even more erratic in a role that seems like it could only have been written for Nicolas Cage. In addition to vapin’ on his e-cig, Cusack’s Simon is a smooth-talking thief who may be a criminal but is secretly is a decent guy deep down.
If it weren’t for the strange directing choices and ridiculously bad dialogue, Drive Hard would be nothing more than a forgettable straight-to-DVD action flick, but Trenchard-Smith’s exploitation roots poke up through the surface and make this an enjoyable, yet silly, ride.
Like the content within the film itself, there’s not much happening with the Blu-ray release of this movie. This is a DVD/Blu-ray combo, which is cool, but it would have been nice to get at least some bonus features or a digital copy. The transfer and picture quality look decent, but given the low-budget quality of the movie, it’s nothing awe inspiring.
Drive Hard is a brash pile of stupid fun that never really fully embraces its exploitative nature. Had it been more ridiculous and over the top, this one could have cult hit written all over it, but alas this high octane thrill-ride is rocking an automatic when it was to be popping the clutch and cranking the gears. No really, all the cars in the movie are automatics.
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