"Drive"

Ah, the cheesy action flick. With martial arts! Now you're talking real Late Nite Landfill goodness/badness! :)

I have to admit, I've actually wanted to see this one for quite some time. It goes back to the late '90s, when, inspired by screenwriter William C. Martell I got this idea in my head that I could churn out direct-to-video (DTV) screenplays as well as anyone (my produced screenplays to date: zero!)

When renting another DTV movie, I noticed the trailer for this one and thought, "this might be fun." It seems to have all the elements: providing the action is a guy who looks like a nice guy but can kick karate butt even though speaking seems to be a problem; joining him in the adventure are a wise-cracking African-American sidekick as well as a cute/ditzy girl to provide comic relief.

Sounds like a template for the “Rush Hour” flicks - the first of which it predates by a year.

Dacascos has made a career of such DTV actioners but did show up as the lead in the rather unique sci-fi period piece, 2001's “Brotherhood of the Wolf” from France.

That bright light may be an anomoly: he's currently appearing on Blockbuster Video shelves as the title character in the DTV “I Am Omega,” a shameless rip-off of the classic Richard Matheson story that manages to pilfer the titles of ALL the previous movie versions, taking the “I Am” from the current Will Smith smash, the “Omega” from Charlton Heston’s ‘80s starrer, and even using the wording “The Last Man on Earth” (title of the original '60s Vincent Price version) in both the trailer and as part of the descriptive copy on the front cover beneath the title!

Mark's co-stars do seem engaging in this trailer (or maybe I'm just delirious): Kadeem Hardison looks like he makes an entertaining turn here as the sidekick, and you may (or may not) recognize the girl - she's Brittany Murphy back in her much-cuter (IMO) “Clueless” days - when she WASN'T an emaciated, bleached blonde.

Check out the trailer here (WARNING: the following contains brief, graphic language):



Or watch the entire movie on WABC-TV Channel 7 (NYC) on Sunday, Feburary 10th at 11:35... if you dare!