Why So Blu?

Drive Hard (Blu-ray Review)

Former hotshot racecar driver Peter Roberts (Thomas Jane, The Punisher) traded the winner’s circle for safety, stability, a pile of debts and a 9 to 5 job as a beginners’ driving instructor. But his life shifts into overdrive when mysterious out-of-towner Simon Keller (John Cusack, Numbers Station) shows up for a driving lesson and hijacks Peter to be his getaway driver in a $9 million heist. Now these unlikely fugitives are on a white knuckle race to stay one step ahead of the mobsters who want their money back and the corrupt cops who will kill anyone who gets in their way. Peter and Simon just might have half a chance, if they can stick to the plan, drive faster than the bullets being fired at them…and don’t kill each other first. 

Film 

There are those times when you have a zinger of a title and can spend your free time making tag lines up like: Alex Cross – you don’t cross Alex Cross, etc. Well, Drive Hard is no different and I think Thomas Jane and John Cusack certainly get it. I’m sure they said to themselves – money and a trip Australia? Let’s do it! In any event Drive Hard is the story of former race car driver Peter Roberts (Thomas Jane) who has given up the fame, fortune, and luxury that has come with being one of the world’s best race car drivers in order to focus living with his wife and daughter in Australia. He, of course, is not rich enough (probably squandered his wealth) to just sit about at the house doing nothing. By day he is a driving school instructor for the local drivers education chapter. On one of those fateful days Mr. Roberts gets a new client behind the wheel – that of the mysterious Simon Keller (John Cusack).

Keller needs the perfect getaway driver for a heist that he is set on committing and due to Roberts’ background in racing cars he’s more than the perfect mark for the job. Hijinks ensue when Keller forgets to tell Roberts that he is actually going to rob a bank of 9 million dollars. Now they’ve got police on their tail and mobsters who use that bank to funnel their illegal gains in hot pursuit. This helps Roberts’ case much since the media and law enforcement think that he’s in on the caper with Keller. Oh, and did I emanation that they drive a sweet Mustang, with the steering wheel on the wrong side? You gotta love imports!

So basically Drive Hard is your standard bank robbery/car chase caper of a film, with two very likable leads just shooting the shit, cracking jokes, and getting into some seriously clichéd trouble. Does it matter? No. Is it fun? Yes! The film is pedestrian in many levels but what ultimately separates it from other films in the genre (or sub genre) is that the film is very self-aware and Jane and Cusack are in on the joke. Sure, they may be phoning it in but they light it up in every scene that they are in together. I laughed out loud a few times, too.

Now when Jane and Cusack are not together the film tends to suffer a bit but that’s just due to how things are in films like this. We know that nothing will happen to our two leads and that their mundane lives will be back to normal by the end. Also, the mobsters and corporate bank involved in the heist will be brought to justice, and such. Yes, the film is a cliché through and through. I should also mention that even though there’s a sweet looking mustang in the film the way the chase scenes are shot don’t do the high performance vehicle justice. Even the cinematography, which should showcase Australia, fails in doing so. It comes off like a television production at times. I’m aware that this is a low budget feature but I’m just pointing it out for honesty’s sake.

Anyways, if you want to watch this disposable caper of a film then by all means do so. I recommend Thomas Jane and John Cusack doing their thing thing and nothing else, with regards to Drive Hard. Come on, the movie is called DRIVE HARD! The joke writes itself.

 

Video 

Encoding: AVC MPEG-4

Resolution: 1080p

Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1

Clarity/Detail: Drive Hard is clear and has lots of detail but the problem lies that the image was tweaked a considerable amount during some of the scenes. I thought I was watching CSI Miami for a minute there. There are several scenes that run a bit too hot for my taste.

Depth: Now just because the film runs hot does not mean it has no depth. You can dive right into this high definition transfer as if you were an Olympic swimmer, because outside off of a few hiccups, it still looks decent.

Black Levels: Black levels are normal and I didn’t notice any instances of crush.

Color Reproduction: Again, we may be near the coastline and beach, but there’s no reason to go crazy with the golds and yellows. Granted, they look great, as does the overall color palette, but it could have been scaled back just a bit. I did not notice any scenes of banding or pixilation.

Flesh Tones: Flesh tones look great and everyone looks healthy.

Noise/Artifacts: I did not notice any intrusive artifacts or noise. Some scenes that required a special effect or green screen did have that dated noisy look, though, but I bet it was intentional budget wise.

 

Audio 

Audio Format(s): English DTS-HD MA 5.1

Subtitles: English SDH

Dynamics: This lossless soundtrack is very aggressive and I loved it! You can hear the mustang engine roar, without it overpowering everything else that is happening onscreen. This is a near-reference audio track.

Low Frequency Extension: The subwoofer channel gets into it a bit as it enhances the roar with a low-end rumble. Gunshots and explosions also get a bit of the LFE backing them up when needed.

Surround Sound Presentation: The surround channels do their part to compliment things as the sound field pulls off some sweet 360 degree sweeping effects when the car spins around. There’s that cool “swooshing” sound that fill the rear channels that make seem that the mustang is right in your living room. I wish!

Dialogue Reproduction: Dialogue is cheesy but sounds great coming through the center channel without any problems.

 

Extras  

Not a thing.

 

Summary  

 Drive Hard is a bad film, there’s no doubt about it, but it KNOWS that it’s a bad film, and so do our stars. The money and trip to Australia was probably the incentive to make it and I’m glad that they did. Jane and Cusack have great chemistry together and their scenes are great! The Blu-ray has above average technical specifications, with absolutely ZERO special features. That knocks down the overall score. If you want a fun and silly ride then scoop up Drive Hard and get ready to… DRIVE HARD! 

 

 

Order Drive Hard on Blu-ray!