Night Drive

AJ Bowen - not sure if I can call him King of the Weird, but he sure has done a lot of strange movies. Now strange does not have to be a bad or a good thing particularly. And you may feel like some of his efforts are a miss and some (more) are actually hits. I don't know if you would call this a hit - but it's quite interesting to say the least.

And while we may expect a couple of things to happen here ... there is a twist that you can not see coming. Unless you have read some spoilers elsewhere of course. Don't do that though - you'll ruin the fun you could have. The ending is either intriguing too or a bit of dissapointment I guess. I liked it.

It started off interesting, albeit slow, and the more interesting it got, the more the plot holes began to surface, until finally it entered ridiculous territory, and I'm not talking about the big reveal - that was a nice touch, but - for example, there was zero need for any of the digging and burying if the (no spoilers) was to be used. This film even at a mere 79 min runtime was too long, too slow and too dragged out for the minimal content and basic narrative it had. It would've been better as a short film. It was however well shot and well acted, specifically newb actress Sophie Dalah, who's performance was the most convincing of them all.

This is a well-paced low-budget film about a driver who has a crazy night. There are movies like this that are completely serious, and the thing that saves Night Drive from total lameness is its humor.

The night before watching this, I watched Hitchcock's "The 39 Steps". In both films, a guy meets a dangerous woman who plunges him into a series of adventures. One reason that film is great is the spirit of its hero. He's impulsive, dangerous, highly competent, and has a series of narrow escapes against more powerful foes.

Night Drive's protagonist just goes along weakly with whatever's happening. Every decision he makes is either bad or obvious, if not both. He doesn't even do any good driving. This dude is playing on easy level, and at the end you're like, that's it?

There's also a big twist into another kind of movie, and all it does is make the audience say, "Wow, I didn't see that coming." Beyond that, hardly anything is done with the idea, and I think if this had been a straight crime thriller, the writer would have had to come up with a better story.

I would say go by pretty much what other positive reviewers have said here. You have a very clever little story which creates a very palpable sense of Mystery. You truly wonder what the hell is going on, along with our befuddled protagonist.

If the writing were not as sharp, I don't know if the story would have been nearly as effective. At first, you might think that the 'suitcase' is just a McGuffin (as in the outstanding and unusual 1955 Noir Classic 'KISS ME DEADLY' by Robert Aldrich - Isn't that just THE greatest title!) But, not giving anything away, by the end you actually do know what is going on.

The interplay between the characters is really what makes this movie shine. They both are quite good. At first, it kind of has a slightly similar tone to the also excellent Scorsese film 'AFTER HOURS', but far simpler and much more stripped down without all the Surreal characters and situations.

The idea of the story I feel is quite clever, and the way it is told is actually very straightforward and simple. But, when you get to the end, it has a nice punch. I'm NOT going to give away a certain element that is in this film because I see how it is listed Genre-wise and I don't want to spoil it. But, I will say that in all my profound cleverness I did guess somewhat along the lines of what was happening : )

So, if you like a nice, short, clever, sometimes humorous, fast paced Crime/Thriller, but with a very Mysterious twist, most definitely give this one a go!

Cool little story. Almost like a stand alone episode of the Twighlight Zone. Good acting atmosphere. Worth a watch! :-)