DVD Review - Drive Me Crazy

Click here to learn more about anamorphic widescreen!

Site created 12/15/97.

review added: 6/28/02

Drive Me Crazy
1999 (2000) - 20th Century Fox

review by Brad Pilcher of The Digital Bits

Enhanced for 16x9 TVs

Film Rating: C

Disc Ratings (Video/Audio/Extras): A/B-/A-

Specs and Features

91 mins, PG-13, letterboxed widescreen (1.85:1), 16x9 enhanced, single-sided, single-layered, Amaray keep case packaging, theatrical trailer, TV spots, music videos for Britney Spears' Drive Me Crazy and Jars of Clay's Unforgetful You, film-themed menu screens, scene access (16 chapters), languages: English (DD 5.1 & 2.0), subtitles: English and Spanish, Closed Captioned

"So he's just this really good friend we never knew you had?"

Melissa Joan Hart's first major foray in film is, not surprisingly, at the helm of a teeny-bop romance flick. Drive Me Crazy is the kind of movie that high school girls will drag their high school boyfriends to. It's the kind of flick that is so sugary sweet, it's bad. Just like that cake frosting from a can that was so disgusting when you were a kid... and yet you find yourself uncontrollably drawn to time and time again, only to be reminded once more how much you hate the stuff.

The plot runs something like this. Popular girl likes popular basketball star guy. Rebel boy is dating rebel girl. Things go sour in both relationships, and popular girl strikes a deal with rebel boy to save face by faking a semi-romantic friendship. As fake friendship becomes real friendship and possibly more, requisite stumbling blocks arise and the whole situation goes to Hell. By the end of the movie, all things return to normal and girl and boy kiss. I might feel bad about ruining the ending, but if that isn't predictable enough for you, then you have an education problem.

Granted, the dialogue is sufficiently witty, albeit hollow. The payoffs at the end are relatively worthwhile, although not too much of a climax. The acting redefines bad, however. Everything here is just good enough to be sweet but nowhere near good enough to justify watching. It's just extra-strength saccharine for a weak, overdone plot. The hideous tie-ins with Britney Spears videos don't add anything to the film either.

The video quality is great though, and that stands out as a plus for this disc. The cinematography captures a lot of colors with plenty of different themes throughout, and they all come through quite vibrantly. Grain isn't really present and artifacting is non-existent. Everything is ship shape there. The audio poses a bit of a problem with the dialogue levels. Early on, the dialogue was just too quiet, only to rebound later in the film. The fluctuations just don't need to be there.

The extras don't exactly abound here either, but there is enough to make this disc more palatable. Aside from a few unremarkable TV spots, we get the theatrical trailer and a couple of solid music videos. Britney Spears shows up in Drive Me Crazy and Jars of Clay do that ditty, Unforgetful You. In terms of extras, to quote Porky Pig, "That's all folks."

In the end, we have a bad movie that won't even rank high on the list of teeny flicks. 10 Things I Hate About You blows this away... and that's not saying much. The disc itself is solid, pending that little audio problem, and the extras are respectable. It makes the disc worth a rent... maybe. Other than that, Drive Me Crazy does little more than live up to its name.

Brad Pilcher
bradpilcher@thedigitalbits.com