Customer Reviews

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Movie/Drive Me Crazy

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have been wanting "Drive Me Crazy" since I destroyed my VHS of it, four years ago. So the night I go to look up "Buffy" I find it attached. It's awesome. I really enjoy both movies; I know very little about resolution quality but it seems to be good. The deliver was very fast. 5 days. Considering I live in Korea, that's impressive, normally it takes two weeks, minimum.

These movies make me happy! The way the 90s were and how amazing the heart is! These high school comedies rock and anyone would be lucky to catch either one! The Donnas appear in Drive Me Crazy, before they were called The Donnas!

I always loved the Buffy movie and have a taped VHS(yeah,I know) As for "Drives me crazy" I knew of it ,but never watched...glad I did,it was cute but not in the sugercoated fake cute and of course the steamy Adrian,How could I not buy it...

Great things sometimes emerge from humble origins. Big case in point, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, the 1992 feature film which spawned an all-time great television series. This teen horror comedy is pretty much universally regarded as shameful viewing, even with Joss Whedon having written the thing. But note that Whedon had intended the film to be much darker until the higher muckamucks decided to go with a much lighter tone. This proved to be a bonehead move and it wouldn't be the last time the suits would screw with Whedon. Still, here and there, you can hear bits of Joss's trademark catchy teen dialogue.

I have to try to not think about the television series, have to gauge this movie on its own merits. Because when this movie came out in 1992 I saw it and I liked it. The blonde airhead cheerleader become assskicking vampire slayer may be old hat nowadays, but back in the day this was an inspired twist. I thought Kristy Swanson was great and that her Buffy demonstrated growth as a character. Luke Perry as Pike garners the "damsel in distress" part and he handles it fine. I remember he had me thinking that soul patches were cool.

Buffy, sheltered in sunny Southern Cali, whiles away her teenaged life by shopping and hanging out with her oblivious cheerleader girlfriends. But then her master plan to "graduate from high school, go to Europe, marry Christian Slater, and die" is put on hold when the undead begin clawing their way out of their graves. Buffy learns then of her true calling, that she's next in line in a long progression of girls who become Slayers, the Chosen Ones of their generation designated to fight supernatural evil. Buffy takes a bit of convincing, because a) she is sorta vacuous and b) the one conducting the orientation happens to be this old, shady-looking guy gigged out in gothic ensemble. Plus, he totally comes off like a stalker. As Buffy's mentor, Merrick, Donald Sutherland spends copious screen time looking like he's wondering just what the hell he's doing in this movie.

So Sutherland looks like he's slumming. Rutger Hauer, at least, puts in some effort as the master vampire Lothos. Paul Reubens (a.k.a Pee Wee Herman) is a gem and he effortlessly steals his scenes. And his hilarious extended death scene? Classic.

It's too bad that Whedon's storytelling skills are curtailed here. As it is, the film quickly descends into over-the-top vapidness - the senior dance climax reaches truly absurd lows - and pathos gets kicked to the curb. But I thought Kristy Swanson was tremendous, and she does lend depth to Buffy. You do gravitate to her as she goes from vapid to vulnerable. And, throughout, she's great at dispensing those valley girl-type one-liners. And she looks great as a cheerleader and as a fated smiter of the undead. The action sequences aren't as kinetic or well-choreographed as what we'll get in the television show. But Swanson demonstrates good physicality, and remember this was before all the vampires and unholy creatures suddenly knew martial arts.

The DVD bonus stuff includes a 4-minute featurette, the theatrical trailer, and two television spots. Meh.

This DVD set pairs up BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER with the 1999 teen romantic comedy DRIVE ME CRAZY. This movie, adapted from Todd Strasser's novel, initially had the working title HOW I CREATED MY PERFECT PROM DATE, which is lengthier but also more interesting, but that was discarded because the suits - clear thinkers, all - decided that naming it after a Britney Spears song would sell it better to the audience.

I sort of liked DRIVE ME CRAZY but its plot rips off a better movie, CAN'T BUY ME LOVE. The story concerns Melissa Joan Hart and Adrian Grenier who play high school students perched on different places in the social food chain. Their characters are next-door neighbors and they used to be childhood friends before being cool and popular and all that junk became more important. But then they get together for a scam, pretending to be a couple to make the folks they're actually interested in interested in them (she wants the basketball jock; he wants to get back with the brooding activist ex-girlfriend). Cue the makeover sequence. Cue Grenier crossing over into the popular clique. Cue his turning his back on his loser friends. Cue the rest of the predictable story.

Adrian Grenier is okay, kind of bland, more of a disaffected youth than a geek. But it's Melissa Joan Hart who sells the movie. Hart isn't your typical beautiful girl, and that makes her interesting. The character she plays, even from the start, isn't snooty or horrible to the nerd populace. She actually seems pretty grounded even when engaged in high school politics. I said I liked this movie, and I do. But it's nothing that I haven't seen before even though, okay, the script has more smarts to it than the average empty-headed teen comedy romance and there's that touching scene in which Hart and Grenier talk about the loss of a parent. But, more tellingly, I can't help but compare it to CAN'T BUY ME LOVE, and Melissa Joan Hart to Amanda Peterson. Peterson's performance in CAN'T BUY ME LOVE made her one of the most achingly sympathetic "popular mean girls" ever on cinema. Hart's arsenal of perk and wholesomeness can't compete with that.

I'm glad, though, that Designated Dave got a date to the big dance.

The DVD bonus stuff includes: the theatrical trailer and four television spots, and two music videos: Britney Spears's "Drive Me Crazy" and Jars of Clay's "Unforgetful You." Again, meh.

Overall, 3 stars out of 5 for this DVD set. Maybe 3.5? It's somewhere in that neighborhood.