Night Driver

Directed by: Ara Paiaya

Starring: Ara Paiaya,

Synopsis:

An assassin called “Night” is double-crossed by his boss and left for dead. Rescued by a secret organisation, Night is trained in martial arts before being teamed up with a computerised super-car called BUDDY. Together they fight crime, ultimately taking on a gang of car-thieves...

Night Driver Teaser Trailer from Ara Paiaya on Vimeo.

Review:As I’ve already reviewed “Death List”, reviewing Night Driver feels a little redundant, since they are almost the same film. The big difference between the two are the scenes with BUDDY, a very faithful replica of KITT from the original Knight Rider tv series.

So what we have here is a glimpse at how awesome Knight Rider might have been if it had been melded with Martial Law – a hot car and some excellent action scenes. Even when the fx are bargain basement, such as the severed foot with it’s gangrenous bones jutting out at the beginning, Ara makes up with it with some good choreography and editing. You’re still left with a Halloween foot prop, but the scene works.

The BUDDY scenes actually add a lot, with the car being given a lot of character. He’s certainly not the effete snob that KITT was – BUDDY is more gung-ho and in tune with his partner’s near-vigilante attitude. There is a little silliness though, when one of the car thieves tries to jack BUDDY – with “comedic results”. Other attempts at humour work a lot better – there’s a great “Naked Gun” gag as Night attempts to get info from a snitch, and the whole Drunken Master-style training sequence works very well (and gives a good idea of how damn fit Ara is).

The highlight of the film remains the excellent confrontation at the car-thieves’ garage, where Ara utilises the whole environment to great effect, producing a cool throw-back to the sort of stunt-filled fight scenes we used to see in Hong Kong movies.

Verdict

Night Driver works a bit better than Death List because of the BUDDY scenes, which add an extra bit of pizzazz to the proceedings. Ara has the fight and stunt-work all figured out, he just needs a decent script and an editor to look after the non-fight scenes. Aspiring film-makers should definitely take note of what can be achieved though.

6.5 out of 10 (MikeOutWest)

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