Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Movies

Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Best / Worst of the Decade

Wide Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Limited Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Adrenaline Drive

EMAILPRINTShooting Gallery

Adrenaline Drive reviews
69
9.0 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 24 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 2 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >

Movie Info

Genre(s): Comedy

Written by: Shinobu Yaguchi

Directed by: Shinobu Yaguchi

Release Date:
Theatrical: May 5, 2000
DVD: June 26, 2001

Running Time: 111 minutes, Color

Origin: Japan

Language(s): Japanese (with English subtitles)

Summary

RATING: Not rated

Starring Masanobu Ando, Hikari Ishida, Kirina Mano, and Kazue Matsugae

Suzuki (Ando), a meek and indecisive car rental clerk, gets into a life changing car accident with a Japanese gangster. While Suzuki awaits his retribution in the mob's headquarters, comedic fate steps in with an explosion that rips through the building. Nurse Shizuko (Ishida), Suzuki's female counterpart, rescues him from the blast and the two find love running off with the mob's money, while being chased by the only surviving gangster. (Shooting Gallery)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

91

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

A clever, charming, laugh-out-loud-funny road comedy that works in almost every scene.

Read Full Review >
90

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

Delightful, delicious, de-lovely.

Read Full Review >
83

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Clever, laid-back.

Read Full Review >
80

Washington Post Desson Thomson

A pleasure because of zany developments like this, and a healthy dose of amusing characters.

Read Full Review >
80

Film.com Sean Means

A kicky little comedy that shows Quentin Tarantino's influence is alive and well in Japan.

Read Full Review >
80

The New York Times A.O. Scott

Mr. Yaguchi's film is so brazenly cheerful and charmingly engineered that even the sourballs in the cast are sucked in.

Read Full Review >
80

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

A rip-roaring romantic comedy that's as funny as it is light on its feet.

Read Full Review >
80

LA Weekly Ron Stringer

Not to mention the good-when-moody, best-when-raucous art-band soundtrack!

Read Full Review >
75

San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann

A goofy genre-buster that takes its amateur criminals as seriously as ``Pulp Fiction'' or ``Run Lola Run'' did theirs.

Read Full Review >
75

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

There's plenty to like about Adrenaline Drive, including the appealing, sympathetic performances of its two young stars and the tongue-in-cheek humor that pervades the film.

75

Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan

It's not an art film. The movie is as mainstream as it gets -- which is just fine; the picture is both great fun and gently satirical.

75

San Francisco Examiner G. Allen Johnson

This overall good feeling helps smooth over the sometimes shocking lapses in logic.

Read Full Review >
75

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Its amiable acting and feisty visual humor make it a must for fans of Japanese film.

Read Full Review >
75

Philadelphia Inquirer Desmond Ryan

A high-energy chase, but in this spirited action comedy Yaguchi still finds time to allow the romance between lovers on the run to blossom at its own pace.

70

Film.com Moira McDonald

A perfectly enjoyable and occasionally charming ride.

Read Full Review >
70

Newsweek Michael Rush

Brims with youthful exhuberance, it just needs to cut to the quick a little quicker.

Read Full Review >
67

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Feels for all the world like a Meg Ryan/Billy Crystal heist comedy transposed to the Far East.

Read Full Review >
63

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

A witty and quietly charming road comedy.

63

Chicago Tribune John Petrakis

It has terrific moments, but whenever it starts to cruise along nicely, it hits a comedic pothole that forces it to sputter on down the road.

60

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

As disposable fun, this is every bit as enjoyable and as forgettable as most Hollywood equivalents.

Read Full Review >
60

TV Guide Ken Fox

Supremely silly on the surface but full of sophisticated sight gags and deadpan humor.

Read Full Review >
50

Boston Globe Jay Carr

A climactic explosion is too obviously a rigged gunpowder charge, and it becomes a metaphor for the film's mistake of diminishing the frantic motion that kept things fizzy and fun.

50

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Feels like any number of forgettable American teen comedies in which the nerd gets the girl and/or the money.

Read Full Review >
40

Village Voice Amy Taubin

Little more than a cartoon, and not a funny one at that.

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 9.0 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Chad S. gave it an 8:
"Adrenaline Drive" plays like evidence for Michael Moore's assertion in "Bowling for Columbine" that Japan's citizens don't carry guns, not even its Yakuza. This cute movie teeters on the edge of cute overkill, but the perpetually stoic Suzuki (Masanobu Ando) grounds the Tarrantino dreamscape with an incredulous perspective that placates the viewer's notion to roll their eyes at the fantastical. Suzuki does the job for us. "Adrenaline Drive" is a comedy without hyphenates. In an American film, if gangsters want their money back, they'll be packin' something a little more harsher than rocks in socks. A fun film.

Rony O. gave it a 10:
Very cool and awesome.

Popular on CBS sites: College Signing Day | Olympics | Lost | iPhone | Cell Phones | Video Game Reviews | Free Music

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2010 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy (UPDATED) | Terms of Use