The DVD

Video:
New Jersey Drive is presented in an anamorphic 1.85:1 transfer that varies in quality from time to time. There are moments in the film when this transfer looks great. Colors are spot-on, blacks are deep and true, and detail is wonderful. There are other times during the film, however, that this transfer looks fairly inadequate. There is a bit of edge enhancement throughout, but more troubling are the scratches and dirt that occasionally appear. In darker scenes, detail sometimes becomes problematic and a fair amount of grain becomes visible. The layer change is, unfortunately, also noticeable about three-quarters of the way through the film. On the whole, though, this visual presentation certainly has more good qualities than bad, and is probably the best the film has ever looked.

Sound:
The audio on this disc is presented in a Dolby Digital 5.1 format that fails to take full advantage of its surround capabilities. With a hip-hop intensive soundtrack that serves as the cornerstone for much of the film, this track is sorely lacking in a powerful LFE output. While the low end does become apparent at times, it should definitely have been made a priority for a film of this nature. For a film with several car chases and high-speed pursuits, the surround channels are surprisingly quiet as well. The few instances when they do come alive provide some nice support to the soundtrack and a couple well-timed surround effects. Dialogue is mostly clear and crisp throughout, but there are times when it becomes overwhelmed by the soundtrack, which resides predominantly in the front channels. The narration of the film is clearly a bit quieter than the rest of the film's dialogue. Nevertheless, this track gets the job done, but fails to make any real impression.

Extras:
The only extra features included on this disc are approximately 25 minutes of deleted scenes and a theatrical trailer. The excised scenes are in pretty beat up and certainly are not of the same quality as the rest of the film. Most are wholly new scenes (not extensions), and while they are an interesting item to have on this disc, it would have been nice to have the option of watching each one individually rather than as one continuous play.

Final Thoughts:
This is actually the second time that New Jersey Drive has made it to DVD, and while I have not seen the original disc, I'd wager to say that this one is an improvement, in every way, over that bare-bones release. The audio-visual presentations are adequate, and the inclusion of nearly a half-hour of deleted scenes makes this a fine disc. The film itself, however, is just not quite good enough to warrant anything more than a rental.