Nicholas Cage:  Milton
Amber Heard:  Piper
William Fitchner:  The Accountant
Billy Burke:  Jonah King
David Morse:  Webster
Tom Adkins:  Sherriff Cap

Release Date: February 25th, 2011
Studio: Summit Entertainment /
Millennium Films
Genre: Action / Adventure
Rated: R  1 hr 4 mins

CAST:

Drive Angry

February 27, 2011

Reviewer: Rottenbucher

DIRECTOR:

Patrick Lussier

*Comments:

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Guns, violence, muscle cars, Satanic cultists, a warden from Hell, a sexy waitress and even plenty of nudity make the 3D road rage movie Drive Angry one of the stranger flicks to hit theaters in some time.  Director Patrick Lussier (My Bloody Valentine 3D, upcoming Hellraiser reboot) does something with a script he wrote with Todd Farmer (Jason X, My Bloody Valentine 3D).  But what genre this film falls under is probably up to the viewer.

Milton (Nicholas Cage) is killing everyone in sight looking for his granddaughter.  A group of cartoonish cultists led by Jonah King (Billy Burke, Twilight) killed his daughter and plan on sacrificing the baby by the next full moon.  Except Milton has no ride to where said sacrifice is scheduled to take place.  A chance run-in with waitress Piper (Amber Heard, Friday Night Lights, Zombieland) sets Milton up with some new wheels when Piper’s fiancé gets caught cheating and Piper is suddenly without a home.  But hot on their trail is The Accountant (William Fitchner, Prison Break), some sort of bean counter for Hell’s escaped souls. He not only wants Milton back, but has a date set with King.

It’s a weird tale, but it works somehow.  Perhaps the heaps of gunfire, streaks of nudity, gore, violence, roaring classic big block muscle cars and the show stealing Heard make Drive Angry some sort of satisfactory cinematic stew.  The 3D helps with the gore and car chases, but honestly doesn’t add much to the overall enjoyment of the flick.  Nicholas Cage is Nicholas Cage and Fitchner does a great job with the mechanical approach of The Accountant. But Amber Heard really steals the show with not only her long legs and charming face, but the fact that she is one bad waitress. First, she owns a 1969 Dodge Charger. Secondly, not only does she take a beating like a champ, she dishes it out twice as hard.  Burke’s King is exceptionally hard to take seriously.  As far as the main villain goes, he is rather poor and it is The Accountant that really delivers the tension.

Sure, Drive Angry is pretty low on logic but it isn’t running completely on fumes.  It really is unclear exactly what the Godkiller gun is, but it looks mean, makes a loud noise and shouts out bullets that leave a LSD vapor trail. Nor do we know how this cult is going to rule the world by killing the baby, but that seems to be what cults do.  In fact, there really isn’t a point to the film and it pushes into grindhouse goofiness at several spots.  Everyone knows how this one will end but ultimately it’s the ride that is fun.  Heard looks great and does a great job, as does Fitchner.  Genre-star Tom Adkins shows up because he can while Cage uses his marquee name and bleached hair to simply put the pedal to the metal, rubber to the road and pump lead into silly Satanists.

Horror? Action? Thriller? Gun-fu? Who knows. If you don’t like cars too ballsy for the Obama administration, then you won’t like Drive Angry.  Imagine this flick with hybrids?  It would be called Drive Limp-wristed.  Feast your eyes on Amber Heard and leave your brain at the Cineplex entrance.  Drive Angry is dumb fun.