Drive Angry Is What the Poster Says
The action genre is a bit of a wild card. Sometimes action films are terribly derivative. Sometimes they are quite original. Sometimes they’re smart (or smart enough to get by). Sometimes they’re completely idiotic. Some action films gleefully revel in the genre’s over-the-top, brainless violence and nudity.
You can often tell what you’re going to get with an action film’s trailer, however that last one can be tricky to gauge. The trailer can make it look like one of those movies that are bad, but don’t know how bad it is. The Grindhouse films by Tarantino and Rodriguez (Death Proof, Planet Terror, Machete) succeeded at selling exactly what they were: gratuitous, mindless thrills for those who love movies smart enough to revel in that stuff while winking at the audience the whole time. Crank and Crank: High Voltage, while not grindhouse fare, are not too dissimilar from them.
It may not be clear in the trailers, but Drive Angry is the latest of these action romps, with a revenge plot involving characters who are literally from Hell.
Nicolas Cage plays John Milton, who is on the hunt for the man who killed his daughter and stole his grandchild. Billy Burke, hiding here from the Twilight fans who know him as Charlie, plays the heinous man in question, Jonah King. Jonah doesn’t aim to keep the baby to himself; he wants to offer her as a sacrifice for Satan in exchange for immortality and power. The catch is Milton is actually dead and escaped Hell to have his revenge, however Satan sent a man known as The Accountant (a fantastic performance by William Fichtner) to get him back. So, Milton must drive like hell to achieve his goal else he be caught himself.
Relative newcomer Amber Heard plays a tough-talking Southern babe whom Milton saves and, consequently, decides to return the favor, which gives her life more meaning than serving grits and eluding the slimeball antics of greasy spoon pigs. Heard, best-known by most as the hot neighbor in Zombieland, is no bimbo meant for the sole purpose of giving men something to ogle. She does bring some eye-candy to the table, but never gratuitously (that’s left to virtually all the other women in the film). Amber is hot, but she’ll knock you on your ass if you try anything. And that attitude is enough to put her above the Megan Foxes of the world. I look forward to seeing what she has to offer with Johnny Depp in The Rum Diary later this year.
If Drive Angry sounds ridiculous on paper, it kind of is. But you might be having too much fun to care – and that’s the film’s objective. It isn’t concerned with the how’s of its situations, just that they are. This is a film where a man engages in a shoot-out while fucking a waitress in a hotel room a lá 2007’s Shoot ‘Em Up. Cars explode in the background as characters walk slowly toward the camera. Bodies fly about as much as the bullets. If that sounds like a good time then you’re in for a treat. If not, then this isn’t your kind of movie.
The cast really helps sell the fun. Nicolas Cage seems to have found a new home in movies like Drive Angry, Kick-Ass, and Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. These are films where he can be just this side of mad, because the world around him is insane. Cage successfully avoids another laughably bad performance here and adds yet another bad-ass to his resume of characters.
The highlight of the film, though, is William Fichtner. As an agent from Hell, Fichtner is casual, yet intimidating. You don’t know when he’ll let loose or what he’s capable of when he does, but you do know those unfortunate enough to be in his way had better be nice. It’s great to finally see Fichtner out from the sidelines and into the spotlight.
Drive Angry is in 3D – but that’s no reason to steer clear! This isn’t one of those conversion rip-offs we saw nearly every week last year. This, the first live action 3D offering of the new year (to my knowledge), was conceived and filmed in 3D. Is it Avatar-spectacular? Of course not – Drive Angry doesn’t pretend to be. But the technology does work well with the film’s crazy blazing-guns effects and add to the fun. If you enjoy these kinds of violent revenge flicks, I encourage you to pay to see it as it was intended: with those black frames on.
Drive Angry is a movie that is occasionally over-the-top. It knows this and loves it. It’s a film that revels in violent, naked insanity. It’s not as crazy as the Grindhouse or Crank films, nor as bad-ass as Desperado. And you may be slightly disappointed by where everything is heading. But, as they say, it is the journey – not the destination – that matters most. Drive Angry isn’t the biggest thrill you’re likely to get at the theater this year… but it sure is a fun way to kick things off.
6/10
Should you see it? Buy tickets
Drive Angry is now in theaters in 3D.