Drive Angry

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Amber Heard, William Fichtner, Billy Burke, David Morse
Directed by: Patrick Lussier
Rating: R
Genre: Action
2011

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A father (Nicolas Cage) hunts down the man who murdered his daughter and kidnapped his granddaughter.

Review:

Tim: I hated Drive Angry. It's a grindhouse movie, purposely crafted to be as controversial and unexpected as possible. This is just not a movie for me. It's stupid, over-the-top, gruesome, and all this makes the movie unenjoyable and not a fun experience. I see what they were trying to do here, but it simply doesn't work.

The premise of the film is pretty crazy. Nicolas Cage breaks out of Hell (seriously) and returns to Earth to hunt down the satanist gang who murdered his daughter and want to use his granddaughter for some satantic ritual. Along the way, he befriends a tough waitress and evades the police and Hell's Soul Accountant, who wants to return him to the realm of fire and punishment. It's all absurd and ridiculous. I understand that's part of the intent, but it still doesn't mean this is a good movie.

What also hurts the film is that it was supposed to be seen in theaters in 3D. There's several scenes specifically crafted for 3D, but don't look especially relevant in 2D. That hurts the movie, especially because these are mostly violent, gruesome images that just seem silly in this format. There are quite a few gruesome moments- we see a guy's hand get blown off, a leg ripped to shreds, a guy gets shot in the eyeball, and much more. The violence is used to shock the audience. There's also quite a lot of nudity in the film. Drive Angry really tries to leverage its "R" rating in every way it can. The film also combines the two by featuring a scene where quite a few people are killed WHILE Nicolas Cage is having sex in a hotel room. Nevermind this was done better by Shoot 'Em Up, this scene features more nudity, so it has that to differentiate it.

Nicolas Cage is pretty bad in the lead role. I remember at one point actually liking Cage as an actor. These days, he seems willing to take every awful, stupid movie that comes his way. He's incredibly lost in his career, and I don't believe he will ever find redemption. He's stuck making awful movies like this. I just wanted to laugh at him throughout this movie.

Amber Heard was actually pretty in the film. She works well with other cast members, and gives a very strong, fearless performance. I'm not sure I would call her a particularly good actress, but she was enjoyable in this film. She definitely threw herself into the role. William Fitchner was a nice casting choice for the Accountant, although he did come across as pretty silly multiple times in the film. I liked the casting of Billy Burke as the charismatic leader of the satanic cult, but he didn't have much to work with, considering his poorly written character. David Morse's presence was welcome, but he had nothing to do. The characters in this film weren't especially developed, so I really didn't care much about any of them.

Drive Angry felt like it was so focused on cramming as much gruesome violence and gratuitous sex as it could into this film. It felt like it wanted to be controversial for the sake of being controversial. Now, I've admitted that grindhouse-type movies are not my favorite. However, I believe I can recognize good movies when I see them. I can also sniff out complete crap pretty well. This movie is the latter. I very much disliked the experience of watching this film.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 3



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Grindhouse: Planet Terror, Grindhouse: Death Proof, Ghost Rider