Review: Drive Angry

Nic Cage stars as the mysterious and possibly supernatural John Milton, who is trying to track down cult leader Jonah King (Billy Burke). King killed Milton’s daughter and having kidnapped his granddaughter, plans to sacrifice the baby to apparently bring about Hell on Earth. In order to make his pursuit, Milton hitches a ride with struggling waitress Piper (Amber Heard). Meanwhile, an ambiguous, droll figure who calls himself ‘The Accountant (William Fichtner) is in pursuit of Milton, for reasons only gradually revealed. David Morse turns up as an old mechanic buddy of Milton’s, Tom Atkins is a hard-arse lawman also pursuing Milton, and Charlotte Ross has a small but memorable role that juxtaposes sex and death in a way you might never have considered.

 

Directed by Patrick Lussier (the superior, schlocky remake of “My Bloody Valentine”), this 2011 example of quasi-grindhouse filmmaking will be enjoyed by about 10% of the movie-going population, whilst the other 90% will likely hate it with every fibre of their being. I’m probably a ten-percent man myself, although I actually think this film could’ve been even more extreme. For starters, it’s almost criminal that Amber Heard, one of the world’s most beautiful women (and hardly a prude) is one of the few women in the film to not nude up. Having said that, we’re talking about a film where Nic Cage’s coitus is interrupted by a bunch of assassins whom he dispatches whilst still attending to his carnal desires. So perhaps I’m just being a bit greedy, as this is a fun little B-movie, kind of like ¼ “Ghost Rider” mixed with about ¾ “Mad Max”. If you liked “Shoot ‘em Up” and the “Crank” movies, you’ll enjoy this. All fifteen of you. Hey, it’s everyone else’s loss, believe me.

 

The film’s biggest roadblock to entertainment is Nic Cage, the world’s most inconsistent actor. Often he’s the worst actor in the entire world (“Deadfall”, “Vampire’s Kiss”, “Kiss of Death”, “Peggy Sue Got Married”, “Face/Off”, “The Rock”, “Raising Arizona”), sometimes he’s pretty OK (“Con Air”, “Knowing”, “Kick Ass”, “Lord of War”, “World Trade Centre”), and other times he’s just plain boring (“Season of the Witch”, “Honeymoon in Vegas”, and “Rumble Fish”). He’s sadly in boring mode here, and one almost yearns for the nutbar Cage, as irritating and unhinged as that might potentially be, it might also suit the material for a change. So he has taken the absolute wrong approach to the role, when tongue-in-cheek and coolness are clearly called for. The only interesting thing about him here is wondering if that’s really Nic Cage or the lead singer of Nickelback gone to waste. Personally I think Lussier has made a mistake in not getting Jason Statham for this role, I’m not always a fan of his, but it’s definitely his wheelhouse.

 

The film’s chief villain, Billy Burke is only marginally better. He’s a lot better than usual, but he’s usually terrible. I’d prefer a whole bunch of other actors in the role, however: Billy Drago, Rutger Hauer, Timothy Olyphant, Michael Wincott, Mickey Rourke, or maybe Josh Brolin. Burke isn’t bad as such, but he definitely lacks menace and relish in his performance. There is one peculiarly interesting thing about his performance; His facial expressions, accent, and voice are eerily similar to a young Tommy Lee Jones. It’s a dead-on impersonation, and I refuse to believe it isn’t intentional. I’m not convinced that there’s any point to it, however, aside from showing off.

 

The amazing thing is that the film manages to entertain despite a serious flaw in both protagonist and antagonist, something you’d swear would be fatal to the film. I’m not entirely convinced that Amber Heard’s hotness is the chief reason why the film works, but her hotness is indeed hard to beat. She’s also a talented enough actress that in my opinion, should’ve seen her attain stardom by now. I also refuse to believe that her ‘I Brake for Pussy’ car sticker isn’t some kind of in-joke about her bisexuality (Stay away from her, Johnny Depp! Damn You!). Seriously, she’s off-the-charts hot here in short shorts. I Brake for Amber Heard, and I don’t think I’m alone there, am I?. Most importantly, she displays star quality here. Indefinable, unmistakable star quality.

 

The scene-stealer of the film, however, is William Fichtner, who I haven’t seen on screen in ages, it seems. Playing an ambiguous character named ‘The Accountant’, he’s having a whale of a time, particularly in an hilarious scene with a couple of stoners (Keeping with the pattern of alternate actors, one could definitely see Christopher Walken in this role). I’m not exactly sure if ‘The Accountant’ is a good guy or a bad guy, but Fichtner oozes evil so much more (and so much more easily) than Burke, and is funny to boot. Meanwhile, a small role for David Morse is rarely a bad thing, and it’s good to see Tom Atkins is still alive, in seemingly good nick, and in a fun role.

 

The best thing about this entire film is that the action scenes are easy to follow and relatively minimalist in the use of shaky-cam for a change. See, filmmakers, it can be done. It was done for decades before, and it can still be done today. I must say that I wish the more supernatural elements of the film were more overt. The film is fun, but not as much of a hoot as it could’ve been with a little more emphasis on the Satanic iconography. As is, the Cage character vaguely resembles a mixture of “Hellboy” and “The Crow”, with emphasis on the word ‘vaguely’. The screenplay is by Lussier and Todd Farmer (“Jason X”, “My Bloody Valentine”), who has a small role as a deadbeat boyfriend. Perhaps they were worried that too much emphasis on the supernatural would make it seem like another “Ghost Rider”, with a sequel to that film being released not all that long after this, if I’m not mistaken. Personally, I think it’s a bit better than “Ghost Rider” (which was slightly underrated), and could’ve been even better if it didn’t pare back the supernatural stuff so much.

 

This film won’t be to many people’s tastes, but it was pretty much right up my alley. It’s stupid, over-the-top, and fun. It also has Nic Cage, but you can’t have everything your way, I guess.

 

Rating: B-