Drive Angry (2011) - Review

Escaped from Hell, John Milton (Nicolas Cage) is back in the land of the living on a mission to save his
grandchild from being sacrificed by a Satanist cult led by Jonah King (Billy Burke) while eluding The Accountant (William Ficthner) - Satan's assistant tasked with brining Milton back to the underworld. The movie tries to convince the viewer that there is just a fount of charisma emanating from Cage's Milton; at various points in the film Milton is either being hit on or having sex with almost every woman that has speaking roles. Milton has a dry, repulsive personality throughout the entire runtime yet delivers one-liners that still make me laugh out of embarrassment like, "I never disrobe before a gunfight" as he is having sex with a waitress fully clothed before the cultists burst through his motel door to engage in a shootout to kill him (again). Piper (Amber Heard) is his companion in this film and acts as the audience cipher as she cooperates with Milton as she experiences being dragged along to drop Milton off to his final destination on her own escape journey. It is sad when all other characters have more presence than the anti-hero driving the plot, yet this is what happens when production doesn't push for more compelling activity.

Drive Angry is an homage to the grindhouse genre, trying to capitalize on the trilogy of action movie success of Nicolas Cage from the late 1990s. On merit, it fails to remain relevant to its own context - 2011 was full of action movies, remarkably more memorable than Drive Angry. Especially since the 3D format that the movie was shot and released has since become a novelty technology, used since the introduction of these movies to film as a way to draw moviegoers to higher priced tickets. The 3D shots are evident and do not serve to capture the attention of the audience at any point, especially when viewed without the requisite tools - a 2D cut of this film might not have solved this problem but may have allowed the filmmakers to find more creative ways for the audience enjoy the gore that the genre celebrates. Largely, the movie is a victim of an inflated budget and overproduction. The substitution of practical effects for green screened activities fails to live up to the spirit of the genre Cage's failed attempt at being convincingly hard-boiled or even charismatic damns this movie to deeper levels of Hell than from which John Milton escaped.