Lets just get this out of the way right now, Drive Angry is not a "good" movie. It's actually pretty terrible and not in a schlocky low budget way. That said, I enjoyed watching it and think it's one of the better ridiculous Nic Cage movies to come out in a while.
Cage is John Milton, a recent escapee from hell who is out avenge the murder of his daughter at the hands of cult leader, Jonah King (Billy Burke) who has also kidnapped Milton's granddaughter and plans to offer her up to Satan as a human sacrifice. Along for the ride is random waitress Piper (Amber Heard) with The Accountant (William Fichtner) giving chase along with a slew of cops. Oh yeah David Morse shows up for a while too, even though he doesn't actually do anything.
If all that sounds pretty stupid, it is but director/co-writer Patrick Lussier (My Bloody Valentine) pretty much acknowledges the stupidity right up front and gives the movie a rather non serious tone that makes the film hard to hate. They're certainly not attempting to make Shakespeare here. Cage gives his usual overacting performance (with requisite terrible haircut) that seems to drive people crazy but it works for the material presented here. He probably kills at least 50 people singlehandedly and in one fantastic scene of insanity, manages to knock off at least 8 opponents all the while still chugging whiskey, smoking cigars AND never removing his penis from the waitress he's pleasuring while still clothed ("I never disrobe before a gunfight"). Heard isn't given too much to do besides look pretty in skimpy clothes and attempt to kick some ass with varying results. Fichnter gets most of the best lines ("Whoa, those are fucked!" before sticking a pole into a dudes shot out kneecap) and is the real highlight of the film. With his ridiculously terrible southern accent Burke manages to outdo Cage in level of overacting and his is the only performance I found to be distracting but I guess when you're playing a David Koresh like figure, overacting is really the only way to go.
The blu-ray is a new release action movie so naturally it looks and sounds great. It probably looks too good at times because the incredible fakeness of a lot of the CGI is readily apparent but mostly that just adds to the films tone. This was also a movie shot in 3D so there are numerous times when things fly at the screen or are obviously meant to be 3D affects that just look really stupid while watching it in 2D but that's not really the fault of the disc. It's as good as Drive Angry will ever get. The audio is a constantly booming track well worth the price of admission in itself. High quality stuff.
Drive Angry is not the type of film thats going to hold up with any sort of scrutiny. You're either going to be into it or not. I fell for it almost immediately and wouldn't hesitate to visit it again. Obviously it's not for everyone but anyone who enjoys Cage, over the top scenes of violence, ridiculous dialogue and general "so bad it's good" type action, Drive Angry is pretty sweet. Just don't think about it too much.
Ratings:
Movie: 3.5
Blu-ray: 4.5
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