MOVIE: Drive Angry

STARRING: Nicolas Cage, Amber Heard, William Fichtner, Billy Burke, David Morse, Todd Farmer, Christa Campbell, Charlotte Ross, Tom Atkins

RELEASE DATE: February 25th, 2011

WHERE TO WATCH: VOD (Hulu, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Vudu)

By Justin Pomerville (2 Broke Geeks)

Drive Angry is a thriller/action film that came out in 2011 under the title Drive Angry 3D. It’s pretty much a cross between Fast & Furious and Ghost Rider. As you know already from my Ghost Rider review, this is going to be rough. With a tagline, “All Hell Breaks Loose”, how rough could it be? I’m a fan of grindhouse and cults, so it’s got to be fun.

The plot is John Milton (played by Cage) escapes Hell with Satan’s shotgun to hunt down cult leader, Jonah King (played by Billy Burke). King killed Milton’s daughter and is planning on sacrificing Milton’s granddaughter to open a doorway to Hell. Milton accidentally involves waitress Piper Lee (played by Amber Heard) on a cross-country road trip while also being pursued by The Accountant of Hell (played by William Fichtner) who is trying to retrieve Milton and drag his soul back. 

This film is confusing because although it is slightly entertaining, it’s confusing in tone. It calls itself a grindhouse action/thriller when in reality, it’s more of a rated R action film that was made for fans of 3D films. The special effects are terrible, the 3D effects make it look tacky, the script is repetitive, and there were parts of the film felt awkward in terms of where my attention was drawn to. There were background actors that felt like they had bigger roles than what was in the final product.

There are really only two positives of this film that pull it up a little bit from some of the other “Hot Mess” films. The performances of Nic Cage and William Fichtner. Although Cage really feels like he is just going through the motions, he still is entertaining to watch. Then there is Fichtner, who every time I see him in a role, he always plays this wooden, bureaucratic type, and it is always hilarious. Because of those two, this film rises to the lower end of “Terrible” on the Nic Gauge.