Drive Angry 3D Movie Review
Drive Angry 3D Movie Review
Directed by Patrick Lussier. Starring Nicolas Cage, Amber Heard, William Fichtner, Billy Burke, Todd Farmer, and David Morse. Drive Angry 3D Movie Review by Staci Layne Wilson
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Put your brain in neutral, sit back, relax and enjoy the rockin' 3D ride that is Drive Angry. Directed by Patrick Lussier (who brought us the My Bloody Valentine remake, which I unabashedly adore), also co-written by him and reuniting him with MBV3D co-scribe and actor Todd Farmer, Drive Angry is a movie by genre fans for genre fans. But unlike MBV3D (imho), this one has a lot more crossover appeal.
There's a little something for everyone… Enjoy horror? The characters are from hell. Like exploitation? There's boobs and blood aplenty. Want more noir? The dishy dame is a modern-day femme fatale. Like fists of fury? This is like Rolling Thunder meets Roadhouse hepped up on Jesus-Juice. Gotta have your car chases? You'll be drooling over the vintage muscle cars as they speed down the highway to hell, crashing and burning in the most marveling of ways.
Drive Angry 3D stars Nicolas Cage (I know, I know… but he's really perfect in this role!) as Milton (Paradise Lost reference: check!), an escapee from the real Down Under who lost his daughter and her baby to the dastardly leader of a soul-sacrificing Satanic cult (Billy Burke, playing Jonah… Book Of Jonah: check!). With the help of his old friend Webster (The Devil and Daniel Webster: check!), played with remarkable restraint by David Morse, and sexy gearhead Piper (John Piper nod: check!) played in Daisy Dukes and dukes-put-up by a feisty and foxy Amber Heard, Milton is out to do some serious harm and hopefully, along the way to the showdown in New Orleans, save the souls of his kin. Along for the ride (usually in hot pursuit) is slick, suit-wearing The Accountant (a coldblooded William Fichtner), who's been sent from Hell to retrieve Milton. (Bonus: Tom Atkins plays a backwoods sheriff! Yep, I said Tom Atkins. Think: Jackie Gleason circa '77 in Smokey and the Bandit. Rock!)
Titillatingly trashy, yet directed with admirable aplomb and well-acted (given the milieu, of course… this isn't The King's Speech, folks), Drive Angry 3D is a must see for those who just can't wait for the Academy Awards to be over and for popcorn cinema season to begin. It's a hard R, sparing no eyes sights to behold — language, sex, gore, violence… it's for immature audiences only!
There's a not a whole to say about plot (but yes, there is one — and it all pays off), however I can address the little flourishes. For one thing, the musical choices are a helluva lot of fun, and not the usual ones (no Nine Inch Nails, no Muse; yipee!). There's a pretty humorous moment towards the beginning showing Piper, having just been betrayed by her bad-boy S.O. (more like "S.O.B.", it's Farmer, actually kind of reprising his baring role from MBV3D), cruising down the two-lane blacktop in her souped up 69 Charger, while singing Peaches' Fuck The Pain Away. And another (my favorite), featuring the button-down, shotgun-blasting Accountant grooving to K.C. & The Sunshine Band.
It's all so tongue-in-cheek… serious horror fans probably won't get it, but those who love the grindhouse will be all over this flick, 3D glasses and all.
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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson
**Stay tuned for our exclusive on-camera interviews with Lussier, Farmer, and Fichtner