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In Nicolas Cage’s 2,340th film (of
2011), he stars as Milton, the father of
a murdered girl who… get this…
escapes from hell to track down his granddaughter
from a sadistic cult leader out to use the
baby girl to bring hell to Earth (as if
it isn’t already there…).
One can never accuse Nicolas Cage of turning
down a role, any role, in any movie. I don’t
know if the guy needs the money (based on
recent news stories) or if he just loves
the hell out of acting. But either way,
there’s no shortage of his movies
year after year. The only problem with his
little penchant is that you never know if
his movie is going to be good or not so
good. A little too often they aren’t
very good. I will say however that the one
I’m here to talk about today, “Drive
Angry” rides the edge and never really
falls into either category. While neither
bad nor good, “Drive Angry”
certainly entertains.
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From the film’s opening scene, all the
way through the final frame, “Drive Angry”
is a silly, extremely over the top, comic book
style farce. It successfully mixes grindhouse
gore with ridiculous comedy, flashy cars with
dirty rednecks, and one killer with stylish corporate
attire. There is never moment of the movie that
is meant to be taken seriously and if you do,
you’ll miss the entire point of it and that
is to check your brain at the door and soak in
the fun and cheese
Not much can be said for the plot. I pretty much
summed it up in the opening paragraph. All I can
add, without giving away too much, is that along
the way Milton meets up with the unbelievably
hot Piper (Amber Heard), a tough talking waitress
who gets sucked into his adventure. Both end up
on the run from The Accountant (William Fichtner),
the business suited right hand man to the devil
– and without a doubt the single greatest
character in ‘Drive Angry.” The front
man of the chase is Jonah King (Billy Burke),
the murderer of Milton’s daughter and kidnapper
of his grandchild.
The fine folks at Summit Entertainment were nice
enough to release “Drive Angry” on
Bluray and DVD, and while I was hesitant to watch
it (again not sure what to expect of Nicolas Cage)
but ultimately enjoyed the heck out of. Thanks
to the awesome visuals, the Bluray really had
a chance to shine. The picture was sharp and every
little detail could be seen. It was shot to be
presented in 3D, but the release is 2D and it
worked just fine. The sound mix allowed for the
explosions to fill the room without taking away
from the dialogue.
For Bluray features, Summit included “Access:
Drive Angry”, which allows viewers the opportunity
to see and listen to all sorts of information
about the film. Interviews and trivia abound.
There’s also a commentary by filmmakers
Patrick Lussier (writer/director) and Todd Farmer
(writer), and for once it is a pretty decent commentary.
They seem genuinely excited about the film, so
their discussion isn’t monotone and boring.
Additionally, there are two very short deleted
scenes.
For the most part, “Drive Angry”
is just goofy fun. Loud and obnoxious, with lots
of gratuitous gore… and a bit of T&A
including one ridiculous ‘having sex while
killing bad guys’ scene. Yikes!
Directed by: Patrick Lussier
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Amber Heard, William Fichtner,
Billy Burke, Charlotte Ross, David Morse
Special Features: Access Drive Angry; Audio Commentary;
Deleted Scenes
Release Date: 5/31/2011
Studio: Summit
http://www.summit-ent.com
We'll give Drive Angry (Bluray) a B-.
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