Drive Angry 3D
“Drive Angry” (shot in 3D as the trailers like to remind us) is a formidable piece of grindhouse filmmaking from co-writer/director Patrick Lussier, who has not only distinguished himself by actually filming his past two films– this and the underrated 2009 remake “My Bloody Valentine” –in 3D but has also displayed a canny ability to bust out every exploitation film cliche and come up with campy and sometimes delirious entertainment out of pure schlock. If his command of the gritty and completely unhealthy in cinema isn’t up to snuff compared to Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s forays into B-grade filmmaking, it just stands to illuminate the talent gap between Lussier and those two cinematic savants. Lussier shouldn’t feel too bad; his two most recent films have brought me far greater entertainment than most higher-budget efforts in the past few years. I can’t wait to see what he’s going to give us next.
Nicolas Cage, that master thespian of absurdist star performances, stars as Milton, a hardened criminal who just busted out of prison– not an easy feat when the prison you’re busting out of is Hell. He’s in Colorado tracking down Jonah King (Billy Burke), a Satanic cult leader, who viciously murdered Milton’s daughter and took his recently born granddaughter as a blood sacrifice. Milton is a fan of vintage cars, which he uses to track down his prey and either torture them for information or just kill them because they get in his way. At a small town cafe, Milton catches a glimpse at the wheels driven by waitress Piper (Amber Heard, well-toned and plenty capable of ass-kicking), and he manages to get a ride out of her. Not that kind of ride, you perv; he’ll do that later with another waitress after he and Piper hit the road after King. Unfortunately hitting the road means a run-in with Piper’s cheating, muscled fiance (who owns the car) as well as catching the attention of not only the local police but also a wicked-looking character known as The Accountant (William Fitchner), who has his own agenda.
Just writing that plot summary hits on the appeal of “Drive Angry”; in no way is this film good for you, but it’s damn good at getting your rocks off if you like hardcore action laced with horror visuals (those FX scenes of Hell are scary as…), dark humor (Fitchner relishes in The Accountant’s utmost professionalism), and hot bodies (Lussier continues his fascination with female nudity during action set pieces here with Milton continuing coitus during a gun battle and with Piper dragging a naked woman off of her fiance and into broad daylight after picking Milton up). Sure, it’s exploitative and completely absurd, but Lussier isn’t aiming for Academy Awards here; this is about scene-chewing, artery-slashing thrills for the teenage boy in guys like me who still relish guilty and gratuitous pleasures in our action movies. That he offers up such thrills in a third dimension is a little gratuitous as well, but he knows how to get the most out of making people wear dark glasses in a movie theatre.
