Nicolas Cage falls short of Oscar ability in new flick
Grindhouse films are known for being absolute guy-bait with their scenes of blood, booze and breasts. They require audiences to completely empty their minds and enjoy endless streams of gun battles, female nudity, flying body limbs and smart-mouthed dialogue.
“Drive Angry” comes off as your typical grindhouse film, combining hillbilly hell with fully-loaded testosterone, with enough swearing, sex and Satanism to satisfy males who want to get away from their wives or girlfriends. Nicolas Cage continues to fallfrom his “Leaving Las Vegas” (1995) days and once again shows desperation to pay off his castle mortgage. Cage is a talented actor, but all his recent work has been much lower quality since he won his Oscar.
The story opens with John Milton (Nicolas Cage) shooting down cult members and questioning them about the whereabouts of their leader. Milton is a condemned criminal who has broken out of Hell in order to hunt down and kill the Elvis-attired Jonah King (Billy Burke), who leads a cult that worships Satan and performs Satanist rituals. King murdered Milton’s daughter and took her baby, planning to sacrifice her in another satanic ritual. Joined by the hellcat hash-slinger Piper (Amber Heard), Milton is focused on rescuing his granddaughter while fleeing from Satan’s supernatural operative, The Accountant (William Fichtner).
Despite its best efforts, “Drive Angry” commits a fundamental sin for a film of its genre: it’s completely tedious. With a title like “Drive Angry,” one would expect the film to contain loads of fast and furious driving. Disappointingly, there is not even that much angry driving, though there is plenty to be angry about. It attempts to push some boundaries with a “Shoot ‘Em Up” (2007) style scene that mixes gun toting with motel room sex.
Cage displays much of the same hellfire imagery as “Ghost Rider” (2007), but this is the extreme R version, Johnny Blaze’s skull insignia motorcycle is replaced with classic Detroit motor vehicles. He once again displays his deadpan style of acting, looking like he is sleepwalking throughout the film with a glassy expression. If he has displayed the same persona from “The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call — New Orleans” (2009), it definitely would have helped the film. Thank goodness that Fichtner manages to steal every scene, making his character so intriguing and humorously dry.
Heard (probably known better as 406 from “Zombieland”) rides in the front seat with Cage. She wears the indispensable Daisy Duke shorts and a white tank top that seems only to tighten around her chest as the minutes pass. This is a role made for Megan Fox, relying on looking pretty and hitting men in the face.
To its unashamed credit, “Drive Angry” successfully manages to stack its clichés in far-fetched arrangements. For instance, the sacrificial ceremony toward the end of the film is staged as a red-neck themed rave, complete with shooting guns, girls gone wild, a Winnebago and a cooler of beer. This sequence makes Hell on Earth look more like an out-of-control New Year’s Eve drunken bash.
“Drive Angry” may be about a man chasing after a cult, but the film itself is doomed to become nothing more than a cult classic. Like previous grindhouse films, “Drive Angry” refuses to take itself too seriously, with Cage once again going all out in the process.