It might not be the crazy unhinged performance that fans of Nicolas Cage were hoping for, but for what it is, it is still an enjoyable low maintenance action film, if one that tries a little too hard to be intentionally dumb.
Dumb films can be fun, and I’m the first to embrace something that throws reality out the window and focuses on ridiculous onscreen antics. Drive Angry certainly attempts to be just this, mimicking the grindhouse/exploitation genre with all its blood, guts, naked ladies, fast cars and ridiculous over the top action. Sadly for Drive Angry, some of this total over the top-ness felt somewhat forced and somewhat at odds with other more serious aspects of the film. It is just trying too hard to be over the top, that in the end, it is dumb, but with little of the enjoyment that comes with that. That said, there is probably enough action (and just enough nakedness) to keep you from considering this question too deeply, that is until the credits roll.
At least Drive Angry’s plot can be described as nothing less but ‘straight out of hell’ as the story follows, John Milton (Nicolas Cage) who is...well, straight out of hell, to avenge his daughter’s death and save his granddaughter from the clutches of an Satanic cult leader, Jonah King (not Jonah Hill!), played by Billy Burke. Along the way he picks up the predictably pretty Piper (Amber Heard), who, after Milton saves her from her cheating fiancé is roped in to giving John a ride and predictably helping him save his granddaughter and must also fight off a strangely calm agent of the devil known only as the ‘accountant’ (we all knew they were from hell...am I right?...?) played by a suave William Fichtner, who has come to earth to take Milton back to hell. Cue explosions, fat Muscle cars, guns and naked ladies.
Much of this film’s success seemed to hang upon the performance of one Nicolas Cage and rightly so, as he seems to have the ability to make some films enjoyable, even when you know they shouldn’t be just through sheer gusto. Well, Drive Angry isn’t really one of those films, but watching Cage acting as the hellish badass is satisfying enough. Mostly, he is on screen to look cool, say some cheesy one liners and shoot some guy in the face with a shotgun, which he does, a lot. In terms of the rest of the cast, Amber Heard is fine in her role as the lady sidekick, though I doubt she was really picked for her acting talents (...), while Billy Burke is equally as good in his role as the evil cult leader. Personally only William Fichtner portrayed his character in an interesting way, keeping the straight face and placid manner of well...an accountant, while brutally murdering dudes.
But who comes to these films for the acting right?? If it’s pure action you are looking for then, fair enough and Drive Angry certainly has its moments, but maybe not as many as you may have hoped. Obviously one of the glaring things about Drive Angry is that fact that it is actually Drive Angry 3D, a fact which is not lost on the audience watching at home (those without a fancy 3D Tv that is). So much of the action is so obviously made for 3D, with bullets flying at the screen, or guns pointing directly at the audience (you know...all those fairground 3D tricks) being the most obvious examples, something which doesn’t really fly in 2D. Maybe in 3D the effects were less obvious, but some of the CGI just looked plain bad, especially some of the in-car scenes. Overall, things explode, people are shot, but at points the action just seemed rather placid. Perhaps it was the fact that Cage’s characters reacted with everything with the same monotone nonplussed reaction, which was obviously a facet of his character, that meant that nothing felt as if it was in anyway dangerous, exacerbated by the fact that Milton seemingly can’t actually die (because, yo he is already dead).
For all my negative thoughts though, I still had a good time with Drive Angry. It isn’t the best film you will ever see, but it certainly isn’t the worst. If you’re craving anything with Nicolas Cage in, it isn’t the worst option you could take (...ehm Season of the Witch), while if you’re looking for something that is low maintenance and fun, you’ll probably be satisfied – don’t rush out and buy it on DVD though.
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