Drive Angry

2011 may be barely two months old, but Nicolas Cage has already traversed a medieval landscape in order to battle a witchy demon thing and he's just now hatched an escape from Hell in order to avenge the death of his daughter at the hands of a satanic cult leader. Those are some significant accomplishments worth boasting about over any timeframe, but Cage makes it all look easy, never even breaking a sweat in the process (well, maybe there's a bead or two). He's busy in B-movie territory and loving it. At least I think he's enjoying himself. The straight-faced expression that Cage sports in the half-inspired, occasionally entertaining flick Drive Angry could easily be mistaken for boredom. But I'll just assume that's how Cage plays cool.

Sitting comfortably in ridiculous territory, Cage is joined by a feisty, foul-mouthed, and fist-friendly Amber Heard, who ends up going along for the wild ride. When Cage's gun-toting character John Milton asks Heard's pugilistic Piper if she wants to continue tagging along despite the high levels of life-threatening danger, it's a no-brainer that Piper is going to say yes, since a beautiful young woman with a tough attitude is something this movie clearly can't live without. Treating the whole adventure as a sort of throwback homage to eclectic exploitation movies, director Patrick Lussier has such ingredients as pretty girls, endless ammo and juicy gore at the top of his cinematic recipe.

It's all well-intentioned silliness with Lussier unleashing a manic collection of craziness in the movie's first half hour or so. Dark humour combined with an overly trashy tone and some extremely gimmicky 3D (expect stuff flying at your face on a regular basis) lay a fun foundation for a great B-movie celebration. Cage and Heard make a decent onscreen pair and the addition of William Fichtner as a confident accountant from Hell called (what else?) the Accountant just adds to the imaginative insanity. Lussier wastes no time hurling hilarious nonsense at us, making sure that the comedy is delivered in tune with the garish 3D. The energy level of this early portion is cranked up so high that it seems impossible to maintain this level of extreme excitement.

So, of course, it is. Just when the movie could use an extra push into the realm of absolute absurdity, Lussier reins it in and Drive Angry begins to sputter. Feeling the pressures of plot, Lussier begins to stuff the movie with needless exposition and then introduces the movie's main villain, the satanic cult leader named Jonah King (Billy Burke, completely generic in the role). King is an irritatingly lame bad guy and Burke doesn't quite seem to know how to play him. Is he supposed to be scary (satanic cult leaders are likely not the cheeriest bunch)? Or, given the overall tone of the movie, is he supposed to be completely over-the-top and laughable?

Neither approach is really explored, leaving the villain in a tight spot. He's just dull and uninteresting, which is pretty much the total opposite of the first chunk of the movie. But with Lussier insisting on following a rigid story structure after the outrageous first act, we end up getting more and more scenes with King barking at his henchman and promising the horrible Hell-on-earth event that will supposedly occur following a ritual baby sacrifice. At this point, Drive Angry slips into a familiar chase mode and starts going through the violent motions. Cage, Heard, and Fichtner help keep the movie chugging along at an acceptable pace, but as the story progresses, those great early moments start to fade in the reflection of the rear view mirror.

Much of what makes the movie feel so unique in its earlier moments is missing from the middle, even though Lussier still piles on the action in this section. Plenty of car chases and gunshot wounds continue to give the sound mixers an excuse to turn up the volume and Cage keeps playing it cool throughout. The movie remains rooted in over-the-top wackiness, but it's at risk of losing its identity during this lengthy chunk. Fortunately, things turn around again in time for the big finale. Lussier is building to up to a bloodbath and he seems to have placed a small pocket of energy in reserve for this big moment. The laughs return just in time for the conclusion and Cage does a lot of angry driving, so there's something to commend here in the late stages of the movie. Even then, it never quite reaches the heights of its initial explosion of gonzo joy.

With its glossy sheen and digital effects enabling many a bullet to zoom off the screen, Drive Angry's homage to cheapie exploitation flicks is heavily contemporized and only skin deep. Lussier clearly has a lot of love for the raucous freedom that is afforded by such B-movie material and his adoration is entertainingly evident early on in the movie. It is at that point that the movie is in need of being pushed over the edge into truly demented territory. Instead of receiving that mandatory shove, Lussier holds back and plays it a bit too safe, a decision that makes little sense in a movie about a guy breaking out of Hell to wreak terrestrial havoc. Of course, none of these complaints diminish the awesome enjoyment of the movie's best moments. Nicolas Cage's commitment to crap continues and it's nice to see him wander through B-movies with his particular brand of charisma intact. He's a highlight of Drive Angry, even as the movie loses its grip on fun. Cage can do a lot in just two months, but as hard as he may try, he can't force this flick to accelerate when the vehicle's run out of gas.