Drive Angry

The B-movie has been around for decades. Originally, a B-movie was the description given to a film that would play before the feature presentation during a double feature, or one that would play in a much smaller room of a movie house. B-movies were also defined as lower budget movies with ridiculous plots that tended to be more gratuitous in content. Today, B-movies just go straight to video. That is, unless someone like Quentin Tarentino (“Grindhouse”) or Nicolas Cage decides otherwise. If that’s the case, then you’re left with a film like “Drive Angry”, the latest attempt by Nicolas Cage to crawl out of financial ruin by making any movie that will have him.

“Drive Angry” is a classic B-movie in almost every since, aside from the $50 million budget that includes the latest 3D technology. The plot is ridiculous: Milton (Cage) escapes hell to hunt down Jonah King, an occultist who killed Milton’s daughter; all while being chased by The Accountant (William Fichtner), the devil’s right hand man. During his chase, Milton meets a girl named Piper (Amber Heard) who comes along for the ride.

The film is made in classic B-movie style. Someone can be bloody one moment, and then in the next scene be completely clean. The effects will be modern and top notch one moment, and then the next be laughably bad. The dialogue is stilted, with built in pauses for audience laughter. The actors all play things very serious, adding to the hilarity. It does help that “Drive Angry” was able to recruit one the biggest over-actors of all time for the lead role. Nicolas Cage brings along his ridiculous hair and crazy eyes for every scene of the film. Also, two of America’s best character actors, William Fichtner and David Morse, show up and deliver the only enjoyable moments of the film.

In keeping with the B-movie theme, “Drive Angry” is overtly gratuitous. Blood and guts are sprayed across the screen; there are several sex scenes as well as female nudity. People are shot, stabbed, run over, and decapitated, all while the ringing sounds of foul language fills the theater. Most of this content is done not to advance the plot; it is simply for the sake of gratuity.

In this day and age, it takes a lot of skill to recreate a B-movie experience. “Drive Angry” definitely pulls that feat off. Unfortunately, a few humorous lines of dialogue aside, that experience comes with boatload of scenes that should never be recreated again. Sure, our main character is out to avenge his daughter’s death because he can no longer take the suffering of hell, but he does this while sleeping around and killing innocent people. This is a film that the reviewer saw so as to officially warn Christians of its included content. You cannot expect Hollywood to be biblical, but you can expect some moral positives or redemption for your money. “Drive Angry” contains no such redemption and should be avoided at all costs. Considering how “B” is still a passing grade, can we call this one an F-movie?

Violence: Extreme / Profanity: Extreme / Sex/Nudity: Extreme

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