Oh, what a ride Drive Angry takes you on. It is so overblown and outrageous, it is nearly impossible not to have any fun while watching this movie. This is a throwback to the grindhouse movies where violence, naked women, being out of control, and trashy is normal. The movie may be too much to handle for some, and if people walk out, I almost wouldn’t blame them. But Drive Angry tells you right from the start what you are going to get, and if you don’t like it, then get out of the way. It is a crazy-ass movie with some crazy-ass characters, and I accept it.
Drive Angry is about a guy named Milton (Nicolas Cage) who escapes from Hell in order to find the people who killed his daughter and took his granddaughter. With the help of a waitress with an attitude, Piper (Amber Heard), they ride in muscle cars killing every person in the cult that murdered his daughter including the leader, Jonah King (Billy Burke). Go figure that a bunch of folks who worship the Devil would be chased down and killed by a dude who actually knows him. All of this sounds absurd right? Wait until you actually see it. Oh, it gets so much better when you experience it yourself.
There is one man who steals every scene he is in. His name is William Fichtner and he plays “The Accountant,” the PR department for the Devil. It is his job to bring Milton back to Hell. While looking sharp in a suit, he destroys anything and anyone until he gets what he wants. But he isn’t so much the villain as just a man doing his job. He brings humor and cool to a movie that you would think has no room for either one.
Director Patrick Lussier knows how wild and uncivilized the world he has created is and the characters follow that same formula. Cage is allowed to be insane, and he usually is. However, this type of insanity actually fits within this story. There are several scenes that deliver over-the-top action, but also delivers when it comes to the unbelievable and the ridiculous. It is junk at its finest.
Drive Angry is a redneck, trashy revenge movie that commits to one path and never steers from it. It is headed in one direction while being balls-to-the-wall the whole way through. You have to admire that about the director and the cast. Everyone is there to make sure you have a good time and if having a good time means watching all kinds of car wrecks and explosions, sacrifices, naked women, and drinking beer from a human skull then you will have a grand time at the movies.
Brandon Vick is a member of The Music City Film Critics’ Association and the Southeastern Film Critics Association, the resident film critic of the SoBros Network, and the star of The Vick’s Flicks Podcast. Follow him on Twitter @SirBrandonV and be sure to search #VicksFlicks for all of his latest movie reviews.
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