Review: Drive Angry

Directed by Patrick Lussier

Starring Nicolas Cage, Amber Heard, Billy Burke, William Fichtner

DVD out now

John Milton (no, not that one!) breaks out of Hell to save his granddaughter from becoming part of hell on Earth…

Nic Cage playing someone escaping from Satan, who’s on a mission to save his family from an ugly and early death – no, it’s not an early version of the Ghost Rider sequel, but a blackly comic supernatural action movie on pretty much the lines that the first Ghost Rider should have been. Add in All the Boys Love Mandy Lane’s Amber Heard as a hard-as-nails chick helping him, and Prison Break’s William Fichtner as The Accountant – Satan’s right hand man, out to bring Milton back to Hell – and you’ve got the ingredients for a stupidly fun movie.

Patrick Lussier and Tod Farmer’s script fits right into the exploitation movie resurgence we’ve seen recently – with films like Hobo with a Shotgun and Machete – and makes far more internal sense than Tarantino’s car-chase themed Grindhouse contribution, Death Proof. Although shot in native 3-D, it holds up well enough in 2-D, with not too many of the annoying perspective leaps that 2-D versions often have of 3-D films. It also walks the fine line of the actors taking the characters seriously, while not preventing a sense of fun from coming through .

The DVD contains a commentary by the writers, two very short deleted scenes,  a decent look behind the scenes (minus contribution from Cage) and a Mayhem Meter for all of the various limb removals, headshots and other violent injuries caused by Cage’s character.

Verdict: “The Terminator by way of Edgar Allen Poe” according to Cage… and that about sums it up! 7/10

Paul Simpson