Film Review: Drive Angry

After stinkers like The Wicker Man, Next, Knowing etc. I often wondered if Nicolas Cage would start to play on the cult like name he is making for himself and in Drive Angry he surely is.

Totally over the top, gore packed and easily the stupidest thing that will hit cinemas this year, Drive Angry (Shot In 3D) tells the story of John Milton (Cage) who escapes from Hell to track down a Satanistic cult led by Jonah King (Billy Burke) who were responsible for the death of his daughter and the abduction of her baby, all while being followed by The Accountant (William Fichtner) who is tasked with returning Milton to Hell.

Caught in the middle of this frankly ludricous plot is Piper (Amber Heard) a ballsy broad who helps Milton out and ends up accompanying him to track down the cult.

The entire film (as you may have made out from the plot, the title, Nicolas Cage's involvement) is just ridiculous, but this time unlike The Wicker Man and its ilk it is played for laughs, and most of the main cast seem intent on winning some kind of overacting competition.

Nine times out of ten you would think Cage would win but despite some tough competition from Burke as the cult leader and Tom Atkins (The Fog, Creepshow) as a veteran police chief, William Fichtner's Accountant literally stole every scene he was in, and without a doubt (and without spoiling it) had one of the best entrance scenes in a film I have seen.

It's a worthy addition to the growing cult of Cage worship. In that finding his films so bad they are good, but Drive Angry does have some great moments and action, and of course the sight of Cage looking like Chad Kroeger from Nickelback is worth the price of admission alone.

****

Another swerve from Nicolas Cage, slightly restrained in his performance compared to the scene stealing Willam Fichtner, but its OTT, stupid and most importantly of all doesn't take itself too seriously, a trait that has been all to common with Cage films in the last few years.