Synopsis
In the high-octane, action-adventure Drive Angry, Nicolas Cage stars as Milton, an undead felon who breaks out of hell to avenge his murdered daughter and rescue her kidnapped baby from a band of cult-worshipping savages. Joined by tough-as-nails Piper (Amber Heard), the two set off on a rampage of redemption, all while being pursued by an enigmatic killer (William Fichtner) who has been sent by the Devil to retrieve Milton and deliver him back to hell.
The action in this film is the only decent part about it. There are some great gun fights, fun car chases and violence for the violence seeking moviegoer. There’s a large amount of gratuitous nudity in the film as well. Teenagers will particularly like the scene of Nic Cage in the hotel during a shoot-out while he’s… uh… in the act with a woman. Outside of those things you aren’t going to find much in terms of substance.
The story, which could have been great, has a large amount of holes it needs to patch up. You never truly understand how Milton (Nic Cage) has made his way out of hell. You never understand how he got there. You don’t understand why people are pissed at him. You never are told why the cult isn’t shocked he’s back. You aren’t given an explanation about why his granddaughter is so vital in a sacrifice. There are more questions, but these are the ones that were left over after the film ended. Milton basically just shows up and the movie starts. There are moments in the film where a backstory is nearly drawn out, but Milton simply ‘doesn’t want to talk about it’. Forgivable? No, but the movie could have survived on speculation alone (hell, that’s how the Star Wars prequels survived). Also, the inclusion of Piper (Amber Heard) is unnecessary, as she serves no purpose. The ending, which is where the filmmakers truly believe she is a cog in their story machine, makes me uncomfortable as a parent. I don’t want to give too much away, but just know that it’s not believable one bit.
Failure to have a properly put together story really tanked this experience for me. If they (director/writer Patrick Lussier and writer Todd Farmer) had thought this through and spent about six more months on the film then it could have been really cool. As it is, the story is horrid, shallow and just full of too many unanswered questions. To boot, the dialogue is horrendous at best. Any time that Billy Burke’s cult leader Jonah King opens his mouth I know that nothing intelligent is going to flow out. Burke deserves better than what Farmer and Lussier delivers, as does Cage. The only redeeming value in the group of characters is the suave William Fichtner as The Accountant; he’s neat, but extremely underused.
With this said, most people who liked this film are going to claim that it’s a violent, non-stop thrill ride that was meant to be a hardcore revenge movie, and not Gone with the Wind. I understand that argument fully, but the special effects don’t help the cause for the ‘thrill ride’ or the ‘violent’ cases. The special effects (CG stuff) is on par with something you would find on the SyFy channel. There was a moment where someone gets shot in the head and falls and the bullet hole actually detaches itself from the body of the person on the way down. Seriously, the bullet hole is delayed with the fall. The hokey special effects damaged the seriousness and horror of the shoddy story. A possible downgrade in cast and upgrade in special effects might have helped the overall film, if not just a bit. I must give props to the make-up person, though. The open wounds on folks, and on Cage, was actually quite grotesque.
What was not grotesque was the Blu-ray. The picture was actually pretty sharp, but still grainy here and there. It was much better than the DVD counterpart. The film looks great in 1080p, so much so that the special effects look worse. For example, when Milton and Piper are speeding down a highway with cops to their back it looks really clear. When The Accountant shows up in a fuel tanker (no idea where he acquired it) the fake CG truck he’s driving actually stands out pretty clearly. You can see the pixels on the vehicle. You can’t get that type of obvious clarity from a DVD. I’m not trying to be mean, but the special effects for films stand out better on Blu-ray than they DVD; even more so on good Blu-ray. Anyway, outside of video the mastered audio in DTS-HD sounds fantastic… sans the soundtrack.
As for features, you’re going to treat yourself to some deleted scenes, which don’t help or hurt; they’re just entertaining. You also get an interesting audio commentary from director Patrick Lussier and writer Todd Farmer. You also get some cute features like tracking a body count and scene specific features that include interviews (that’s a neat thing). Not much else, regretfully.