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February 25, 2011Movie Review: Drive Angry 3DPosted by Turk182 in Movie Reviews

Drive Angry 3D is a strange, strange ride. Minutes into the movie I began to wonder what I had gotten myself into. Terrible acting and dialogue; physics-defying stunts and Nicolas Cage mimicking Clint Eastwood's minimalist delivery had me expecting the worst. However, I found that once I suspended my disbelief and went along for the supernatural ride, Drive Angry 3D was far more rewarding than it was not.

Cage is Milton, a man searching for his infant granddaughter, taken by a satanic cult. Amber Heard is Piper, who is lovely to look at but difficult to watch as she poorly delivers f-bomb-laden dialogue. By the time Milton and Piper cross paths, I was ready to declare Drive Angry a misogynistic, silly, mess of a movie, albeit one filmed in 3D. But I stuck with it. Soon, Milton and Piper are on the road in a black 1969 Charger (the same make and model featured in the second half of Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof). Slowly, I began to pick up on the intended tone of the movie, especially during the scene in which Milton blows away cult members while making love to a naked barmaid, in slow motion no less. When Milton gets tasered, she gets tasered, too, because they're, um, well, you get the idea. It was at this moment that the film's intentions crystallize.

Drive Angry 3D, not unlike Death Proof, is a throwback to the grind house films of the 1970s. The dialogue and acting are supposed to be bad. The stunts and the premise are supposed to defy believability. The bad guys are supposed to be over-the-top bad and the violence is supposed to be outrageously so. Once I came to terms with that, I actually began to enjoy Drive Angry 3D. Then the movie begins to reveal a supernatural element, one piece at a time, along the lines of Cage's Ghost Rider, and that's when the movie really became fun. There were no rules. Anything could, and did, happen. I even began to appreciate the dialogue. Some lines made me smile, such as:

Piper: "Give me one reason I shouldn't blow your head off."
Milton: "I'm driving."

Almost stealing the movie was William Fichtner as the mysterious Accountant, who pursues Milton through the movie. The character delivered some of the movie's best lines while dispatching anyone who got in his way. Eventually, the pieces all fall into place, that is, if you suspend your disbelief and buy into the whole supernatural premise. One final note: I would've found the movie much more satisfying if it didn't have an underlying misogynistic tone throughout. Many of the women in the movie, Piper included, were the victims of severe beatings, violence, and gunfire, some while nude. For me, these moments were almost unbearable and had me wondering if the writers had some serious, unresolved issues with women to deal with.

Rating: THREE BONES

Reviewed by Joe Johnson (on loan from www.hollywood-diecast.com)

Release Date: February 25th, 2011
Rating: R

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Amber Heard, William Fichtner, Billy Burke, Christa Campbell, and Charlotte Ross
Director: Patrick Lussier
Writers: Patrick Lussier and Todd Farmer

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Posted by Turk182 in Movie Reviews - February 25, 2011 at 3:02 PM

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