Drive Angry, starring Nicolas Cage and Amber Heard

Literally like a bat out of Hell bursts Nicolas Cage and his roadkill haircut in a bitchin' old school muscle car, ready to tear up the streets in Patrick Lussier's Drive Angry. A welcome throwback blood 'n motor oil flick that's all spit and hellfire, Cage fits in perfectly as Milton, an escapee from Satan's grasp returning to earth to seek revenge on the folks who killed his children and kidnapped his granddaughter.  Only two months into the new year, this is already the second flick we've seen from Cage, and for what it's worth Drive Angry runs tread all over Season of the Witch's exposed backside.

For Cage, this is a role he can do in his sleep. Milton isn't just a tough guy. He's a dude who stared Hell in the face and laughed, and now he's turned his icy gaze(and shotgun barrel) towards rock star cult leader, Jonah King(Twilight's Billy Burke, channeling a deranged Jim Morrison). King intends to sacrifice Milton's granddaughter in a grand ritual intended to allow Satan to roam the Earth.  That doesn't exactly fit in with Satan's busy schedule, nor does recapturing escaped souls, so he dispatches a demonic bounty hunter named The Accountant(William Fichtner) to tidy up all loose ends. 

What would a slammin' grindhouse be without a hot chick in tow? Filling that role(and a rockin' tight pair of jeans) is Amber Heard as Piper, a feisty waitress with an attitude and mean right hook. After catchin' her supposedly "good guy" fiance cheating, she steals his bad ass '69 Dodge Charger, hooks up with Milton and hits the road. A few dead cops later and she's a wanted felon alongside Milton, throwing her already screwed up life into disarray. The only way out is to get in deeper into Milton's bloody quest for vengeance.

Director Patrick Lussier has put together a tenacious splatter fest of flaming bullets and chopped up body limbs. It's the type of flick where enemies are run over with reckless abandon, cars flip and explode at the slightest touch, and the women are loose and angry. Every car is a wet boy's dream, waiting to be unveiled from under it's cover. It's just such a ridiculously fun flick that you don't care that Nicolas Cage is making mincemeat out of the campy script. It's all part of what makes this movie work!  Nobody's going to win any Oscars over this, but I think Amber Heard establishes herself as just a little bit more than a hot piece of ass. Sure her accent wobbles in and out and she spends more time throwin' blows than anything else, but Piper is the only character that actually has something to lose. I'd battle a few crazed cultists for her in a heartbeat.

With the glut of 3D movies we've seen over the last few years it's easy to forget who really brought the format back into the mainstream. Lussier was one of the flagbearers of the new wave of 3D filmmakers with My Bloody Valentine back in 2009. One reason is that he always shoots his films with the format in mind, and Drive Angry is leaps and bounds superior than a lot of other 3D movies we've seen. He doesn't just let the added visuals sit and go to waste, he uses them to craft unique comedic situations(like a severed hand blasted into the air), and to increase immersion(a puff of smoke from a revved up engine). It's all seamless and fluid. This is how everyone should use 3D. 

It's refreshing to see a movie that knows exactly what it is and wants to be. Drive Angry has no designs on being an important movie, just an insanely fun one. Who says Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez are the only ones who do uber-violent exploitation well? See this movie now!