DRIVE ANGRY directed by Patrick Lussier. Starring Nicolas Cage, William Fichtner. For venues, times and trailers, see Movies. Rating: NNNN
The 1970s grindhouse revival hits its apex in Drive Angry, which takes everything that’s good about genre movies – sun, sweat, muscle cars, sinister cultists, an undercurrent of irreverent wit, unapologetic servings of sex and violence – and distills it into a Nicolas Cage chase movie. In 3-D and everything!
Patrick Lussier and Todd Farmer’s script mashes up the Peter Fonda quickie Race With The Devil and the Christopher Walken thriller The Prophecy for a story about a mysterious avenger (Cage) tearing up the American South to rescue a baby from apocalyptic cultists. Things get complicated once another pursuer, known only as the Accountant (William Fichtner), joins the chase.
Cage has a great deal of fun, and Fichtner provides a calm and very funny contrast as his implacable opponent. Billy Burke will horrify Twilight fans as a very bad man with terrible fashion sense.
But Amber Heard steals the picture as an embittered diner server swept up in Cage’s mission. Seriously, why isn’t she a proper movie star yet?
