Drive Angry

Drive Angry casts Nicolas Cage as John Milton, a hardened criminal who has escaped from Hell for the sole purpose of avenging his daughter’s death. Along with a scrappy waitress (Amber Heard’s Piper), Milton embarks on a campaign of violence as he works his way towards a callous cult leader (Billy Burke’s Jonah King) – with the character’s efforts complicated by the ongoing presence of a sinister figure known only as The Accountant (William Fichtner). It’s an unabashedly outrageous premise that’s employed to consistently underwhelming effect by filmmaker Patrick Lussier, as the director is simply (and consistently) unable to transform the movie into the fun, over-the-top thrill ride that one might’ve expected. This is despite the inclusion of several broadly conceived and executed action sequences (eg Milton takes out a room full of thugs while having sex) with the movie’s reality-bending, pervasively meaningless vibe draining such moments of their excitement (ie it’s difficult to work up much interest in the ongoing exploits of a seemingly invincible protagonist). The one bright spot within the proceedings is Fichtner’s unapologetically flamboyant turn as The Accountant, as the actor does a superb job of infusing the otherwise stale atmosphere with all-too-sporadic jolts of energy. (Fichtner’s engaging performance certainly stands in sharp contrast to Burke’s flat, hopelessly dull work as the movie’s central villain.) It is, as such, finally impossible to label Drive Angry as anything more than a tedious waste of time, with the distractingly low-rent visuals only compounding the film’s many, many problems.

*1/2 out of ****