One of the great benefits of insomnia, is that fact that it gives me literally plenty of time to find every points club, coupon site, text club to join etc. Some night, probably at about 3 AM, I joined some Redbox thing that allows me to get random texts with free promo codes. I wish I remember how I did it, because it's one of the few useful clubs I'm in.
Today, I received such a text and decided that it was the perfect opportunity to rent a movie that I just wasn't sure of - Nicolas Cage's Drive Angry. Personally I love the popcorn movie thing that Cage can do. Is it over the top? Yes. Is some of the dialog awful? Putrid. Does stuff go boom? Most certainly. But for what it is, pure popcorn movie suspension of disbelief shoot 'em up fun. Will Drive Angry win any awards? Never. But it is damn fun.
The best thing that the movie does, it know what it is. It's not a plot deep, character driven indie drama. It's an action flick. Flick as in doesn't even claim film or movie as a description. When I saw a previous Cage vehicle, Bangkok Dangerous, I expected an action flick. What I got was a boring, slow, painfully drawn out wanna-be indie critic's darling. Thank you Mr. Cage for giving up that ghost and finding a much more entertaining one.
Cage plays, John Milton (clever wink, think Paradise Lost), a father out for revenge. He's breaks out of hell and drives some spectacularly gorgeous muscle cars while trying to outrun Death (capital D) and save his grand-daughter from a creepy cult leader. Yes it sounds a lot like Ghost Rider with cool cars. That's pretty much it. It's simple, it's clear, it's a linear line that drives through anything it can find. And it works. The script literally spends more time detailing the cars Cage drives than any mythology or dogma. Grandpa escapes Hell to help Granddaughter. Which I honestly have to problem believing.
Along the way he picks up the heroine of the flick, Piper, played capably by Amber Heard. Heard does what Megan Fox was supposed to do in the Transformer movies. Make edgy, tough and beautiful both believable and legendary. She is not given much to work with, 65% (made up %) of her dialog probably comes from her first 10 minutes on screen. However, her inclusion in any future films/flicks will certainly garner my attention. She finds away to come across as something of a mix of Bonnie Parker and Daisy Duke. What's not to love?
Milton and Piper of course carry the film, the cult leader is creepy but ultimately forgettable and William Fichtner plays Death with his usual character actor polish. Understated is always better, I mean, who can surprise Death? All in all it's well cast, well paced an a fun rental. Especially if you manage to get it for free.
Rating: A- (Tried to steal the sex scene-shoot out from Shoot 'em Up)
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