Movies / Home Theatre

Drive Angry on Blu-Ray

By Hervé St-Louis
May 30, 2011 - 20:09

After witnessing the murder of his daughter and the kidnapping of his granddaughter by a satanic cult, hell-bound Milton escapes from Hell on a muscle car ready to save his granddaughter. While chasing the satanic cult, he meets tough girl Piper and attempts to escape from the police and the Accountant, Hell’s enforcer sent to bring him back home. Will Milton save his granddaughter from the evil cult leader Jonah King?

First, I must say that although it seems to be a trend, I’m not a fan of Nicholas Cage. After watching some of his B movies like Bangkok Dangerous, I’ve just grown to dislike his mug generally. So if, like me you are not a fan of Cage and cannot stand his face, please, do not watch this film.

Drive Angry is a ridiculous white trash movie that even fans of the genre will regret watching. It’s just not good. It feels like every wish the director and writer Patrick Lussier ever had were in the movie. However, they did not reach the level where the plot and the scenes became so bad as to be self-mocking. This is a very literal movie although it seems to have a hint of dark humour.

This film is not intended for kids. It has lots of female nudity and most of it is over the top. It’s not tasteful nudity. It’s dirty. For example, one major scene has Milton shooting and attacking hordes of cultists while at the same time having a waitress strapped to his groin while he continues to have sex with her. She continues her screaming and moaning while he shoots villains. Some movies are so bad they become good. But Drive Angry never reaches that level. Rather, it feels like it’s attempting to, but falls short in every regard.

Eye candy Piper, played by Amber Heard is sexy, but for some odd reason, never falls into the pits of all the other whores in the film. Because she can somewhat kick some ass, she is absolved from showing cleavage. The only scene with her that made me laugh was the one where the guy she picked up at a bar was polishing her nails, expecting more sex from her later.  I would say that Heard has probably cast herself in the vixen mole for the rest of her career with this trashy movie.

Parts that I wish had been expanded were how Milton escaped from hell. All we see him doing is driving his car on a bridge from hell at the beginning of the movie. The producers saved quite a lot of money by using a 3D rendering of hell without anything particularly special or impressive and concentrating the bulk of the film on the Southern trashy towns. The film is not even a good road movie as the characters don’t really bond although Piper seem to really like Milton be the end of the movie. The one saving grace is William Fichtner as the Accountant. he was funny.

Visually, there’s not much to say. It’s a trashy movie set in Oklahoma and Louisiana. That’s all there is to this film. The gore and prostheses used to mimic missing limbs, bloody wounds and slash are not even well done. It’s more like red paint thrown on a wall to see if it sticks.

The Blue-Ray supplements are a little bit imaginative. You can follow Milton's trail of destruction in some features or have special views of riding scenes in others. The muscle cars were all nice, but it’s hard to understand who this film is aimed for? Is it for muscle car aficionados, wife-beaters, slash and trash fans? Who is this film intended for?

A DVD and 3D Blu-ray version of this film are also available.

Rating: 4 /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12