Drive Angry 2011

Drive Angry is a 2011 American action film starring Nicolas Cage and Amber Heard, and directed by Patrick Lussier. It was released on February 25, 2011. Shot in 3-D, the film was met with a mixed reception and grossed almost $30 million.

Plot

In Colorado, John Milton (Nicolas Cage) interrogates the only survivor of a car wreck he caused, seeking Jonah King (Billy Burke), the leader of a Satanic cult who murdered Milton's daughter and took her baby. In three days, King and his followers will sacrifice the child at midnight. After the man tells him where Jonah King is, Milton sets off for Louisiana to find his grandchild. He is then being followed by a strange man in a suit (William Fichtner) who identifies himself as "The Accountant".

At a diner in Oklahoma, Milton meets a waitress, Piper (Amber Heard), who gives him a ride. After dropping Milton off, she goes to her fiance Frank's (Todd Farmer) house to discover Frank is having sex with another woman. Piper viciously fights the other woman, and gets into an argument with Frank, who then decides to pulverize Piper. Milton rescues Piper, knocking Frank out, and they leave in her car. Later, The Accountant comes to Frank's house, still looking for Milton. Angry, Frank attacks the Accountant, who kills Frank with a broken baseball bat. Police arrive, and the Accountant presents an FBI badge, telling them to help him find Milton, who is supposedly an escaped convict.

Milton and Piper then stay for the night at a roadside bar/motel. Piper later spots Jonah King, who orders his men to find and kill Milton. In the motel, Milton is having sex with a waitress (Charlotte Ross), and without stopping is able to kill most of Hill's men; Piper kills the final one. The Accountant and the police arrive to find Milton. Both officers get killed, and Piper and Milton escape. The Accountant pursues them, but is shot by Milton with a strange gun that makes the Accountant's car crash. Despite not wanting anything to do with the situation, Piper agrees to help Milton to find his grandchild.

Further up the road, Milton and Piper come to a church where Jonah is inside with Milton's infant granddaughter. During the struggle, Milton is shot in the eye and apparently killed. Jonah leaves with Piper in a RV. Soon after, Milton gets up, killing almost everyone in the church, and catches up with Jonah. He manages in rescuing Piper, but Jonah escapes with the child. Back at the church, The Accountant finds someone who is still alive and he tells the Accountant that they shot Milton but he survived. He tells the Accountant that they have supposedly made a pact with Satan and that sacrificing the child will bring hell on earth. The Accountant is, however, amusedly skeptical of this.

Nearing their destination and needing a new car, Milton stops at the farm of an old acquaintance (David Morse), who is shocked to see Milton alive. Piper angrily demands an explanation for how Milton could've possibly survived being shot in the skull. He says that Milton was a career criminal, but was killed over 20 years ago. Milton explains that he was condemned to Hell, where the damned are punished by being forced to watch their loved ones suffer in real life. Claiming that his daughter was "the only good thing he ever did in his life", seeing King abuse and murder her enraged him to the point he was able to escape his bonds. The bizarre looking gun that he carries with him is called the "Godkiller", which he stole from the Devil himself, and has the ability to not just kill a person, but to erase their very soul from existence.

Just before storming the prison, the Accountant is finally able to catch up with Milton and Piper. He assures them that King and his followers have made no such pact with Lucifer (in fact, cults that kill in his name are apparently one of his greatest annoyances). He agrees to let Milton complete his objective, but is still going to return him to Hell when it's all over.

Minutes before midnight, Milton literally crashes the gathering, and he and Piper kill nearly all of King's followers. Just before he can kill the child, Piper is able to recover the Godkiller from the accountant and tries to shoot Jonah, she misses and then the gun lands next to the altar. King then beats Milton,while Milton is crawling to the gun, right when King is about to deliver the final blow Milton pulls out the Godkiller and shoots him.

With his mission completed, Milton asks Piper to watch after his granddaughter, which she agrees to. Milton is drinking a beer out of the cap of Jonah's skull, when the Accountant arrives to bring him back to Hell. Milton graciously enters a car that the Accountant summons (only after demanding that he get to drive it) and cockily tells the Accountant that if he escaped Hell once, he can surely do it again. Almost hopefully, the Accountant says he doesn't doubt him. The film then ends with a portal opening, and Milton and the Accountant driving across a long fiery bridge back into Hell.

Cast

•           Nicolas Cage as John Milton

•           Amber Heard as Piper

•           William Fichtner as The Accountant

•           Billy Burke as Jonah King

•           David Morse as Webster

•           Katy Mixon as Norma Jean

•           Kayla Rice-Cote as Lily King

•           Christa Campbell as Mona Elkins

•           Charlotte Ross as Candy

•           Tom Atkins as Police Captain

•           Bryan Massey

•           James Hébert[

•           Brent Henry as Teen #2

•           Kendrick Hudson as Burly

•           Jack Rush as Hank Mardukis

•           Simone Williams as Leopard Lady

•           Kenneth Wayne Bradley as Man In Wig

•           Pruitt Taylor Vince as Roy

Production

The film was shot in 3-D, and special effects were created by Gary Tunnicliffe. The cameras were rented from Paradise FX. The three cars driven by Cage in the film are a 1963 Buick Riviera, a 1969 Dodge Charger R/T (440 Engine) and a 1971 Chevrolet Chevelle SS 454. The lead actor Nicolas Cage narrated the supernatural film at WonderCon 2010. Patrick Lussier wrote the film with Todd Farmer. Lussier filmed the movie in Minden, Plain Dealing and Shreveport, Louisiana.

Release

The film was released in the US on 25 February 2011. Footage premiered on 23 July 2010 as part of the San Diego Comic-Con International.

Critical reception

The film has received mixed reviews from critics. It currently holds a 45% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 111 reviews, and an average rating of 5.3/10. James Kendrick said it was 'loud, vicious, tasteless and inane'. He then went on to say 'it thunders at you from every direction with a wild abandon that is more irritating and desperate than enlivening'. Mark Jenkins from the Washington Post commented that 'Even at its most lurid, though, the movie is a little dull. And it only gets less compelling as the back story fills in.' Thomas Layer from the Toronto Telegraph said the film was an "abysmal nightmare" and that this film was "more evidence that Nicolas Cage is a monotone, uninspiring thespian whose films should be avoided at all costs". On the other hand, Elizabeth Weitzman from the New York Daily News wrote, "Drive Angry is pure grindhouse, so committed to its own junkiness that it is, in its way, a pleasure to behold." The Evening Standard film critic Stewart Pulsey praised the film for its "resilient desire to unmask the hypocrisies of patriarchal desire systems" but felt that the final act left an "acrid taste of laudanum and deflated erotica" in audiences' mouths.

Box office

The film is considered a box office bomb, having opened at ninth place within the box office rankings at an underperforming $1.6 million on Friday, with a lower than expected $5 million weekend. Drive Angry's box office performance made it the lowest-grossing opening of a 3D film released in over 2,000 US theaters . The film has however been slightly more successful in international markets earning $29,396,302 but was still not able to recover its budget.