In 2011, Patrick Lussier and Todd Farmer out-Ghost Rider‘d both Nicolas Cage-starring Ghost Rider films with Drive Angry, a modern exploitation gem starring… Nicolas Cage.
Earlier this week, the trailer for Panos Cosmatos’ Mandy hit the net, looking like Hellraiser by way of Dario Argento and with Nicolas Cage in the mix as an axe-wielding, chainsaw-fighting badass tasked with fending off an unhinged religious sect in the 1980s. If your tastes are anything like mine, you absolutely NEED to see Mandy RIGHT NOW, but the sad reality is that you’re going to have to wait until it’s released on September 14. In the meantime, there’s damn sure no shortage of fun Nic Cage movies to pass the time with.
Hell, I’m pretty sure fifteen have already come out this year.
My personal recommendation? The Farmer-penned, Lussier-directed Drive Angry, which didn’t make a splash at the box office nor did it win over most critics. And really, it’s not the sort of film that was ever going to be a hit in either department. Drive Angry, rather, succeeds admirably at being precisely the kind of film it set out to be: a bona fide cult classic.
Like few films are brave enough to these days, Drive Angry ushers us into a world rife with its own wacky mythology and asks us to accept its rules, no questions asked. The plot? Well, Cage stars as John Milton, a dead man who has just broken out of Hell. You see, Hell in the world of Drive Angry is actually a prison where the world’s most “badass motherfuckers” are held, and Milton breaks free when he learns that his murdered daughter’s child has been kidnapped by a cult. I repeat. Cage plays a dead dude who breaks out of Hell to save a baby from a cult.
Oh and by the way, Milton plans to kill Jonah, the man who murdered his daughter, with the “God Killer,” one big ass gun that he stole from the personal collection of… SATAN.
Many Nic Cage films have one standout scene that fans essentially use to identify which movie is which, because it can admittedly be hard to keep track of Cage’s career. The recent Mom and Dad, for example, is “the one where Cage beats the shit out of a pool table,” while Wicker Man is of course “the one with the bees.” I suppose that’d make Drive Angry, “the one where Nicolas Cage kills a bunch of dudes while he’s having sex,” as the film is home to what is unquestionably one of the most bizarre sex scenes in cinema history. Milton is having sex with a woman in a hotel (while smoking a cigar and swigging a bottle of whiskey) when a few of Jonah’s men come knocking. Rather than stopping, Cage shoots and kills everyone in sight. Bottle of whiskey still in his hand. Cigar still in his mouth. And, well, you get the idea.
The whole scene is shown in slow-motion, in case you had any delusions about the particular brand of exploitation ridiculousness and excess Drive Angry dedicates itself to dishing out.
As much as a surprisingly subdued Cage shines in Drive Angry as an undead felon who eventually loses an eye, the film isn’t entirely the “Nic Cage Show.” Cage is surrounded by a great cast in this one, with Amber Heard as Piper, the waitress who ends up joining him on his journey of revenge, and Billy Burke as satanist Jonah King. William Fichtner is a particular standout as the cocksure right-hand-man of Satan who goes by the name The Accountant, assigned to bring Milton back to Hell. Fichtner is perfectly cast in the role, turning The Account into a supremely entertaining villain who arguably steals the show even from Cage.
And then there’s horror legend Tom Atkins, who pops up halfway into the film to make Drive Angry even more of a treat. Atkins, who had previously starred in Farmer and Lussier’s My Bloody Valentine 3D, naturally plays a take-no-shit sheriff in Drive Angry, who has but one order for his team: aim for all of their heads. There’s a good chance Drive Angry will go down as being Atkins’ last appearance in a studio film on the big screen, and that’s just more reason to love it.
From start to finish, Drive Angry embraces its grindhouse spirit with high octane enthusiasm, loaded with all the explosions, car chases and bloody carnage you’re surely asking for it to deliver. It’s the sort of film that knows what you want because it’s made by people who want what you want, culminating in an all-time great Nic Cage moment where he turns a human skull into a beer glass. It’s something Cage’s Milton promised earlier in the film that he’d eventually do, and that’s what Drive Angry is all about: promising exploitation insanity and making sure to deliver it. It’s all capped off with Milton driving back into Hell, Meatloaf’s “Alive” playing loud and proud. Because of course it is.
If you’re looking for prime Cage material on the road to Mandy, look no further.
