This could have been amazing. A guy escapes from Hell to stop some devil worshippers from using his baby granddaughter as a human sacrifice. I'm not a fan of Nic Cage at all but in this film he puts in a decent performance, only surpassed by Amber Heard as his sidekick. Whenever Heard is on screen this is very watchable. She and Cage have pretty good chemistry and the plot in a nutshell is simple and fun. Unfortunately there are way too many dull subplots going on that really kill the pace of the film. One minute you'll be marvelling at what fun this film is. Some of it is bonkers, action packed and funny. And then there are tedious scenes that go on for ages where characters just explain the plot or reel off dull dialogue in very slow monotone voices. Billy Burke is sadly miscast as the bad guy. He has little in the way of motive and he's just mincing around making evil speeches. It should be a fun part, the kind that Gary Oldman used to do in his sleep or John Travolta did in Broken Arrow. Instead you find yourself wanting to skip scenes looking for more Nic and Amber and fast cars. William Fichtner is added into the mix too and although he's okay, many of his scenes could have been deleted. At times early in the film it felt like he and Burke were playing the same character.
Overall it's worth a watch. I love this kind of film. It has fast cars, nudity, gun fights, slapstick violence with garden tools, a sexy sidekick, a guy who escaped from Hell, and devil worshippers. It could have been the best film ever. But it's just ok.
Review of Drive Angry
