Anderson school of feminism, which involves taking your love of the strong female roles created by James Cameron and Ridley Scott, then having a half assed attempt at it yourself, without a single clue how such things work and getting it completely wrong. And directly lifting a scene from the glorious Clive Owen-starring Shoot ‘Em Up won’t go unnoticed, especially when you make an inferior copy.Īdd to this the Paul W.S. I’m no prude and appreciate the grindhouse sensibilities, but putting your friend and co-writer in a ‘comedy’ sex scene again might be funny to you. Eventually, you’re the one that wants to become violent. It’s the cinematic equivalent of someone telling a joke which makes you laugh once, but then that person tells the same joke again and again and again, for an hour and a half.
Remember how My Bloody Valentine sought to use full frontal nudity and violence in an attempt to shock? Remember how it absolutely failed to do so? Well, Lussier didn’t, and used the ever dismal logic that ‘more is better’ by putting more naked women and more violence into Drive Angry, without the slightest idea that too much of a good thing can be incredibly tiresome. It’s a similar problem that I’ve encountered in the likes of The Devil’s Rejects, where the attempts to be shocking seem so painfully contrived that all they actually manage to do is draw attention to a lack of imagination, wit and skill. Which brings me to the ugly part of proceedings, namely, the puerile element of misogyny that sits uncomfortably in amongst everything else, leaving a slightly bad taste in the mouth.
But he’s hardly on screen at all and has very little to do with the time he’s given.īluntly? I got the overriding impression that Lussier seemed more preoccupied with thoughts of how to squeeze more full frontal nudity into the picture than in fully utilizing his incredible cast. But in Angry, Atkins is hamstrung by some cringe-inducing dialogue and very little else.Įlsewhere I was excited by the appearance of David Morse, yet another fine actor. Things take a turn for the worse, however, when it comes to the wasted supporting actors.ĭirector Patrick Lussier’s last film, My Bloody Valentine, also chose to use film legend, Tom Atkins, in an attempt to channel some of his energy from one of my all time favourite horror films, Night Of The Creeps. The Accountant also claims Drive Angry‘s finest moment, which involves a track from KC and the Sunshine Band combined with explosive vehicle surfing.
He’s that integral to the film’s quality. I also noticed every minute of screen time passing when Fichtner wasn’t around. The moment Fichtner appears on screen, the entire quality of the picture changes up a gear (car pun unintentional), as he delivers one of his funniest and sharpest turns to date in what might be a career best performance, while managing to spark Cage to life in the few scenes they share.
Here, he’s given free rein to steal every scene as The Accountant, going on to effectively steal the entire film in the process, with incredible ease. Fichtner first came to my attention after rivalling Timothy Olyphant in Go, for the most unnerving and sinister performance in that film, with the former playing the somewhat predatory Detective Burke. Speaking of superb-but-often-overlooked actors brings me to William Fichtner.