Drive Angry 3D2011
104 minutes
rated R
by Scott Mendelson
The problem with a film like Drive Angry is that it doesn't entirely trust the audience to get the joke. Oh sure, most of the people walking into the theater will understand that it is an homage to the drive-in exploitation fare of a generation or two ago. Yet director Patrick Lussier and writer Todd Farmer aren't quite willing to simply let the events play out onscreen without commentary. There is a periodic 'nudge-nudge/wink-wink' effect in play, a need to acknowledge the rule-breaking which transpires, that robs the film of its edge. The overly ironic approach only highlights that Drive Angry is not a genuine piece of filmmaking so much as a film school exercise in grindstone homage. At least Machete had something to say about the anti-immigration hysteria and/or national identity while (the admittedly inferior) Jonah Hex worked as a chilling parable to the fear of Tea Party-fueld domestic terrorism. Drive Angry is merely about itself.
The problem with a film like Drive Angry is that it doesn't entirely trust the audience to get the joke. Oh sure, most of the people walking into the theater will understand that it is an homage to the drive-in exploitation fare of a generation or two ago. Yet director Patrick Lussier and writer Todd Farmer aren't quite willing to simply let the events play out onscreen without commentary. There is a periodic 'nudge-nudge/wink-wink' effect in play, a need to acknowledge the rule-breaking which transpires, that robs the film of its edge. The overly ironic approach only highlights that Drive Angry is not a genuine piece of filmmaking so much as a film school exercise in grindstone homage. At least Machete had something to say about the anti-immigration hysteria and/or national identity while (the admittedly inferior) Jonah Hex worked as a chilling parable to the fear of Tea Party-fueld domestic terrorism. Drive Angry is merely about itself.
