Darkmatters Review: Drive Angry 3D

Drive Angry 3D (18)


Dir. Patrick Lussier

Reviewed by Matt Adcock

“Tell them, I’m coming… Hell is already walking the Earth”

How far would you go to avenge the death of your daughter and save the life of her baby? If you’re John Milton (Nic Cage in full on wild eyed, insane mode) then you’d break out of hell itself and hunt down the sick murdering cult leader who killed your loved one and plans to sacrifice her baby to Satan. Seems only right really.

"Amber Heard - looks very good in 3D"

Drive Angry 3D is a lurid, pulpy nitrous powered assault on your frontal lobes. I don't think anything can quite prepare you for this balls out, full throttle overload of wanton 3D action, sex and violence. So if you’re easily offended – be it by nudity, gore, cussing, violence or dodgy acting, then you really shouldn’t check this film. If however you like your plot and dialogue off the scale stupid, your women smoking hot and your action totally over the top, then Drive Angry might just be the best film you’ve ever seen.

Drive Angry 3D delivers everything that limp comic adaptation Ghost Rider failed to. Here Cage brings his Kick Ass A-game and is ably assisted by Amber Heard who scorches the screen, sizzling in 3D.

"This is 'driving really angry'"

The revenge / save the baby plot won’t win any originality awards but it serves as an excuse for director Patrick ’My Bloody Valentine’ Lussier to wreak as much bloody carnage as humanly possible – all in eye-popping 3D. Lussier delivers a megaton action horror that has put him on the cinematic map, and bagged him the right to make the next Halloween and Hell Raiser films. He is also an unlikely master of 3D – cars, bullets, blood and babes are surely what 3D was developed to deliver and Drive Angry 3D has the best 3D around.

Amber ‘All the boys love Mandy Lane’ Heard is the hot ticket actress of the moment and she delivers a great love interest / side kick to Cage here. The supporting cast are strong too with the excellent William Fichtner channelling Christopher Walken as Hell’s own unstoppable ‘Accountant’ and Billy Burke is all twitchy satanic menace as deranged cult leader Jonah King.

"Not just a pretty face"

Drive Angry 3D is a cult classic in the making, packing mean classic US automobiles such as the ’69 Dodge Charger along with unforgettable scenes including a ‘Shoot ’Em Up’ homage where Cage gets into a massive close quarters gun battle whilst making love to waitress.

It might not be big or clever, but Drive Angry 3D is perfect pulp fiction schlock and action fans should sell their souls to see this!

Out of a potential 5 you have to go with a Darkmatters:

ööööö

(5 - a perfect storm of grindhouse B movie action)...

Awesomeness ööööö – don't fear the reaper
Laughs ööö – slap stick violence a go go
Horror öööö – goes over the line of good taste many times
Babes ööööö – Amber Heard is a thermo-nuclear hottie
Spiritual Enlightenment ööö – did you know that Satan doesn't like when people sacrifice babies to him?
- - -

Second opinion - try Bloody Disgusting who call Drive Angry 'first “fun” horror movie of the year'.

Try this pro / con list of checking the film too from BLOG CABIN

"Amber is the hot ticket actress for 2011"

More Amber Heard reviews on Darkmatters:

Miss Heard stars in And Soon The Darkness

Best looking zombie in Zombieland

Comedy star in Pinapple Express

and

Trophy girlriend in Never Back Down

Darkmatters Review: PAUL

Paul (15)


Dir. Greg Mottola

Reviewed by Matt Adcock

Prepare for some quality close encounters of the nerd kind…

In the beginning there was Spaced, it was a superb slacker TV comedy that fused sci-fi geekiness with laugh out loud comedy to winning effect. Spaced launched the comedy genius partnership of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost onto the world and it also paved the way for their excellent big screen films Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.

Now the dynamic duo reunite for a new comedy of intergalactic proportions - ‘Paul’. This is the tale of two average sci-fi nerd earthlings, Graeme Willy (Pegg) and Clive Gollings (Frost), who pick up a hitch hiker named Paul whilst trekking across America's UFO heartland. But Paul isn’t your average traveller – he’s a crash landed alien with a foul mouth and extra-terrestrial powers - who joins the guys on a bawdy road trip that just might alter their universe forever.

"The good, the bad and the nerdy - Comic-Con"

‘Paul’ is the ultimate fan boy sci-fi movie reference viewing experience, a love letter to every cinematic Martian adventure and close encounter we’ve had. From Star Wars through E.T. and Aliens – Paul is packed with dialogue lines, visual gags and nods of the head ripped from those classics of the genre.

Paul (voiced by Seth Rogen) has been amongst us for a while, he’s been trapped at a top-secret military base for the last 60 years. But it seems that his usefulness to them appears to be coming to an end and so he promptly escapes pursued by gun toting federal agents. Graeme and Clive are the unwitting humans who he picks to help him get back to his mother ship – and comic misadventure on a grand scale ensues.

"We come in peace..."

Director Greg ‘Superbad’ Mottola brings a more frat boy feel to Paul and evokes a harder side to the comedy of his leading men than Edgar ‘Scott Pilgrim’ Wright did in Hot Fuzz etc. So it’s possible that you’ll be a bit offended by Paul if looking for the traditional Pegg / Frost vein of good natured comedy.

The special effects are great and Paul the alien is a masterpiece of CGI creation, fitting in superbly with the talented human cast which includes Kristen Wiig as a one eyed hill-billie bible basher love interest!?

Overall Paul is a triumphant blast – effectively pressing the inner nerd buttons and packing in more smiles per minute than any other comedy so far this year.

Out of a potential 5 you have to go with a Darkmatters:

öööö

(4 - my God, it's full of stars)...

Awesomeness ööööö – take me to your leader
Laughs öööö – lots of quality laughs
Horror öö – nothing too grim
Babes ööö – Kristen Wiig is fair
Spiritual Enlightenment ööö – faith in a God who can love more than one species required!?
- - -
Second opinion - try Den of Geek

"worth Wiig-ing out for?"