6.7 | / 10 |
Users | 4.1 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.9 |
A vengeful father escapes from hell and chases after the men who killed his daughter and kidnapped his granddaughter.
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Amber Heard, William Fichtner, Billy Burke, David MorseAction | 100% |
Fantasy | 49% |
Thriller | 37% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 MVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
English SDH, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (2 BDs)
Bonus View (PiP)
BD-Live
Blu-ray 3D
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (locked)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Hell is already walking the earth.
Hurry up and call Tarantino; somebody stole a script he wrote back when he was 13. Drive Angry has all the makings of some Quentin
Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez Grindhouse movie, except that it's a failure instead of a success. It's not an
epic
failure, though, just a regular old woulda-could-shoulda been better fail, feeling like the kind of thing Tarantino wrote as a teenager, a movie with all
the
makings of something better but just not quite fleshed out to the point of respectability or, as cinephiles have come to expect from the video store
clerk-turned Hollywood sensation, greatness. Drive Angry, a hard-R action rampage with sex, boobs, and booze
aplenty thrown in for good measure, has its moments and more or less works as a slice of raw off-the-bone entertainment. It wants to be a
sizzling-hot fresh off-the-grill mouthwatering delight, but Director Patrick Lussier, whose most notable work is the competent but forgettable 3D
Remake/Chiller My Bloody Valentine, winds up only playing copycat with his movie,
taking
elements of superior throwback genre pictures and winding up with Ghost Rider on steroids rather than the second coming of Death Proof.
Don't drive angry.
Drive Angry is a film that really doesn't "benefit" from a 3D release; the material doesn't necessarily seem to demand it, and outside of good
general depth and a few gimmicky 3D-specific effects -- many of which work along with a few that don't -- the 3D presentation seems more like it's a
part of the film
because it could be, not because it needed to be. Fortunately, the filmmakers chose to shoot natively in 3D rather than convert the 2D image after
the
fact, so if there's a positive to be found it's that the 3D visuals are quite good, if still superfluous. As noted, Drive Angry enjoys fantastic
depth; the image is able to showcase both distant and close-up visuals with equal clarity and realism, whether stretches of road that extend well back
into the depths of the television or just the shape of characters and objects as they appear nearer to the screen. Where most films seem to aim
more for depth than cheap 3D-specific visuals, Drive Angry wrenches in a host of forced 3D content that seems a given considering the
nature of the film. A shotgun extends well out of the screen, a spent casing is ejected into the living room, various exploding debris seems to fly right
out of the screen, and a flipped coin spins round-and-round as it comes out of the screen and falls back in. All of these effects look rather good, but
are never wholly convincing. Like the movie, it often seems as if the special 3D-specific effects are just trying too hard. Viewers will be pleased with
the minimal amount of crosstalk, or "ghosting," evident throughout the movie.
Fortunately, Drive Angry's more traditional attributes excel. Fine detailing is generally fantastic, with the transfer picking up the texture of
every strand of Amber Heard's full-bodied haircut; facial intricacies on every character; seams in clothing; and the smallest nuances as seen on car
paint jobs, paved roadways, and the like. The image is very clean, impeccably crisp, and naturally sharp. It's maybe a little too polished and
shiny at times, but there's no denying that it never misses a beat. Colors are very natural (though maybe just a hair dull in 3D); flesh tones never
veer towards a red or orange push; and black levels are strong, if not a touch damaging to the finest of foreground details in the darkest scenes. The
image appears to be free of any intrusive banding, blocking, edge enhancement, or any other negative atributes. Noise is practically nonexistent,
adding to the excessively polished and clean look the image provides. Drive Angry might not be the sort of film that really benefits from a 3D
presentation -- it seems kind of like a marketing gimmick in this instance -- but there's no denying that Summit's first Blu-ray 3D transfer is at least
very technically competent from the top-down, no surprise given the studio's history of releasing exceptional-looking titles.
Drive Angry's DTS-HD MA 5.1 lossless soundtrack is exactly as one would expect of a movie about fast cars and gruesome violence. It's loud, full of energy, and it milks every gun blast and revving engine for all they're worth, and then some for good measure. Indeed, this is very standard stuff in terms of the high-octane, over-the-top sorts of listens. The entire soundstage pounds out one heavy note or effect after another, effectively engulfing the listener in the mayhem of Drive Angry in most every frame. Music is crisp and spills from every speaker with clarity of the highest order and with enough juice to push the best sound systems to the limit. Bass is strong, gunshots are potent, and various action-oriented sound effects inundate the listening area with unparalleled devastation. Imaging and directional effects are as precisely-tuned as the cars in the movie, dialogue never misses a beat, and even a few quieter scenes deliver impressive background ambience that rounds Drive Angry into an exhilaratingly complete listening experience.
Drive Angry contains no 3D-exclusive extras; all supplements are found on the included 2D-only Blu-ray disc.
Drive Angry is one of those wishy-washy eh, could have been better, could have been worse movies. It's fine for what it is, but at the same time it feels terribly unimaginative. The plot isn't worth the paper it's written on, serving only as a means to an end to get the movie from one action scene to the next. Even with the premise of a baby on the brink of being sacrificed, there's no heart, no emotion, just an admittedly fun but very choppy ride down the same old Action movie highway, except here Drive Angry attempts to detour down Tarantino Parkway but crashes and burns instead of capturing that same kind of magic. Summit Entertainment's Blu-ray 3D release of Drive Angry yields a fairly strong 1080p 3D transfer, an Action movie-typical lossless soundtrack, and an average array of extras. Worth a rental and maybe a buy should fans of these sorts of movies find it on a good sale.
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