With Patrick Lussier's Drive Angry it seems that Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez are no longer the only ones making Grindhouse movies. When your movie begin with the hero walking away from a fireball in slow motion while an electric guitar wails victoriously, you know exactly what type of film you're gonna get; dumb, profane violent, gory, sexy, trashy fun. Yep, it's Grindhouse pure and simple...tons of nudity, tons of swearing, limbs are cut off, people are tortured and there's a cool soundtrack to accompany it all. Just wonderful.
Cage is, surprisingly, on subdued mode...but has the quiet charisma we've come to expect to pull this ludicris stuff off. William Fichtner steals the show as 'The Accountant', a smartly dressed bounty hunter from hell who's take on life on Earth is expressed with a cool detachment and an superior amusement at the antics of the mortals around him. He's one for the bad guy hall of fame. But topping Fichtner is Amber Heard as Piper, armed with the shortest shorts, the longest legs, the fiercest attitude and the cutest face in cinema during 2011. If she manages to escape these meager scream queen beginnings, and retains her looks, acting ability and attitude, we may have another Angelina on the way. Of course she's recently outed herself as "bi" or lesbian, which means Hollywood prejudice might kick in and relegate her to TV land...but here's hoping.
If you liked Planet Terror, Machete and From Dusk Til Dawn, you should like this. It may lack the sparkle of Tarantino dialogue or the sheer inventiveness od Rodriguez's' direction...but there's still 10 times the amount of fun to be had than in a Bruckheimer production of the last decade.
