Drive Angry is a low rent sleazy grindhouse type thriller starring an Oscar winner who has seen better days but has a big tax bill to pay.

Nicolas Cage plays John Milton. It just so happens there was a famous English poet with the same name who wrote Paradise Lost. I think there is a clue here.

Milton is a man on a mission. His daughter was killed by a satan worshipping cult leader Jonah King (Billy Burke.) King has taken her baby and plans to sacrifice it and hopes to bring hell on earth.

Milton is literally after King like a bat out of hell to save his grandaughter. Milton teams up with a kindly waitress, Piper (Amber Heard) who he meets in a diner. As both of them go after King, a mysterious person known as the Accountant (William Fichtner) wants to bring back Milton from where he has escaped from and pursues him like a hound from hell.

Burke hams it up as the cult leader, Fichtner seems to be having fun, Cage is a bit dull. It is entertaining tosh, a bit stupid and also overlong.

DRIVE ANGRY is one of those movies that looks like a barrel of laughs from the trailer and when you sit down to watch it you realise all the best bits were, indeed, in the trailer. It becomes a chore to sit through the rest of the uninvolving movie, waiting for a set-piece or genuine surprise. It's also a throwback to the '70s-era exploitation movies of old, but where PLANET TERROR delivered on that nostalgic potential, DRIVE ANGRY, like MACHETE before it, fumbles the ball.

That's not to say it's entirely without merit, because undemanding or forgiving viewers might well enjoy it more than I did. It's an action-packed movie that delivers heavily on the thrills, with all manner of gruesome murder, car chases and explosions thrown in along the way. Sadly, many of the CGI effects sequences are very cheesy looking, particularly one involving a tanker which is absolutely ridiculous; this may be because of the film's 3D origins. The splatter effects are a little more convincing.

Nicolas Cage underplays the protagonist role and some might say he sleepwalks through the part, because if you're looking for a flicker of emotion you won't find it. Amber Heard is pretty but also pretty vacuous as the heroine along for the ride, and Billy Burke is a particularly uninteresting bad guy; in an era of more-more-more! Hollywood blockbusters, genuine menace seems to have been long forgotten when it comes to villains. The good news is that William Fichtner, playing the Devil's agent, is much better and something of a scene-stealer in this film, thanks to his wry humour. Character actor David Morse is also strong, albeit in a tiny role.

Call me jaded, but I just get the seen-it-all-before feeling from this movie. I'm still waiting for something fresh, inventive and full of energy, and mostly importantly, something that fully involves you and engages you in the story. DRIVE ANGRY, while a superficially entertaining piece of movie-making, isn't that film.

Milton (Nicolas Cage) is hunting Satanic cult leader Jonah King (Billy Burke) who murdered his daughter and kidnapped her baby. Jonah is about to sacrifice the baby in 3 day's time. Milton gets a ride off of roadside diner waitress Piper (Amber Heard). Meanwhile Milton is pursued by the powerful Accountant (William Fichtner).

It's all pumping music and overblown action with a splash of female nudity. Amber Heard is strutting around in her Daisy Dukes. There is a lot to like, but the story isn't that compelling. It is a simplistic balls-out no-holds-bar vulgar entertainment. It's not going to win any awards, but it's good for the midnight crowd.