MOVIE REVIEW: "TOKAREV" (2014)

His kidnapped daughter has been slain.

Watch a gamut of heart-rendering emotions here:

Sorrow, anguish, pain and hatred all rolled into one.

“TOKAREV” (2014) PRESS REVIEW

When the Russian mob kidnaps the daughter of a reformed criminal lord (Nicholas Cage), he rallies two of  his most trusted cronies and indulges in his own brand of justice.

Then he received some bad news about his kidnapped daughter.

She’s been brutally slain.

Now he switches gear and goes on a rampant murderous streak with a heart full of hatred and rage.

Payback is foremost on his mind.

 Spanish-filmmaker Paco Cabezas directs this film.

Cage’s career has endured peaks and falls in recent years, like most other actors. Seasons come, seasons go.

Known as an action star akin to Liam Neeson, he has achieved accolades as well as brickbats.

So there!

Catch the still photos as well as the movie trailer provided here.

Study Cage’s facial expressions.

An expression tells a million tales. Be your own judge.

This would be enough to induce you to step into the cinema to watch this violent movie.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

“DRIVE ANGRY” Movie Review. It SURELY gonna be one HELL of a DRIVE.

“DRIVE ANGRY” PRESS REVIEW

Come, take a drive with NICHOLAS CAGE as he plays this hell-bent guy on a wild, vengeance streak.

He’s insufferable.

His daughter had been brutally slain and he’s frantically seeking his grandchild before she becomes the sacrificial lamb of a cult group.

But it’s a deadly race against time.

The journey is fraught with perils and the speed is set at high gear all the way.

First, switch off your suspension (of disbelief) mode, chum.

That is, if you fully wish to enjoy this movie.

Just dispense with the logic because a lot wouldn’t have made sense anyway.

The screenwriters are not trying to piece a cohesive plot nor conjure up credible characters.

Focus on the actions which are strewn aplenty from start to finish.

Shoot-outs, car races, explosions, torture stabbings, bloody mayhem, lots.

“DRIVE ANGRY” makes no apologies for being a film of a different genre catering to a mindless niche crowd who craves for gory violence and all things that rhyme with the flavor of “spice”.

It’s a sum of many parts, unashamedly borrowing ideas from the ’70s exploitation films such as “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”, “Race with the Devil” and “Mad Max” to arrive at the current formula.

It borders precariously on the subject of HELL and the crazed people who are blind cult followers.

Yeah, hell is one big, torturing furnace.

Yeah, everybody who’s been sent to HELL will be writhing in pain.

It’s all about retribution.

You’ll get done for bad karma.

And we have to blame Milton (NICHOLAS CAGE) for transporting us there.

Milton (NICHOLAS CAGE) is a ferocious criminal who was bad, bad, and now is serving his punishment in HELL.

In HELL (of all places) he receives information that a vicious cult leader Jonah King (BILLY BURKE) has murdered his only daughter and kidnapped her baby.

Now, hell hath no fury like a grand-dad who’s on a vengeance streak.

Milton breaks out of HELL to locate the killer.

He joins forces with a pretty waitress called Piper (AMBER HEARD) who has her own axe to grind with life’s lot.

Piper usurps a 1969 charger, an old but awesome “muscle” car from her ex-boy friend.

Together, they battle against time to achieve an almost impossible mission.

Milton has three days to avoid capture, avenge his daughter’s death and save the baby grand daughter before she becomes a sacrificial target to unleash all hell on earth.

Can he?

In a twist of fate, the keeper from HELL who called himself “THE ACCOUNTANT” (WILLIAM FICHTNER) is on the rampage to seize Milton and get him back to HELL.

This is when the ultimate battle of the hell warriors breaks loose in a deadly bloody mayhem.

Now, “DRIVE ANGRY” ain’t everybody’s cup of tea.

If you dig computer games on warfare, then this one’s for you.

But if you seeker of artistically intellectual stuff, just stay away.

NICHOLAS CAGE is NICHOLAS CAGE as usual.

He wears his trademark grin, groan and grimace here, a tad haggard this time round.

AMBER HEARD is a delectable eye candy to ogle at, displaying her beautiful legs and lithe body.

But it is WILLIAM FICHTNER who steals the thunder with his smirk-ish albeit mesmerizing presence. Kudos.

Directed by PATRICK LUSSIER, the screen illuminates with the usual spills and thrills that come with a movie as nutty as this one.

You may want to classify this as an outlandish car movie with extreme violence and mayhem.

Or a fun car movie with supernatural overtones.

But let’s say it one hell of a chitty-chitty-bang-bang ride.

Visually, it is a daring movie to boot.

SO STAY BRACED FOR THE EXCITEMENT.

(AVAILABLE in 3-D at SELECTED CINEMAS)