Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on August 2011

There’s fun to be had if you can get past the Tarantinesque violence and go in to this over-the-top homage to grindhouse supernatural revenge films with a positive attitude. Did I just write “grindhouse supernatural revenge films”? Jeez. In one of Nicolas Cage’s better recent cheapies, he plays a man relentlessly pursuing Jonah King (Billy Burke), a dickless cult leader who has infant-napped his granddaughter for a full-moon sacrifice. This film is not for the squeamish, or for the sane for that matter, or for the particularly tasteful, but any movie including nude catfights and a motorhome chase scene can’t be dull, and it also offers up an infectious brand of tongue-in-cheek humor. Sample dialogue: “I am going to kill you. And then I’m going to defile your corpse.” Or, “I don’t believe I’ll be having that beer right now, not unless I’d be drinking it from Jonah King’s skull.” Most of the laughs are thanks to a dry, wry William Fichtner, playing a mysterious, unflappable “Accountant” who is pursuing the pursuer. Amber Heard is a suitably feisty heroine. In one gunbattle, Cage dispatches a dozen or so bad guys during the sex scene, pausing only for a swig of Jack.