Now-a-Dollar April 8 | Buzz Blog
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Now-a-Dollar April 8

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Sometimes the discount theaters are a chance to catch up on what everyone was talking about a few months ago. And sometimes, they're the last pre-DVD stop for movies no one seemed interested in seeing the first time around. ---

The raunchy 1980s-set comedy Take Me Home Tonight sat on a studio shelf for years before finally sneaking into theaters last month. And while it was hidden from critics, it appears that it wasn't exactly worth the wait. Meanwhile, Liam Neeson continued his late-career reinvention as action badass in Unknown, about a man who awakens from an accident to discover that his identity has been stolen. Audiences didn't seem to embrace it in the same way they did Taken.

There's at least a dose of crazy in Drive Angry, in which Nicolas Cage cashes his latest paycheck as a man who literally escapes from hell in order to save his granddaughter from a demonic ritual sacrifice. Over-the-top violence ensues, plus one weirdly entertaining supporting performance from William Fichtner as the underworldly accountant assigned to bringing Cage back to the nether realms. The movie itself doesn't exactly feel like a visit to heaven, unless mid-coital shotgun fire is your idea of cinematic coolness.