In 2010 legendary arthouse director Werner Herzog grabbed hold of the latest 3D technology and used it to capture the contours of cave walls in Chauvet, France. His Cave Of Forgotten Dreams lovingly captured every curve and arc, welcoming the audience to experience the natural geography of ancient cave paintings in their natural environment. In 2011 Patrick Lussier applies the same principal to tits. And you can be damn sure that if Herzog couldn't work an Oscar nomination for Cave Of Forgotten Dreams that Lussier ain't gonna get squat from the critics for Drive Angry 3D, which is a shame because it is far and away the most entertaining film of this admittedly young year and features what will certainly be the best bad guy performance of the year from William Fichtner.

Here's what makes Drive Angry 3D great. Lussier, his co-writer Todd Farmer and the entire cast know exactly what sort of film they set out to make and they make no apologies for it. Screw art. This is film as entertainment, pure and simple, an example of pandering to the audience done right. You see that image up above? Photoshop in some explosions and guns and that's the appeal of the movie right there. Everybody involved knows it, the producers clearly supported it, and the result is a non-stop indulgence of adolescent teen boy fantasy wish fulfillment. This is a movie that features gratuitous nudity because nudity is fun. And if nudity is fun then more nudity is even more fun. And if nudity alone is fun then nudity coupled with violence is fantastic so why not have Amber Heard punch out a voluptuous naked woman with all of her assets plainly on display and shot in 3D to show those curves to full effect? Take that, Herzog -- people like tits better than rocks. It's just a fact. This nudity principle is also applied to cars and guns.

The story goes like this. Nicolas Cage is dead. He is also angry and likes to drive classic muscle cars. When cultists kidnap his baby granddaughter with plans to sacrifice her to Satan, ol' Nick busts out of hell to stop them. Yes, his character has a name. No, it doesn't matter what it is. You're coming to watch Crazy Nick be Crazy Nick in a ridiculous story and that's what you get. Names don't much matter. But back to the story. Hell's not happy Nick's out and so coming along after him is William Fichtner as The Accountant -- the single most memorable screen villain of the past several years and a performance from Fichtner that should have him on bloody well every casting agent's short list for the next good while. The Accountant is a mild-mannered man who possesses a very nice suit, a remarkable sense of smell, superhuman strength and no moral center whatsoever. Helping Nick on his way is Amber Heard, who wears very short shorts, owns a classic '70s muscle car and punches out a naked woman in a sequence that features the most frontal nudity you have seen in a wide release film for quite some time and yet IS NOT the most gratuitous fusion of violence and nakedness in this film by a long shot. And somewhere along the line David Morse shows up to demonstrate that Real Actors like to have fun sometimes, too.

Drive Angry 3D, in my mind, firmly establishes Patrick Lussier as the reigning king of B film. The premise is positively ridiculous and Lussier revels in it. There's no point suspending disbelief in a Lussier film -- he wants to play with your disbelief instead. Didn't think he'd go there? Well, that's reason enough to do exactly that. Lifting Lussier above the pack -- and separating this film from, say, Snakes On A Plane -- is that there's not a trace of irony or cynicism in the work. He's not making this stuff to nod or wink at his audience, he's making it because he's having the time of his life making it. And why the hell not? When this is what you're getting paid to do, why not take advantage of it? It certainly helps, too, that with the exception of a single very clunky CGI sequence the entire film is meticulously well crafted and staged. Even those most prone to dismissing Lussier's work as not being 'art' would have a hard time arguing that Lussier himself is not an artisan. He knows what he wants, he knows how to get it and he clearly knows how to get the best out of his actors.

You want to go out and see a great film? Well, you've got lots of options right now. The Oscars are running this weekend and will be happy to endorse several for your viewing pleasure. But you know what? I've seen pretty much all of the nominees at this point and for pure entertainment value you won't have nearly as much fun at any of them as you will with Drive Angry. You certainly won't see as many tits.