- Title: Rage
- IMDb: link
If you expect anything more from Rage than yet another throwaway B-movie from Nicolas Cage you are bound to be disappointed. Set around the life of a former mobster turned businessman, the film follows the decent of Paul Maguire (Cage) when his teenage daughter (Aubrey Peeples) is kidnapped and later found dead.
After her body turns up shot by a Tokarev traced back to the Russian mob, Maguire believes it must tie back into a hit from the old days involving a dead Russian mobster. Rounding up his old crew (Max Ryan, Michael McGrady) for answers and payback, Maguire’s actions threaten to start a gang war across the entire city.
Starting out like Taken, Rage turns into a revenge flick when the body of Maguire’s daughter is found. The trouble is the script by Jim Agnew and Sean Keller relies far too much on twists and coincidences to be compelling. And despite the number of long-held shots by Paco Cabezas Rage isn’t nearly as deep or dramatic as it aspires to be.
Although it delivers at times for a basic revenge fantasy flick, Rage wastes the talents of most of its supporting cast. Rachel Nichols is an intriguing cast as the loving stepmother, but the script can never quite figure out how to properly use her. The same can be said for Danny Glover as a cop who keeps giving Maguire a break even when the police can tie him directly to multiple murder, public destruction, and the even injured police officers whose cars he wrecks during an extended chase sequence.
With a more somber tone than many of Cage’s recent throwaway action flicks, Rage lacks the dumb goofiness of train wreck like The Sorcerer’s Apprentice or crazy over-the-top violence of something like Drive Angry. Since the dramatic elements aren’t strong enough to carry the film this results in a far less memorable entry into the actor’s checkered career along the lines of the equally bad Season of the Witch.
Available on both Blu-ray and DVD, extras include short behind-the-scenes featurettes on the making of the film and dircetor Paco Cabezas, deleted scenes, and slightly different opening and closing scenes to the film.
[Image Entertainment, DVD $29.96 / Blu-ray $34.97]