Fugitive Rage

This is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. It's not a B series movie, but a C or D series. Maybe a Z series! The plot is copied from n movies, the acting is laughable and the action is badly filmed. At the same time, I laughed so much seeing it that I spent a not so bad time. If you'll see the movie, notice how bad is the acting. Don't miss the fight in prison (notice how they stop for a little time between each kick, like they were preparing themselves for the next one). When the two mobsters try to get Tara with the car, they almost stop the car, so she can climb over. The movie is full of stuff like. It's really a laughable movie.

This is not a movie to take too seriously and anyone expecting anything like a serious crime drama would be advised to stay away. Here we have our heroine, played by Alexander Keith, jailed for shooting a scumbag gangster, beating up the jailhouse bullies, before being recruited by a government agent. With a price on her head by the stricken mobster the scene is set for her to wipe out the bad guys to say nothing of sorting out a couple of hillbilly types in a bar. The film is full of comic-strip violence of the kind where countless blows are struck to the head without leaving a mark. The shadowy agent has an eccentric minder played by a veteran actress, certainly one for the connoisseurs. It may be daft but apart from a clumsily executed and redundant sex scene, never dull.

FUGITIVE RAGE is a disappointing little adventure with just enough of a budget to look professional but not enough talent in the right places. Its lead star, Alexander Keith (credited as Wendy Schumacher), once described themselves as hoping to become "the female Van Damme," but I'm sorry to say that this movie isn't even up to Van Damme's standards. It's an action movie with bad action, and a weak attempt at a feminist feature by people who definitely aren't feminists.

The story: Sent to prison for the attempted murder of a mobster (Jay Richardson), police officer Tara McCormick (Alexander) is offered her freedom by a shady government agent (Tim Abell) in exchange for renewing her assassination attempt.

The quality of the action is average, at best. There are a few shootouts, but they're so impersonal that you won't care about them. There's a goofy instance wherein Tara is hit by a car and hood-surfs until the vehicle inexplicably crashes, but this too is boring. This leaves us with the five fight scenes, but their quality isn't much better. While Keith is a legitimate martial artist, their fights are plagued by a variety of problems: if they're not poorly blocked or clumsily edited, they're painfully slow moving or just simply feature bad choreography. If you want to see Keith's moves utilized a little more gracefully, check out the Michael Dudikoff vehicle COUNTER MEASURES, but don't get your hopes up for this one.

Dramatically, all of the performers do a decent job, and there's even a little chemistry between Keith and Shauna O'Brien as her cellmate. The problem is that the boring screenplay demands so little of these performers that virtually anybody could have played the characters. Surprises are few and innovation is nonexistent, unless the clumsy attempts to turn this into a "girl power movie" can be called clever. Director Fred Olen Ray and producer Jim Wynorski have gone on record stating their condescending opinions on female representation in B-movies, and the things they've decided to highlight in the movie reflect these. There's gratuitous nudity and sex, violence against women, recurrent sexist (and racist) dialogue, lurid descriptions of violence, and a sadistic lesbian warden. Aside from the fact that none of this is counterbalanced by simply having a physically powerful woman as the star, such features give the film a mean-spirited edge that's really too much for it to withstand. Despite its pro-woman overtones, FUGITIVE RAGE disingenuously panders to the 18-36 male demographic and suffers for it.

Even if you're not particularly put off by what I just pointed out, I still can't recommend this one at all. Die-hard B-movie enthusiasts may find mild delight in its corniness, but even they will be likely to wonder whether it was worth digging out the old VCR for. Leave it be.

Was not sure what to expect, I was thinking it would be more of a trashy woman's prison film, but turns out it is more of an assassin type film with some sleaze here and there (the mob boss had the best bath toy one could ever hope for!) Still, not really a good film, but it was entertaining in its own way. Could have used a bit more action, then again, the lead girl was not exactly believable as a badass type...

The story, woman shoots a dude who just received a not guilty verdict and hits him point blank six times. She is sent to prison and he lives. Well she is offered a deal to shoot him again which she declines until she realizes that the mob guy is still trying to get her, so she accepts and soon she is at a safe house while numerous pointless scenes ensue and before long we get to the shootout at the end where she exhibits very poor stealth, but it is all good as the bad guys are worse at shooting than Stormtroopers...

The only actor of note in this thing is Ross Hagen who used to be in a lot of B movies in the 60's and 70's. I think of him as kind of a gravely voiced generic Steve McQueen. He is usually pretty good though in what he is in and heightens lowly films to be a bit better. The lead actress is pretty cute, but the nurse the mob boss had was too cute, and her death a bit too confusing...

So, not a good film, but better than one might think as it was made by Fred Olen Ray. He generally puts in a lot of sleaze and he does so here, but not so good on the bloodshed. The plot needed work too as I did not see the point of the main girl staying at the safe house rather than just going after the mob boss. Still, it passes the time and you get to see some nice looking ladies.

Watchable paint-by-numbers action flick utilizing the female assassin shtick. Personally, I'm a fan of this sort of generic dumbassery, so I found it pretty enjoyable and scores extra points for it being made in 1996, a time when these sort of movies were starting to phase out into the unwatchable crap that passes for action nowadays. Nothing you haven't seen before but there is one scene that made me laugh out loud. After subduing one of the main bad guys, the leading lady tells her partner, "If he moves, shoot him!". She walks away and the guy starts trying to talk his way out of it and, instead of listening, the partner goes, "You moved!" and shoots him dead. Awesome! How many of these kinds of movies have you seen where you are saying "Just shoot the guy!" only for him to escape and cause more problems? Well, this movie finally showed some rare common sense and did what we all wanted! It's worth watching just for that!