The Rage

As I happened to stumble upon this 1997 action thriller here in 2024, I opted to sit down and watch it, since it was a movie that I hadn't already seen, nor actually ever heard about.

I didn't know what I was in for here, so writers Sidney J. Furie and Greg Mellott had every opportunity to impress and entertain me with their movie. It was an okay enough script, but definitely had its flaws and shortcomings. I love how police officers and FBI just randomly shoot their weapons at vehicles without regards for bystanders and such.

A large portion of the movie was spent showing police officers and FBI agents on foot standing and shooting at driving vehicles or running and shooting at driving vehicles.

The dialogue in the movie was pretty terrible. It was poorly written, the actors and actresses didn't really have much to work with.

There are some familiar faces on the cast list in this movie, with the likes of Gary Busey, Lorenzo Lamas, Roy Scheider, David Carradine and Jeff Doucette. The acting performances were fair enough, though you're not in for an evening of Shakespearian theater here. I wasn't familiar with female leading actress Kristen Cloke, but talk about delivering a wooden performance of a staggering slaughter of dialogue.

Not a great movie, nor a movie that I will ever return to watch a second time. There are far better action thrillers readily available.

My rating of director Sidney J. Furie's 1997 movie "The Rage" lands on a five out of ten stars.

This was absolutely the worst movie I have seen in quite a while. And not in a good way. Some bad movies are fun to watch. This was a complete waste of time. The characters were typical -- bad guys being over the top bad, bad cops being over the top bad, the tormented good cop who is fighting the system in the name of a good cause and the stock rookie female partner who offers help and redemption for the good cop. The writers were so lazy that they lifted events out of current headlines to add to the movie without any real value. Bad script. Bad dialogue. Even over the top shoot-em up car chases. Nothing good to be found here. The only positive thing I can say about this movie was the beautiful background scenery. Other than that, it was a bust.

Aside from the horrendous acting and the ridiculous and ludicrous plot, this movie wasn't too bad. Unfortunately, that doesn't leave much movie not to suck. Do not waste your time on this film, even if you find yourself suffering from insomnia, as I did. Watch an infomercial instead.

What a show! Lorenzo Lamas once again proves his talent as a cop who committed the worst crime a good cop can commit, by being a good cop. Then, again, he shows how sensitive a cop can be, displaying a range of emotions like no other actor can except, maybe, himself in Terminal justice.

HUGE ENJOYMENT!

Dower Mindhunter agent Travis (Lamas) teams up with sexy/sparky FBI pistol Kelly McCord (Kristen Cloke) to track down degenerate serial killer Art Dacy (Gary Busey) in this distractingly lively Canadian action thriller. While The Rage proves no less formulaic than squeezey cheese, it remains equally moorish. Like many similarly routine DTV shoot 'em ups, the entertainment quotient is hugely boosted by the live wire presence of magnetic mentalist Gary Busey. The able cast's performances are solid, text provides moments of unintentionally amusing bathos, and no balanced, copiously corn-enriched B-Movie diet is complete without at least one fully loaded Busey/Lamas bullet burger! Furie mounts some explosive action, constructing an especially dynamic vehicular tussle betwixt chewed-up car and truck that is genuinely thrilling to behold! Arguably, the film's strongest appeal will be to trigger-happy recidivist DTV addicts and Gary Busey freaks. Personal highlights include, Lamas's earnest delivery of his 'Live Long and Prosper' line, beautifully batso Busey's toothsome terror tactics, and whoever did the gnarly fire stunt on the lake clearly had some monster cojones!!!!!