Rage Review

Synopsis
Paul Maguire (Nicolas Cage), an ex-mob enforcer who has become a successful businessman, fears his dark past has caught up to him when his daughter (Aubrey Peeples) goes missing.

Review
I hadn’t heard of Rage until my roommate rented it from the local movie store. The premise sounded interesting enough and I was willing to roll with it, at least at first. It started out like Taken and soon became John Wick, which to me actually sounds like a cool premise and sounds interesting. However, it didn’t really matter what it wanted to be because in the end, it was a load of garbage.

This film ran about forty-five minutes too long, and it only had an hour and a half run time. For the majority of the film, Nicolas Cage and his crew do a lot of talking about the terrible things they did in their past (well really a lot of talking in general) but only a small fraction of it is even seen. So much time is spent trying to set up these characters but the movie just ends up spinning its wheels, not really accomplishing anything. There was a deleted scene that contained the deed they “said they would never talk about” which was glimpsed at. It still didn’t elaborate nor go into the details as to why but had the full scene been included in the film it would have helped the story, if only a little bit.

When we finally get to see the reveal, everything came crashing down and I lost it. Everything the film was trying to build towards was essentially thrown out the window. It made no sense and came completely out of left field. The thing is, Rage didn’t slowly go downhill. No, it got there abruptly. It was like the Mustang Cage’s character was driving around went from the driveway into a brick wall at full speed.

Cage has had his fair share of eccentric characters and over-the-top performances, but this has got to take the cake. I can’t take him seriously. He will go from seemingly fine to yelling for no apparent reason. You can’t even make the claim that his character is some sort of psycho (because they seem to like to do that all the times in movies) because he is portrayed as the calm and collected one of the group. I really enjoy Rachel Nicols as an actress but she gets underutilized in this film. Maybe that’s a good thing since there isn’t much she could have done to help it anyway. Even the presence of Danny Glover could do nothing to redeem this movie.

This film is billed as a thriller but I didn’t feel any suspense. And the action is few and far between, so I have a hard time calling it an action film. I will admit some of the action sequences were pretty good. However, I was already too removed from the movie to really care. At least that kept me interested for marginally longer than I otherwise would have.

Instead of watching Rage, I would have preferred to do almost anything else. For instance, I would rather have watched a fresh coat of paint dry, at least something would have looked nice at the end. Or I would rather have watched a dog vomit for an hour and half, at least the entertainment value would have been about the same. I would have watched a picture take an hour and a half to load on 1998 dial-up internet, at least something worthwhile would have come out of the wait.

I didn’t think I would find a film I loathed as much as Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, but lo and behold, here we are. The reveal was supposed to be this big dramatic twist but was anything but riveting and nullified everything the character had done and been working towards. Don’t waste your time with this one, unless you have done everything there is to do ever. And I mean everything, like you have already walked across an entire meadow of Legos or tried to break the world record of how many glass windows you ran your head through before passing out from blood loss. Even for a cheesy Nic Cage movie, this isn’t worth your time.

Rating
0.5/5

Trailer

Cast & Crew
Paco Cabezas – Director
James Agnew – Writer
Sean Keller – Writer
Laurent Eyquem – Composer

Nicolas Cage – Paul Maguire
Rachel Nicols – Vanessa Maguire
Max Ryan – Kane
Michael McGrady – Danny
Peter Stormare – Francis O’Connell
Pasha D. Lychnikoff – Chernov
Patrice Cols – Anton
Aubrey Peeples – Caitlin Maguire
Max Fowler – Mike
Jack Falahee – Even
Danny Glover – Det. Peter St. John
Ron Goleman – Det. Hanson

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Recently, I tasked Rob with reviewing this film. You can see what he thought about Rage here.

The Film Emotion Blogathon

Well would you look at that, I’m late to the party. I know, big surprise coming from me, the blogger who is cursed with giving late submissions and forgetting deadlines. I don’t know how you guys put up with me! Anyway, Conman has put together an excellent blogathon that I just had to participate in, and he is more than generous to allow my late submission. Look here for the rules. Thanks Conman for hosting such a wonderful blogathon! Let’s jump right into my picks, shall we?

Joy: Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

I know I’m in the minority here, but Return of the Jedi is my favorite of the Star Wars films.  It was the most action packed of the original trilogy, having not one, not two, but THREE battles occurring simultaneously. During the course of the movie, the Rebel Alliance gets their final victory over the evil Empire, destroying the Death Star II.  And Luke redeems his father, Anakin, destroying Darth Vader, who turns on his former master and killing Emperor Palpatine.  And Han and Leia finally express their love for each other. There is so much Joy to go around, the Ewoks celebration at the end perfectly expresses up my feelings. Or at least Yub Nub did. George Lucas, y u no like Yub Nub!?

Sadness: Toy Story 3

Let me first say that Toy Story 3 is a great movie. It is a nice evolution of the characters and messages of the previous two films and a great conclusion to their story.  The reason I included it as my Sadness pick is because it makes me cry harder than any other movie. I have only seen it twice, once in the theater and a few weeks ago as part of my Anniversary Week celebration, but the ending gets me every time.  Now, I don’t consider myself a crier. I get teary eyed for sure, but I don’t cry. Last time I watched Toy Story 3 cried. Hard. For like 10 minutes straight, before, during, and after the scene with Andy and Bonnie.  I’m so glad I was watching it alone…

Fear: Insidious

This emotion was a little difficult for me to think about because I don’t particularly care for horror films.  I probably could have though out of the box a little but I’m not that creative.  So when choosing one of the few I’ve actually seen, I decided to choose one that I actually liked.  I enjoyed Insidious because I have discovered that I don’t dislike supernatural horror films, like this or Mama, as much as other horror sub-genres. There are plenty of jump scares and the cinematography is pretty good with its use of lighting and shadows.

Anger: Rage

Rage somehow slipped by my radar. I didn’t even hear about it until about two weeks ago. The title “Rage” pretty much sums up my feelings about the movie.  The movie itself isn’t good but throughout the movie I was willing to go along with it. It never really built up to anything. Then the reveal happened and it hit a wall. This film didn’t slowly go down hill, it got their quickly and abruptly.  After the movie was done, I began ranting about how bad it was. Take this paragraph times, like, five for an example. I don’t rant often, so it felt good to let it all out.

Disgust: Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance

Originally, this was going to be my pick for Anger. But the more I thought about it, it fit more under Disgust. For some reason, I really wanted to see this when it came out in the theater. I can’t remember what else was out around that time, but I convinced the rest of the group to go see this over whatever else they wanted to see. I immediately regretted my decision.  After the film was done, I apologized to my friends for making them go see this. It was a mess of a film and I can’t believe it actually got made. At first I was angry about how bad it was, then I realized my disappointment outweighed my anger. Hopefully Marvel will take a stab at the character because he is actually kind of cool.