Search - Rage on DVD

GARY GLARES

Michael Butts | Martinsburg, WV USA | 05/20/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Gary Daniels tries hard. He usually plays honest, dedicated, loving, kind, etc. RAGE is no exception. And Gary is not a great actor. And this has a preposterously absurd script. But it has some really exciting action sequences..Gary drives an 18 wheeler; Gary hangs from a skyscraper; Gary goes to the mall. Here's the plot: Gary is a second grade teacher; on his way from dropping his daughter off for a party, he is carjacked by a lunatic illegal alien, running from the guys who want to use him in some government experiment. Daniels and the illegal are both captured; Gary is wanted for the experiment because he's such a superior physical specimen. They inject him with some serum that will make him a consciousless killer. Gary wakes up and kills the majority of the staff at the lab, and then he is whisked off by the potbellied sheriff and associates to a deserted site, where they plan to kill him. Gary escapes and of course is now branded a maniacal killer, and the whole world is after him. INCLUDING Kenneth Tigar and Jillian McWhirter, a tv reporter and his camera lady, who manage somehow to believe Daniels is innocent. Tigar cops an exclusive interview with Daniels quite by accident (Daniels has gone to his neighbors house to borrow his van). The crusade begins to clear Daniels, including the Governor who doesn't want the lab's experiments to hurt his re-election. Gary manages to cart his wife and daughter off to safety, then returns to face all the bad guys in a showdown at a mall. Whew!
Now along the way, here's some incredible I Can't believe this stuff: Daniels, a school teacher, now can handle an eighteen wheeler like a pro; he can dangle from buildings with amazing strength and dexterity, and even fall through a window of a flower nursery and survive; he can shoot like the best and dodge bullets like a road runner. Now, this would be fine if we knew EXACTLY what this injection was supposed to accomplish: did it make him superhuman? No, he can be shot and hurt. Did he give him the intelligence to do all the above? Who knows?
Ultimately, the movie implodes on itself and the action sequences are all that remain to earn its three stars. Director Joseph Merhi needs to study the films of Michael Bay and John Woo, to know the best way to make action films. As for Gary, he's attractive and intelligent enough to continue, and he has gotten better....at least he's got a cool accent!"

Totally Out of Control.

P. Kesic | Chicago, IL | 06/11/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"this film is out of control. it's one of those movies you can watch over and over because it is non-stop, ultra-violent, mindless action. there's plenty of funny lines here and there, and the dialog for the main bad guy is over the top and hardcore. cars corkscrew through the air, mack trucks explode and the firefights are awesome. it's kind of like commando. well worth measly 7 bucks."

Finally, a b-movie with edge of your seat action

dominion_ruler | Carolina, USA | 07/06/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Gary Daniels is most well known for his skills as a martial artist. Originally appearing as quiet villains/or bad guys in movies such as City Hunter, Ring of Fire or Final Impact, Gary has evolved into playing the lead good-guy roles in numerous martial art/action movie films. Among these films, Bloodmoon gets to show off his martial art skills the most. White Tiger shows off one of his better overall performances. In Rage, this is Gary Daniel's best outing at an all-out action feast.

Rage is the kind of action movie that focuses more on action than story - no surprise. Unlike many b-action films that do this, Rage does it well, by giving us some intense action, that a minimal storyline still keeps the movie enjoyable. What's interesting about this film is that a 2nd grade school teahcer named Alex gets mixed up in secret governement business, and suddenly finds himself running for his life, unleashing martial arts skills and impressive driving skills - all within the first 15 minutes of the film. Discovered by accident, Alex proved to be the best candidate for a type of program similar to the Universal Soldier program (movie with Jean-Claude) because of his great strength. He escapes the building where the testing and experiments take place, and runs for his life the rest of the film. A kind of subplot eventually forms, for a reporter, who is practically a nobody and is out to prove Alex's innocence and becoming a somebody, and to help Alex out at the same time.

Action is what it is all about. For a b movie, this is the best action I have ever seen. It looks like nothing is computer generated, thus resulting in intense action sequences that are convincingly real. Yeah there is some editing on camera angles, but it still does the job. Gary does explode with some martial arts scenes, but its basically [...]-kicking groups of cops and so forth. The real excitment are the 3 big action scenes - the highway chase, skyscraper hanging scene, and the finale in the mall. In the highway chase, Gary takes over a big rig and basically rams everyone in his way. Cars flips, explode, and even another big rig is totaled. Not bad for a school teach. The skyscraper scene is my favorite. Gary hangs with barely his fingers from the edge while a helicopter moves in to shoot him down. The only questionable aspect of the scene is that the guy had dozens of solid shots aimed right at Gary, but missed every time. Well, before its over Gary swings onto the copter by a rope and does a little fight inside with the shooter. The final scene in the mall is nothing like Jackie Chan's in Police Story, but its still enjoyable. My favorite scene was when Gary was fighitng some guys in what appeared to be a b-movie martial arts/action video store. The walls were covered in posters from movies like "A Dangerous Place" "Zero Tolerance" and "T-Force" to name a few. I thought that was really neat.

Rage is basically a no-brainer, action blast. Gary Daniels is far from being a great actor, but he acts action out well enough in this movie to make it pretty intense. No huge villain in this movie for a good final one on one fight, not that type of film. This is action, perhaps "Transporter" (movie with Jason Statham) style, only more real."

A great action for those with good attention spans

Rob Nile | Bremerton, Wa United States | 02/16/2001

(2 out of 5 stars)

""Rage" does some really dangerous work like the main charicter falling what looks like ten stories onto a scafold. this particular stunt did not use weird angles or cut-aways and the actor Gary Daniels claims to do all of his own stunts (other than hellicopter car stuff)there are lots of very dangerous very authentic looking stunts in this movie but all toghether, they just arent that exciting. one example is a long scene in which the charicter runs from police in a sixteen wheeler smashing through cop cars. this is a great idea that streaches about 15 minutes for what could take maby three. It's not a matter of suspense it's a matter of moving on. supposedly the charicter was forced to take chemecals that could turn him into a super warrior. but in the fights he seems to do about equally well before and after the "rush" kicks in. but even before this super syrum the charicter says he "spent more time in the gym than most people spend watching televison" and he is also very close to his martial arts instructor. I have a hard time seeing any kind of real transition. the fights after his groove kicks in are all very quick. I'd say less than two minutes of fighting in the whole movie not includeing a two minute part where the charicter gets beat up by a tall woman and a short man who do strange pro wrestling techniquesthe rest of the movie seems to be trying to get the moral accross that news stations tend to condemn without the facts. it spends almost as much time getting the moral accross as it does trying to follow the actual story. I can see a lot of potential for all the people who put this movie toghether but in an effort to fill time it just ends up being boreing"