Rage (2014) [Blu-Ray]
Director: Paco Cabezas
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Rachel Nichols, Danny Glover, Peter Stormare
Release Date: Now Available on Blu-Ray & DVD
A Review By: Kevin Lovell
Film Rating: 6.5/10
Disc Rating: 8.5/10
Plot Summary:
When the daughter of a reformed criminal is kidnapped, he rounds up his old crew and seeks his own brand of justice.
‘Rage’ tells the story of a man named Paul Maguire who these days is a legitimate and honest businessman with a happy family, a wife and daughter that mean everything to him and no problem keeping the family financially content. Some may not be aware of it, but Paul in fact used to be affiliated with powerful criminal families, but managed to get out clean and truly reform himself. Now after a night out to dinner with his wife, his daughter is kidnapped when left home alone with her friends in an apparent home invasion. Soon this home invasion and kidnapping starts leading to more complicated questions about his past, and with no idea just where his daughter might be or who might have taken her, he gathers his friends from his criminal past who still have connections and goes on a quest to find those responsible and deliver his own form of vengeance.
Paco Cabezas makes his American film debut with ‘Rage’, also known as ‘Tokarev’ and he does a pretty impressive job in his duties as director. There is a nice sense of uniqueness to the shots, often focusing closely on characters to show every emotion and reaction, while delivering a kind of elegance to other more action packed moments. While the script seems a bit generic at times, the directing certainly does not lack nearly as much. Nicolas Cage may not be in the realm of such other recently memorable roles of his, such as the phenomenal ‘Joe’ released earlier this year, but he delivers as always and his performance is in no way lacking. Sadly, I must admit it’s a shame to see Danny Glover consistently typecast in the role of the investigating detective and he seems a bit tired here in the role this time around, although his is far more of a supporting role and most of the remaining cast delivers pretty decent performances in each of their respective roles.
For the most part ‘Rage’ is really a pretty generic revenge type film. It presents us with the not uncommon character that has a questionable and dangerous past, being put in a desperate situation and starting to fall back into their old patterns and habits as the nature of that past persona begins to take over. We all know the general concept, but ‘Rage’ does take things in a slightly different direction at a few points, yet unfortunately those twists (which I can only assume were meant to blow the mind of the viewer) I found to be fairly predictable. The film is a pretty enjoyable time when you accept it for just what it is; a popcorn revenge movie with plenty of violence and satisfying gun and knife fights. Don’t go in expecting the movie of the year, but if you’re just looking for a fun, action packed revenge film with Nic Cage in the lead, this might just be one to give a shot.
VIDEO:
The Blu-Ray release of ‘Rage’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation utilizing the film’s original 2.35:1 Cinemascope Aspect Ratio. The video presentation looks pretty great overall, as is usually the case with Image/RLJ’s releases. The colors are distinctive, the picture sharp with no bleeding or any notable faults to be found within during the feature. This is definitely another solid high definition video presentation from Image & RLJ Entertainment that I’m fairly confident should leave most pretty satisfied.
AUDIO:
The Blu-Ray release features a lossless 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. This lossless multichannel soundtrack does its job admirably, keeping the tamer, more emotional moments calm while really hitting hard during storms, or action sequences at a moment’s notice, all the while never detracting from the audibility of the dialogue, which is mostly focused to the center channel. Overall this is a pretty solid DTS-HD MA multichannel soundtrack that delivers and should keep most folks happy.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
The Blu-Ray release of ‘Rage’ doesn’t include too much in the way of bonus content, although it does contain a few nice bonus goodies. Included on the release is a Behind the Scenes featurette titled ‘The Making of Rage’ which features interviews with Nicolas Cage and others about the production and appeal of the film. Also included on the release is a number of deleted scenes from the film including both and alternate opening and ending.
*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They additionally will suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.