Rage (2014) - Republish

This post is going to be different than reviews that I plan on posting later on this site. I helped run a movie podcast in 2014-2016 with my brother and a couple of friends from school, and this was a review that I had carte blanche in writing and posting with little guidance in how that process works. This is a product of a 20-year old that had a different take on movies that others doing the show, and that mostly was a product of being let loose onto the world as an adult no longer relying on an older brother to drip-feed wonderful movie experiences to my impressionable mind.

It pains me to read this review. I can remember the process of waiting for "Tokarev", as was marketed in the U.S. pre-release, and can conjure the joyous experience of watching "Rage" VOD. I say it pains me to read this review because I can remember being naïve and being borderline obsessed with Nicolas Cage instead of what has become fostering an appreciation for an oddball who has been so since before I was born. I want to go back and watch Rage with fresh eyes. It truly has been almost 10 years since I watched this movie and put my overeager thoughts onto the internet, and I want to write a new review with a fresh perspective. I'm curious to see what they look like side by side. Very little editing has been done to this review. I took out a reference to the podcast/website that I helped run, but that did not interrupt anything about the review. Other than that, this is an honest to god review that I cannot believe made its way to public eyes.

7-21-2014

In Rage, Nicolas Cage plays a protective father, Paul McGuire, who has been out of the criminal lifestyle since his wife passed away, and completely falls apart when his daughter, Caitlin, is kidnapped. Paul has to go back to his criminal lifestyle in order to solve the mystery of Caitlin's disappearance. Paul tears through the streets of Mobile, Alabama, and as a consequence, his past begins to catch up to him.

Nic Cage pulls out all of the stops for Paul McGuire in Rage. His Cage-isms, as I call his larger than life outbursts, are still present, but they are within the context of his character losing his mind as a desperate father; there were many times in the movie where my mouth was agape, mostly because if I were to watch Wicker Man and see this type of freak out, I would be on the floor laughing until I couldn't breath. That is not the case in this movie. The emotional response from Cage is the appropriate amount that his character is feeling; the bond that McGuire has with his former partners in crime is laughable at first, but after another second of the portrayal on screen, I was invested one-hundred percent. The action sequences in this movie are fast-paced and they aren't dragged out; they are as quick as McGuire wants them to be. He goes into a place knowing his plan of attack and is calculating every move he makes that interferes with his plan so that he doesn't run into too many snags. This movie doesn't just capture emotion, but appropriate emotion, something that the next person you see on the street would say that Cage has been lacking for ages.

Danny Glover's character, Detective Peter St. John, has one of the more important side roles in the film, trying to steer McGuire back from his destructive tendencies. Glover shows St. John's willingness to let a few things slide for McGuire, based not only on the fact that he is going through a crime boss' operation and doing his job for him, but the fact that he doesn't want to get caught in the crossfire of a man on a mission. As (Glover) has said in a past role, his character was oozing throughout the entire film, "I'm too old for this shit!"

Everyone else gives a stellar performance, which from the trailer you cannot tell at all. The dialogue is pretty cliché at times, and it is pretty noticeable when it gets too clunky. Although it may seem a little cliché, the dialogue is genuine. Every character, including Cage, is grounded in the universe that this takes place and nobody steals the show more than another person. I understand the criticisms of this movie by other people who say that the ending was not what they expected (in a negative manner), but I did not think of the ending having any issues until I had read those criticisms. I feel that the ending is appropriate to the themes presented throughout the movie and does not betray the viewer through cheap tricks. I went into this movie thinking that it would be a Trespass-esque Cage movie with the ironic hilarity of Wicker Man, and I couldn't be more happy to be disappointed.

Verdict: This movie is a must watch for those who need proof that Nic Cage can act effectively. This movie will receive a glowing recommendation from me to those who haven't seen it by Oscar season.