Today’s quick review: Rage. Paul Maguire (Nic Cage), a successful businessman and overprotective father, must revisit his criminal past when his daughter is kidnapped by unknown assailants. Together with two of his closest friends from back in the day, he cuts a swath through the criminal underworld in search of anyone who knows what happened to his daughter. While clues are hard to find, what few there are point to the Russian mob and a past crime long thought secret.
Rage is a budget action movie about loss, revenge, and the futility of violence. The writing shows signs of potential in one or two places, but ultimately the movie fails to deliver. The storytelling is poor, the action is uninspired, and the acting leaves much to be desired. Nic Cage does not bring his best work to the role of Paul Maguire. Maguire is a stern, unlikeable protagonist with counterproductive anger issues. The charm that makes Cage an effective protagonist is utterly absent. His supporting cast does a decent job, particularly Danny Glover as a wizened police detective, but they have little to work with.
Rage’s main failing is its plot. The plot develops slowly, with no action for nearly half the movie and a peculiar, drama-heavy trajectory. The film plays its mysteries too close to the chest, so that the audience has neither the capacity nor inclination to speculate about who kidnapped Maguire’s daughter. Rage does have one interesting twist, but it is not enough to justify the distortions it imposes on the rest of the plot. The themes Rage plays with could be quite powerful in more skilled hands, but poor execution undermines what potential they had.
Watch Rage only if you are in the mood for a subpar action movie with lots of drama and a downer tone. Rage is not bad in any spectacular way, just structurally flawed, poorly handled, and mediocre in many ways it could have been good. Skip it unless you have nothing better to watch.
5.0 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 5.5 for poor execution and missed potential.