Rage movie review 2021

Releases in North America and Australia on February 23, 2021 on DVD and Video on Demand.

RATING: R

LENGTH: 2 hours 23 minutes

Movie Review Mom GRADE: C+

IN A NUTSHELL:

This indie Thriller from Down Under picked up several awards at Queen Palm Festival in January 2021, including the Gold Awards for Best Feature and Best Editor. In 2020, it also won Best Feature, Best Director, Best Editor, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Feature Film, and several other film festivals around the world, quite an impressive pedigree already. This Australian drama was directed by John Balazs who also did NIGHT SHIFT., which I haven’t seen and couldn’t even find on Amazon.

The acquisitions manager at Gravitas Ventures, Nick Royak, described the film as “a sizzling burn of a film exploring the depths of human anguish.”

THINGS I LIKED:

The opening scene really caught my attention and I wondered what had happened previously to get these two people to that point. What I love is that you eventually find out but it’s not the end of the story…
The movie takes a look at the various ways people heal from traumatic experiences, giving the emotional journey some realistic heft.
You get to go to Australia! I always love to travel in movies.
It’s an ominous mystery as the characters try to figure out who the bad guys are. There are some fun twists as we follow the clues and red herrings.
The cast includes Matt Theo, Hayley Beveridge, Tottie Goldsmith, and Richard Norton, most of whom will be unfamiliar to American audiences. Americans ADORE the Australian accent, but sometimes it’s hard to understand exactly what someone just said.
The attack scene seems very realistic and is completely shocking and terrifying to watch, hoping it will end quickly. It doesn’t. The masks of the attackers are super creepy and you can feel the evil.
The ending will definitely make you think and feel lots of emotions!

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

The movie is called Rage [Blu-ray], yet what we see from the characters is mostly silence and brooding.
Wow, what a loveless marriage. Simple kindness in a relationship goes a long way, but this couple argues about how to squeeze the toothpaste tube. Get a second tube of toothpaste, one for each person! Easy solution!
Why would you want to be with someone who was capable of having an affair…even if it’s with you? How could you ever trust that person? I’ve never understood that.
The camera shows us all the blood and gore up close. We really don’t need to see that.
Nicolas Cage already did a movie with the title of Rage, so you’d think they could have come up with another title for this movie.
Some of the acting is very stiff and feels like acting.
Some scenes lasted way too long. The entire movie is way too long. For example, there is a scene where a detective slowly wanders through the house and then explains to everyone what he thinks happened. We already saw what happened, so the scene seems ridiculous and completely unnecessary. Scenes like that could have easily been cut to drop the run-time to a more reasonable length.
Other than the opening attack scene, the rest of the movie moves at a snail’s pace. zzzzz…. The pacing really is the worst part of the movie. The title makes us believe the action and scenes will be brisk and full of passion and emotion, but the majority of the movie just doesn’t possess those things.
Super melodramatic music.
So many scenes of people staring off into nothing.
The dialogue is poorly written and clunky.
The director also edited the film, which is generally never recommended. The movie needed another set of eyeballs to create the final cut, just like a writer needs an editor to get the best book.
No humor. This is pure drama.