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This film in
which guns play a major part in each pivotal scene is probably
supposed to start out as humorous look at the impact of firearms
in modern society before becoming shockingly appalling in its
last reel. The problem is that It’s the Rage is neither
funny nor disturbing, and even its eclectic A-list cast can't
save it from being yet another bad Pulp Fiction rip-off.
Rage
begins in the home of Warren and Helen Harding (played by Pleasantville
co-stars Jeff Daniels and Joan Allen), a wealthy yet miserable
couple that are awakened late one evening by what appears to be
a burglar. Warren guns down the intruder in the living room, but
it isn’t until afterwards that he realizes that the prowler
was actually his business partner. Helen thinks her husband
knowingly executed his colleague, while Warren assumes that his
associate was secretly schtupping his wife. The cops (Robert
Forster and Bokeem Woodbine) don’t know who to believe but are
pretty sure that something fishy is going on.
With murder
acting as the final straw for their marriage, Helen moves out
and gets a job as an assistant to an insane billionaire named
Norton Morgan (Gary Sinise, Mission to Mars), who has
made a fortune doing something with computers, while
simultaneously developing a fear of any type of information.
Norton chased away his previous assistant and now spends his
days cooped up in his giant office playing with his cyber-dog
and doesn’t appear to be too into hygiene (but what computer
billionaire is?).
Norton’s
former assistant (Josh Brolin, The Mod Squad) dreams of
making movies for a living but instead finds work as a video
store clerk and develops a unhealthy fixation on a
bleached-blonde, Bosco-stealing delinquent named Annabel Lee
(Anna Paquin, Rogue from X-Men). Rage also features
characters played by André Braugher (Frequency), David
Schwimmer (Friends) and Giovanni Ribisi (Gone in 60
Seconds), and all of the film’s characters are linked to
each other, whether they know it or not. In that respect, Rage
is a bit like Magnolia or Short Cuts, but not
nearly as interesting or as well-executed as either.
While the
acting in Rage isn’t too bad, the script seems
particularly hackneyed. The whole
harried-assistant-to-a-psychopath has already been done to
perfection by Frank Whalley (Swimming With Sharks) and
Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Big Lebowski). The bickering
couple who live in the large, soulless house reeks of Lester and
Caroline Burnham (even though Rage was completed before American
Beauty was released). I can't think of anything much worse
than a film that thinks it’s edgy and quirky but just plain
isn’t.
Rage,
which will see a brief theatrical run before bowing on pay
television, was directed by James D. Stern, who has recently
helmed the IMAX film Michael Jordan to the MAX, as well
as directing Stomp on Broadway. The script was written by
Keith Reddin, who penned the play Life During Wartime
(adapted for the screen as The Alarmist), and Devo’s
Mark Mothersbaugh (The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle)
provides the score.
1:37
–
for adult language, violence and sexual content
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