It
is Walker, Texas Ranger and Deputy Flounder versus the Wolverine from Hell.
Chuck Norris, the man who never loses a fight takes on a killer who can never
die and the results are pure 1980s—early ‘80s, in fact. Fittingly, Michael
Miller’s Silent Rage (trailer here) releases today as one of Mill Creek Entertainment’s
new retro-VHS-packaged BluRay releases.
Twitchy
John Kirby just killed the other residents of his halfway house, so it is probably
safe to assume the medical experiment using him as a guinea pig was a total failure.
Sheriff Dan Stevens is pretty sure his deputies mowed him down with a
sufficient hail of bullets, but his doctors discover he still has some life
left in him. Dr. Tom Halman is the responsible one, so he wants to pull the
plug, but Dr. Phillip Spires is determined to keep pumping him full of lightning,
like Colin Clive in the original Frankenstein movies. Unfortunately, it works
only too well, stimulating superhuman powers of healing and regeneration.
As
it turns out, Stevens’ ex is Halman’s sister Alison, who cannot help falling
for the Sheriff’s cocky charm when they run into each other in the hospital.
Stevens will be busy rousting bikers, putting the moves on Ms. Halman, and mentoring
his schlubby Deputy Charlie, while Kirby runs amok in the hospital.
Okay,
there is no point in denying the first act is awkward and surprisingly pokey. Still,
Rage is just a cornucopia of weird
connections and trivial claims to fame. First and foremost, Norris
credits/blames this film for his reluctance to do love scenes in his future
films. His uncomfortable looking love interest is played by Toni Kalem, the
future Mrs. “Big P” in The Sopranos, who
succumbs to his muskiness while the turntable plays a cheesy pop ballad sung by
Katey Sagal, the future Peg Bundy.
Believe
it or not, Norris has some decent buddy chemistry with Stephen Furst, who
everyone knows best as Kent “Flounder” Dorfman in Animal House. The late, great Ron Silver is about as charismatic as
anyone possible could be as the too-ethical-to-live-long Halman. As an added
bonus, William Finley (cult-famous for his appearances in the films of Brian De
Palma and Tobe Hooper) adds some weirdness as Dr. Paul Vaughn, the scaredy-cat
third scientist poking and probing Kirby.
There
are a couple of entertaining fight scenes in Rage, but it just isn’t at the level of his other pre-Cannon, post-Golden
Harvest action classics. Still, it is a total cinematic time capsule,
especially with Mill Creek’s old school packaging. Plus, it is always great fun
to watch a young Chuck Norris throw-down. Honestly, he looks very much like he
did when he went toe-to-toe with Bruce Lee in the Roman Colosseum during the
climax of Way of the Dragon. You just
can’t beat this kind of nostalgia. Recommended for fans of early 1980s genre
films, the special BluRay edition of Silent
Rage is now on-sale, from Mill Creek Entertainment.
