Rage and Honor
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DVD Cover Information Actor: Brian Thompson, Catherine Bach, Cynthia Rothrock, Richard Norton, Terri Treas Brand: ROTHROCK,CYNTHIA DVD: Region Code 99 Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled Picture Format: 1.33:1 Running Time: 89 minutes DVD Release Date: 2003-10-28 Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment |
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Movie Reviews of Rage and Honor
Movie Review: "One major chunk of angry on that black belt"
Summary: 3 Stars
"Rage & Honor" belongs to an era of generally good low-budget fare starring Cynthia Rothrock, but it's far from being among her best work. Completists will be able to purchase it secure in the knowledge that the Lady Dragon had yet to begin her cinematic descent, but aside from boasting some good production values and a strong cast, it's not anything special.
The story: when an Australian police officer (Richard Norton, Mr. Nice Guy) becomes witness to a crime of corruption, he teams up with a martial arts-practicing schoolteacher (Rothrock, Above the Law) to secure a tape of the crime from coldhearted underworld entity who orchestrated it (Brian Thompson, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation).
The above-average B-movie cast also includes Terri Treas (Alien Nation) as Thompson's cohort, Catherine Bach (The Dukes of Hazzard) as the American police captain, Toshihiro Obata (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) as the former's enforcer, and Alex Datcher (Passenger 57) as the eccentric leader of a feminist girl gang. They're directed by Terence Winkless, who has the honor of having directed more episodes of "Power Rangers" than any other filmmaker and does a pretty good job of maximizing his resources and making everything look good, with the exception of a few unnecessary slow-motion shots. He also wrote the movie, and therefore receives kudos for the surprising twist between Cynthia and Brian and incorporating Norton's real-life past as an ex-"rock & roll bodyguard" into his character, but he's also dealt negative points for not following up after establishing Thompson as an artsy John Woo-type villain - save for his atrocious mullet, he's a pretty boring bad guy.
The film's main falling point is its fights scenes, which it has eight of but only a couple which are actually worth watching. There's nothing very wrong with the choreography (highlights include Cynthia performing a somersault axe kick and turning a scorpion kick into a headscissors), but the camerawork is restrictive and unflattering towards the performers' moves. The kicking cast also includes kickboxing legend Peter Cunningham (No Retreat, No Surrender) but he has only one fight (of which he is not the star) before having him getting knocked down a flight of stairs by a wino. The long-awaited rematch between Cynthia and Richard Norton pales in comparison to their stellar bout in Magic Crystal. The single standout fight belongs to Norton and Toshihiro Obata, who have a so-so initial bout but whose rematch steals the show, with the latter performing some nifty aikido moves before throwing Norton out a window.
As a whole, the action content ought to tide over casual viewers but doesn't flatter fans of Rothrock and Norton who know what technical mastery they're capable of, and the same can be said for the movie as a whole. It's a good Cynthia Rothrock movie, despite her being regularly overshadowed by Norton's character, but as is the case with most stuff from these guys, the film's strengths are balanced out by its deficiencies to provide nothing more than an average outing from a film that had the potential to be so much more.