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All Dennis (Rick Crawford) wants is to do the right thing (after he has
done the wrong thing for too long): Break up with his mistress Dana (Anna
Lodej) and be the perfect husband his loving wife Crystal (Audrey Walker)
deserves. The breakup goes quite well, too ... well, reasonably well, but
I've seen worse, but driving home, he is teased by a biker (Christopher
R.Witherspoon). At first it seems harmless, but then the biker keys
Dennis's car, later even cuts the brakelines while Dennis is having lunch
and this way almost kills him. When Dennis has his car fixed at the
garage, the biker beats him half to death on the toilet. Dennis however
refrains from reporting this to the police, because he thinks the biker
(who always hides behind his helmet, complete with darkened visor) is
Dana's jealous ex-girlfriend, and reporting all of this would mean Crystal
would find out about the affair he has already ended. The way home feels
like a roadtrip through hell, as Dennis tries to shake the biker time and
again, but only succeeds in the evening, though he has promised Crystal to
be home in the early afternoon. Then however, out of nowhere, the biker
breaks into the house, cuts the phonelines, knocks out Dennis and ties him
and Crystal up. He waits for Dennis to come to though to rape Crystal
before his very eyes. Dennis, who is a believer in karma, confesses to
Crystal that he has cheated on her, believing that would keep the biker,
whom he still believes to be Dana's ex, from raping his wife ... no such
luck! Later, while the biker is distracted (busy killing the neighbours
[Jo Black-Jacob, M.L. Maltz]), Dennis manages to get his hands on the
biker's knife and cut through Crystal's ties. However, when he tries to
make Crystal return the favour, she doesn't and just sits there in a
trance - because if there's something worse than being raped it's being
raped while learning your husband has cheated on you and that's exactly
the reason you're being raped. So Dennis has no chance other than to go on
the offensive all tied up ...
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First things
first: Yes, Rage (especially the first half) is somewhat reminiscent of
Steven Spielberg's Duel inasmuch as it shows two people, an everyman and a
faceless madman, fightng it out on the road - and writer/director
Christopher R.Witherspoon doesn't even try to hide it, in fact, he has two
supporting characters discuss Spielberg's film in quite some length in a
quieter moment of the movie. That out of the way, what Rage is is
an extremely tight thriller that gets more relentless with every minute
that goes by only to end on a very bitter punchline. And tight pacing
coupled with well-staged action and an eerily impersonal killer see to it
that this movie doesn't get boring for even a second. Very nice,
actually!
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