Tokarev

I was hoping for some good old classic criminals-messing-with-the-wrong-guy rather violent action movie when I sat down to watch this one. I was indeed expecting it to be a B-movie but being a B-movie does not necessarily make it a bad movie. Well I was right about it being a B-movie and it was indeed rather violent but for the rest it did not turn out to be exactly what I hoped for.

Paul and his buddies does indeed start to crack down on the less desirable elements of society. This they do using the well-known strategy of applying a healthy dose of violence and if that does not work then you use more violence. In general the movie starts off fairly well but as we ride along it starts to degenerate into silly outbreaks of rage. I know the movie is called Rage (as well as Tokarev) but I was expecting the rage to be directed towards the bad guys and not just senseless shouting into the air. The further we go the more it degenerates. There is the classical cops-who-intervene-and-let-the-bad-guys-get-away stuff. Very annoying. The stupid screw-up of Danny and Paul's way of handling it was also a bit of a downer.

Still, the movie was not all that bad until we reached the end. Well, the end does have a twist to it that has to be said. It also had to be said that I did not like it at all. Even if I could have gotten over the twist itself, the actions of Paul afterwards and the final scenes really sunk the movie for me.

Nicolas Cage did not do a bad performance but, as far as I am concerned, he was given a less than stellar script to work with. Technically I would say that this was on the upper half of the scale for B-movies but the story, especially the ending, was not my cup of tea.

Nic Cage is a good actor. Ethan Hawke once said he brought back the character actor, the man who did not focus on making his characters as 'real' as possible, but instead focused on how that character can be used to entertain, shock and intrigue the viewing audience. Nic Cage is a man who isn't afraid to jump the shark a million times and 34 years into his career I would say a million is about correct.

His latest film is Tokarev and its pretty average if i'm honest. After the very good 'Joe' and after Cage saying he would focus on more introverted roles, roles that take thought and commitment instead of a lazy performance for a paycheck (cough, Ghost Rider - Spirit Of Vengeance, cough), I knew he would take on a role along these lines and I don't blame him, the film does certainly have a few things going for it and Cage turns in an above average performance here, there's quite a few moments where he really shines and a few where he doesn't but he's never down right terrible which, considering his good to bad film ration the past 10 years, he should be given a medal for that.

I would recommend you give it a watch, its again pretty average but there are 3 or 4 scenes that surprised me and showed Nic Cage is truly back and he should be watched for the next few years. I think we are going to see a lot of good things from Rage Cage very soon.

I loved the first half of this movie, I loved it so much I would often rewind it and watch it ! The second half is when it got too many twists, everybody got careless and the whole thing went to hell! I don't know about you but if somebody kidnaps my daughter me and my crew are retaliating on who we think did it, I would be on my guard 24/7 Nicolas Cage and he's two cronies are going around kicking ass and taking names, then they let their guard down knowing those that you retaliate against are coming for you, also when I didn't like these, fools are going around in broad daylight shooting and beating up the bad guys in a RUSSIAN MOB! Seriously? I found that very careless and very silly, but again the first half was great and the twist was awesome! I don't want to ruin it for those who wish to see it. It was free on Amazon Prime so I didn't pay for it I would have been pissed if I had! I watch movies like many to be entertained, so the movie doesn't have to always be perfect but it would be nice if it made sense! The first half made sense...The second half GTFO.

I've watched some truly terrible films but this is the 1st time I have ever blacklisted a director. This fairly new Spanish filmmaker paco took some good ingredients and what must have been a fair budget and put cage into a... where to begin: very poorly scripted, cliché ridden, terrible music choice, poor use of effects, good actors poorly acting, beyond stupid sequences, stop start one dimensional, no character development(it does not count when you just narrate the plot or history)

It was an attempted rip off of the excellent taken. The one use of this film would be a learning tool for film students as the what not to do.

To end ill give you just one example as to why the blame is securely at the feet of the director. Near the end of a stupid action scene, as cage is about to deliver his cliché one liner, we get a cut shot which starts with a 3 second close up of nics crotch before panning up....pfff

Nick Cage has made some good movies, some mediocre movies and some bad movies; Tokarev is the worst. A trite, improbable plot, terrible directing, awful music and inane car chases. I kept hoping it would get better, but though hope may spring eternal, this film dashed all hope. At the end, I presume this was some sort of money laundering exercise for a criminal gang. You know, take a dog's breakfast of a script, use a major star,pay cash everywhere and sell the rights for clean money.

There is nothing to recommend this film. All the acting is sub-par. Not once is there an ounce of emotion created that would reach the audience. To the criminals who made this film I say, okay wash the money, but find a better film. It may be a crime to laundry money, but the real crime is making such a bad film