I Am Wrath

When the manager of Honda vehicles Stanley Hill (John Travolta) returns to Columbus, Ohio, he is welcomed by his beloved wife Vivian (Rebecca De Mornay) at the airport. Vivian is an advisor of Governor Merserve (Patrick St. Esprit), who has reduced the crime rate in Ohio, and now she is analyzing the environmental effect of a duct of oil in Columbus. When they are at the parking lot, they are approached by three scumbags that kill Vivian. Stan identifies one of the thugs to Det. Gibson (Sam Trammell) and Det. Walker (Asante Jones), but they release the criminal telling that they do not have enough evidence to keep him locked up. But Stan is a former CIA operative and he seeks out his former partner Dennis (Christopher Melon) to find justice to Vivian. Soon they find a network of corruption in very high level and Stan decides to eliminate the problem.

"I Am Wrath" is a film of revenge in the style of the franchise "Death Wish", with John Travolta in the lead role with Christopher "SVU" Meloni as his partner. The result is a highly entertaining film that professional critics will certainly hate. But fans of a good action movie will enjoy and have a goodtime watching this film. Last but not the least, it is impressive how Rebecca De Mornay is still a very beautiful woman. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Eu Sou a Fúria" ("I Am the Wrath")

Note: On 02 July 2022, I saw this movie again.

Stanley Hill (John Travolta) is getting picked up at the airport by his wife when they get attacked by men who are apparently violent robbers. His wife is killed. She was a close advisor to the Ohio Governor Merserve. Abbie (Amanda Schull) is their daughter. Stanley picks out the killer in a police lineup but the cops just let him go. He reconnects with Dennis (Christopher Meloni), a man from his secret past.

This is a fine example of the lower budget thriller. It has some interesting actors. It also has the pre-requisite former A-list actor to lead the project. The story is pretty standard although I would change a couple of points. While Travolta does his thing, I'm more surprised with the presence of Meloni. They are a good pairing and this would be a better buddy thriller. They should spend more time together. Otherwise, it's nothing special and nothing bad. It's fine.

So, the worst thing about this movie is John Travoltas wig. Other than that, this is an OK little action thriller.

Nothing new here, nothing special, but it's well directed, the acting is mostly good, the action is pretty decent, all in all OK. Could have done with a tad more character build up from the start, but hey, I just wanted the action.

With just a few tweaks here and there it could have been a lot better. It feels a little bland, a little by the numbers, and like I said, Travoltas wig is not fooling anyone. For Gods sake, just accept that your bald, man! Travolta is a good actor, he always does a decent job, a shame with those horrible wigs.

This is not to be confused with a million other low budget action movies, by crappy directors, starring actors past their prime, like Wesley Snipes, Cuba Gooding, Dolph Lundgren etc, I Am Wrath is a lot better than those. Chuck Russell (The Mask) knows what he's doing.

With a little more flair to the action (although I liked the slo-mo) and without that awful wig, this could have been awesome, instead it's just alright.

"I Am Wrath" feels familiar. There is a trope called "mugging the monster," in which villains mistakenly target somebody with a particular skill set and receive their comeuppances in spades. Usually, the individual is reluctant to rely upon those skills or wants to suppress that part of their life. It was used to introduce Frank's martial arts talents in both "The Transporter" and "The Transporter Refueled." It may be a scene played for comic effect or to round out a character in movies like "Crocodile Dundee," an unexpected wrinkle in movies like "Air Force One," and occasionally the premise of the movie, as in "First Blood," "John Wick" or "A History of Violence." It is perhaps a sort of fantasy fulfillment for anybody who has been victimized. Wouldn't we all like to have the powers and abilities of a superhero, crime lord or kung fu master to turn life's misfortunes to our advantage and simultaneously discourage the criminals and jerks of the world from repeating or continuing their repugnant behavior?

IAW is not terribly original; however, it is competently executed. The villains are suitably sleazy, violent and remorseless. They aren't the vilest lot of malcontents by a long shot, but they provide a suitable level of threat. The plot is familiar, but is only an excuse for the action scenes. There are no car chases, pyrotechnics or extended scenes of unarmed combat, although there are a few brief fights. It's mostly threats followed by gunplay without any elaborate choreography. Production values are adequate, although Travolta's wig is noticeable and distracting.

Travolta has done much better work as a tough guy, notably in Luc Besson's "From Paris with Love." Here he is not given a multi-layered, finely nuanced character and makes little effort to bring new dimensions to a sparsely developed script.

The movie is boosted considerably by a couple of the supporting roles. Christopher Meloni steals his scenes as the sidekick/guardian. Sam Trammell's look of boyish innocence cloaks a dark side to his character.

The script was written by Paul Sloan, who also plays the villain Lemi K, and was originally in development with Nicolas Cage set to star and William Friedkin directing, but somehow that fell through. The script seems a couple drafts short of complete. It feels as if it was written with franchise ambitions. The title, Stanley's tattoo and the buddy relationship with Dennis all scream comic hero series. However, it fails to develop Stanley as a continuing character or to leave him in a situation to continue his vigilantism.

The result is a film that is an entertaining diversion but largely forgettable.

I am so sick of reading reviews that are savagely critical of a movie, although it's obviously not one of Travlota's best and the fact that he is clearly not in his prime physically etc etc blah blah, this movie is a solid effort and worth a look. Note to reviewers: Being so negative and savagely critical to a movie does NOT show that you are an expert, especially you fellow wannabes here on IMDb, it just shows what a boof head you are, Try being constructive and tell the readers what is worth watching about the movie. Travolta and most of the main cast provide a very passable acting effort, a couple of the bad guys acting was not really that great but on the whole... as a story I found it enjoyable to watch. I doubt I would go back for seconds, but can't understand some of the other comments on this page.