Rage to Kill

My review was written in January 1989 after watching the movie on AIP video cassette.

South Africa and environs double adequately for fictionalized Grenada in the oddball actioner "Rage to Kill", a mishmash politically somewhere to the right of Clint Eastwood's "Heartbreak Ridge" but typical of today's home video fare.

James Ryan, South Africa's answer to Alain Delon, stars rather unconvincingly (amidst a welter of incorrect accents) as a U. S. racing driver hero who heads to the Caribbean island of St. Heron to see how his medical student brother (Liam Candill) is doing now that meanie Oliver Reed has seized control.

Ryan is taken hostage and organizes the students, with the aid of CIA undercover man Cameron Mitchell, to escape captivity and team up with the good-guy rebels, led by Henry Cele.

Filmmaker David Winters manages to mix in several genres, what with torture and sadism scenes, sexy coeds in the shower and his trademark aerobics class footage. Unfortunately, most of the excitement is in the opening reels and stagings purporting to be Washington, D. C. cabinet meetings are poorly cast and silly.

Before I start my review, I must first of all mention that this is not a B.movie, this is Z-grade film-making at its most ridiculous. Anyway Rage To Kill stars James Ryan (Of Kill and Kill again fame)a tough marine (who doubles as a race-car driver) travels to a South African college (Because we all know that South Africa is known for their ivy league schools) to save his brother from a ruthless general who has just recently overthrown the government, however after an (inept) escape, the marine and the college students join the rebels and payback the ruthless dictator with wholesale slaughter. Rage To Kill is utterly ridiculous in its ineptitude. The action sequences are so poorly conducted that it makes the stuff pioneered on Kung Fu theater seem like Rambo. James Ryan also sports an English accent that indicates a sophisticated intelligence which makes it hard to buy that he could be a killing machine at the same time. Oliver Reed is also on hand and he is positively terrible giving a performance so cheesy that he could be smuggled into a Green Bay Packer football game. Overall Rage To Kill is as awful as what you would expect, I mean anyone looking at the names (James Ryan?) knows what they're in for and Rage To Kill is a thoroughly incompetent Rambo rip off. It's also hilarious to behold and makes one wonder how this got passed up by Mystery Science Theater 3000. I mean this movie is perfect for such a skewering. In fact this, ROTOR and Troll 2 are top three titles that must be seen by MST3K if they're ever back on the air. I give this a full star instead of a half star (My lowest rating) because i'm feeling generous.

* out of 4-(Bad)

`Rage to Kill`is an ambivalent B-product attempting to capitalize on the attractive concept of students rebellion after one bloody coup d`etat in a South American country. Some of the action is fine on the level of complete B-movie trash and thus this movie seems to be extremely entertaining on the level of guilty pleasure that is.Kudos to late Oliver Reed who really does impress as menacing dictator.This is an exclusive movie for people who really have the touch for B-movies.

This is a b-movie to the smallest detail. Our hero is a former war hero and current race car driver(Can you be more macho?!). When he hears of his brother's troubles, he immediately comes to his aid(As any true man of action would!). And after being caught, beaten up and electrocuted you would think that he's done for. But think again!

Not only does kill half an army, but he manages to turn ordinary students into a guerilla army.

This movie has almost everything a b-movie requires: Dumb violence, heroes & bad guys and the obligatory sex scene between a our hero and a student.

But it needs one liners! It takes itself too seriously, and that is a huge mistake. It makes the movie kind of pathetic when it could have been excellent entertainment.

But hey! If you need to watch something without using your brain this is not a bad idea. Enjoy!

Can you say bad acting, ludicrous plot and silly special effects? I couldn't believe the miss-timed explosions and outrageous filming where the good guys can't miss and the bad guys couldn't hit the side of a huge barn in the final battle scene. Anyway if you want a film to avoid, this one is it. Laughable to the max!

1 out of 10. And I'm being generous.