Fugitive Rage

This time around it's not a Badham, or a Besson that tackles the now-popular female assassin formula, but B-movie great Fred Olen Ray. Ray has given us some truly terrible movies (1994's `ATTACK OF THE 60 FOOT CENTERFOLD') and some okay movies (like this one, and `POSSESSED BY THE NIGHT'). All in all Ray shows what he can truly do here in this VERY stylish thriller. Basically, Tara McCormick (Wendy Schumacher, one of the best looking women in Hollywood, and a good actress on top of that) is arrested for an attempted murder, and is recruited by the government to become a hit woman. The acting, for the most part, is subtle, and not over-done, like most of these movies. The action is right on the mark, and there's plenty of it. Basically, it functions not only as a good `NIKITA' clone, but also as a successful B-movie that over-comes its budget and delivers quality.

Watchable paint-by-numbers action flick utilizing the female assassin shtick. Personally, I'm a fan of this sort of generic dumbassery, so I found it pretty enjoyable and scores extra points for it being made in 1996, a time when these sort of movies were starting to phase out into the unwatchable crap that passes for action nowadays. Nothing you haven't seen before but there is one scene that made me laugh out loud. After subduing one of the main bad guys, the leading lady tells her partner, "If he moves, shoot him!". She walks away and the guy starts trying to talk his way out of it and, instead of listening, the partner goes, "You moved!" and shoots him dead. Awesome! How many of these kinds of movies have you seen where you are saying "Just shoot the guy!" only for him to escape and cause more problems? Well, this movie finally showed some rare common sense and did what we all wanted! It's worth watching just for that!

This is not a movie to take too seriously and anyone expecting anything like a serious crime drama would be advised to stay away. Here we have our heroine, played by Alexander Keith, jailed for shooting a scumbag gangster, beating up the jailhouse bullies, before being recruited by a government agent. With a price on her head by the stricken mobster the scene is set for her to wipe out the bad guys to say nothing of sorting out a couple of hillbilly types in a bar. The film is full of comic-strip violence of the kind where countless blows are struck to the head without leaving a mark. The shadowy agent has an eccentric minder played by a veteran actress, certainly one for the connoisseurs. It may be daft but apart from a clumsily executed and redundant sex scene, never dull.

**SPOILERS** Having murdered her sister decorated LAPD cop and SWAT team leader Alexander or should it be Alexandra Keith,Tera McCormick,is in the courtroom at the trial of her sisters murderer the "Gucci Don" Tommy Stompanato ,Jay Richardson. As Stompanato is found innocent of Keith's sisters murder she unloads a full load of lead on the startled mobster putting Keith behind bars and Stompanato in the hospital in critical condition.

Tommy is determined to have Keith done in for what she did to him but before he can get someone inside the prison to do it. Keith is put under the wing and protection of secret government agent James O'Keefe, Tim Abell, to go undercover and help bring down the Stompanato crime empire. It turns out that Tommy is involved in illegal arms dealing, a no-no, with a number of Middle-Eastern dictatorships that's interfering with the big political money contributors who's profits he's cutting into. Keith who made friends in prison with fellow woman jailbird and convicted murderer, Josie Williams, Shauna O'Brien, also get's O'Keefe to put her into protective custody to be released with a full pardon after Keith finishes her assignment.

The movie "Fugitive Rage" is a guilty pleasure to watch with Keith looking more like a Playboy Centerfold then a hard as nails crime fighter. Keith takes on the entire Stompanato Mob single handedly and at the same time is being manipulated ***MAJOR SPOILER***by her handler, and lover, O'Keefe to be killed! this after she successfully completes her mission. It's also later revealed that Tommy's second in command Frank Ryker,Ross Hagen, is in on the "fix". It was US secret service Captain Ryker who had his entire secret agent undercover unit sold out and killed by the Communist in Eastern Europe in 1989 when the Commies were still there and running the show.

the action scenes in the movie are laughable with Keith, or her stunt double, looking ridicules as she fight and shoots it out with the Stompanato mobster. Hundreds of bullets fired in Keiths direction, ,many at point blank range, completely missing their target. It's as if Keith has some invisible force field protecting her. There's also a car chase where Keith is run down and ends up on the hood, with the two mobsters not having enough sense to shoot her, and end up in a fiery car crash with Keith walking away without as much as a scratch on her.

These two same numb-skull hoodlums later try to kill Keith and O'Keefe as their sleeping in their motel room in, of all places,the infamous "Bates Motel" by driving their car through the wall! When just a few well placed bullets from a silencer would have done the job without attraction any attention, and ending up killing themselves.

It doesn't take long for Keith to get to the Stompanato Mansion and finish off the reminder of his mob and Tommy himself. It turns out that Keiths fellow secret agent O'Keefe and his boss the former Captain Ryker are who she has the most trouble dispatching;but As usual in the end, like during the entire move,luck and the movie screenplay turns out to be on Keiths side.

This is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. It's not a B series movie, but a C or D series. Maybe a Z series! The plot is copied from n movies, the acting is laughable and the action is badly filmed. At the same time, I laughed so much seeing it that I spent a not so bad time. If you'll see the movie, notice how bad is the acting. Don't miss the fight in prison (notice how they stop for a little time between each kick, like they were preparing themselves for the next one). When the two mobsters try to get Tara with the car, they almost stop the car, so she can climb over. The movie is full of stuff like. It's really a laughable movie.