Silent Rage Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

Silent Rage Blu-ray Movie Review

Rage Quit.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman January 17, 2019

Mill Creek has released the Chuck Norris Action/Horror film 'Silent Rage' to Blu-ray for the third time but for the first time on its own disc. It is also part of the first wave of titles to feature "Retro VHS" slipcovers which mimic the look of classic 1980s rental copies (which often had vastly superior artwork compared to today's Photoshopped messes). In this case, the artwork on the slip and the case are radically different, with the slip's artwork winning out. See the 'Special Features and Extras' section below for more on the slipcover. Also find below brief film, video, and audio reviews.

John Kirby (Brian Libby) is a deeply disturbed man who one day snaps and murders his wife with an ax. When the police arrive, Sheriff Dan Stevens (Chuck Norris) arrives on the scene but is jumped, twice, and barely escapes with his life. Kirby is shot multiple times and rushed to surgery. When the operation to save him fails, Kirby's doctors, against his psychiatrist's (Ron Silver) wishes, inject him with an experimental serum that not only increases his strength but also grants him amazing regenerative powers. Wounds heal almost instantly and even gunshots and burns only momentarily slow the man down. Now, with unspeakable power and blind bloodlust, Kirby hunts down those closest to him, and those closest to his victims. Stevens is the only man who can possibly stop him.

Imagine Walker, Texas Ranger meets Halloween and Re-Animator and get a good idea of what's in store with Silent Rage, at least in terms of crude character and plot details. Unfortunately, the movie never approaches any of those comparative baselines in terms of narrative or structural excellence, stumbling about through numerous, and borderline comedic, overextended and unnecessary scenes. Stevens and his chubby deputy Charlie (played by Animal House alum Stephen Furst) find themselves outnumbered in a barroom brawl, with Stevens getting his hands dirty while Charlie retreats to the Blazer to radio back to the station to chat about the bartender's well endowed breasts. The sequence adds nothing to the film. The film builds an off-on-off-on romance between Stevens and Alison (Toni Kalem) that adds no necessary characterization (though she is related to Kirby's psychiatrist) and ultimately yields one of the most cringe-worthy lovemaking montages in movie history. The movie never takes pace or purpose into consideration, and with a paper-thin plot to begin with that's a death sentence.

The movie is so bloated and boring that even Chuck Norris cannot save it. His character is as generic as they come and the star seems disinterested for the duration, plodding through the movie and earning only a participation trophy for his efforts. He seems most at home with shirt off, wining and dining his girlfriend, soaking in the film's most superfluous scenes. He seems to not care that his battles (and ultimate showdown) with the mask-less Michael Meyers-inspired character are performed by rote, with little interesting choreography on tap and no real sense of drama. Brian Libby is OK as the flesh-and-blood self healing and seemingly indestructible and relentless monster. The part requires only that he look menacing and perform some simple physical tasks, basically playing a tank to Chuck's more finessed and organic character.

Silent Rage Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Silent Rage opens with some significant macroblocking and severe speckling in the first shot. The image tightens a good bit afterwards, for the most part, removing significant artifacts and carrying over only occasionally visible wear. Grain fluctuates a bit, with major increases in various scenes, but even at a fairly dense baseline it still lends a nicely filmic presentation. Textures are strong and clarity is high. Mill Creek's 1080p transfer reveals clothes, faces, and environments with impressive intimacy and stability. Colors are pleasantly neutral with good foundational depth and some punch to more intense shades. Black levels waver a little with some shots revealing a mild movement away from true depth in favor of a modest raise. Skin tones appear fairly accurate. This is a solid presentation, particularly for the price.

Silent Rage Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

This is another capable and movie-complimentary DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtrack from Mill Creek. The track does well in expanding the front end about as much as it can, pushing music and effects to the edges. Musical aggression and clarity are both staples throughout the listen, both offering good foundational clarity and aggression in the more intense fight scenes. Gunshots are fairly potent under the channel constraints, as are some punches and kicks and crashes and a big explosion near film's end that work small miracles with what the track has available to it. The track handles a few support elements nicely, such as ringing phones and clanking typewriters in a police station and more rowdy background din and music at a restaurant 30 minutes into the movie. Core dialogue is clear, well prioritized, and effortlessly images to the center.

Silent Rage Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Finally, a purpose for slipcovers! So often the collectible outer shell features the exact same artwork, front, back, and side as the Blu-ray case inside, making them largely ornamental at best. Occasionally embossing/debossing work adds a little variety but this reviewer has always pitched them in the trash, partly for that reason and partly because doing so saves precious (albeit finite) shelf space, critical when one's collection is in the thousands. Mill Creek has taken a step to make slipcovers a little more meaningful with this line of "Retro VHS" slipcovers that offer a shrunken-down approximation of a vintage rental store copy and also feature a portion of a VHS tape extending from the side of the case, even if most VHS covers were open at the bottom.

For Silent Rage, the cover features a bit of fake wear (creases, edge frays) and a genre sticker appears on the box. The main sticker on the VHS tape mostly reveals legalese rather than the film's title, even as the tape is partially pulled out from the side of the box. The sticker shows some handling wear, too. "Please be kind & rewind" and some sort of heat warning stickers have also been slapped on. Of course these are not real stickers but rather part of the print, and there's no texture to the cassette, either. Still, it's a pretty nifty visual. The rear side is a little less neat, keeping up with the vintage look at the top but showing a few necessary tech details on the bottom that correspond to the Blu-ray. The bottom side of the VHS tape is also visible. Humorously, a handful of Blu-ray disc logos appear on the front, rear, and spine to break the illusion (though not entirely); the one on the front, situated at the top, in large print, and in red coloring, is the worst offender.

What would be really cool would be if the entire box art mimicked the VHS cover and the Blu-ray artwork underneath entirely mimicked the VHS tape, which could have easily been accomplished. That would offer more of a seamless illusion of actually pulling a VHS tape out of the package rather than it simply appear printed on part of the slipcover.

As far as on-disc extras, there are none. No DVD or digital copies are included, either.

Note: Photographs of several other Mill Creek 'Retro VHS' slipcovers can be found here, here, and here. Because each slipcover offers the same basic layout with only some small unique identifiers distinguishing one from another beyond cover art, photos will not be included for every release in the line. Those linked images do offer a good overview representation of what to expect form this line.

Silent Rage Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Silent Rage would have worked better whittled down to its bare essentials and turned into an episode of Walker, Texas Ranger. This reviewer has no doubt that the film's runtime could comfortably have been cut in half and worked much better as compact, though still disposable, entertainment. There's nothing here of interest, and even Norris seems bored throughout the movie. A/V-wise, the presentation is fairly good. No extras are included. Fans can buy with confidence, though, particularly given the price point and the cool slipcover.