I Am Wrath is hardly a great action flick and although Travolta is a shell of what he once was, he at least possessed some charm to make the thin plot enjoyable, along with some nice scenes with Christopher Meloni as well. This is the quintessential rental type movie and one where you shouldn’t expect anything profound.
I Am Wrath
(2016)
Genre(s): Action, Crime
Lionsgate | R – 91 min. – $24.99 | July 26, 2016
Date Published: 07/27/2016 | Author: The Movieman
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THE MOVIE — 3.5/5 |
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I Am Wrath is the latest STV release starring John Travolta, joining the ranks of Bruce Willis in the field, that basically has a similar plot to Death Wish without (thankfully) the rape aspect with some Chinatown (sans the sharp writing) and a little John Wick thrown in for good measure.
Stanley Hill (JOHN TRAVOLTA) is a former Black Ops agent now living a more domestic life with his wife, Vivian (REBECCA DE MORNAY), who works for the Ohio governor (PATRICK ST. ESPRIT), studying a proposed pipeline, when she’s viciously gunned down in a seemingly random act of violence, right in front of Stanley. When the police manage to nab the gunman, whom Hill identifies, a couple crooked cops, Detectives Gibson (SAM TRAMMELL) and Walker (ASANTE JONES), release the suspect in spite of the evidence. No longer trusting the system, Hill breaks a longstanding promise to his wife and picks up his arms once more to take justice into his own hands. He reaches out to his former Black Ops buddy, Dennis (CHRISTOPHER MELONI), for intel on one of the perps, who eventually helps his old buddy as he goes on the hunt which leads down to the road from a local crime boss to the upper levels of the state. This is by no means a great movie but taken as an old-school B-movie actioner, with a thin and predictable plot, it’s not half bad. John Travolta for his part gives a somewhat earnest performance, seemed to give more effort than someone like Willis, and still maintains a certain amount of charm from his once great, if not uneven, career. Christopher Meloni plays up the more comedy relief role quite well.
Helmed by Chuck Russell, best known for 1994’s The Mask and 1996’s Eraser, I Am Wrath is a perfectly serviceable action-thriller that won’t tests one’s brain or anything yet courtesy of Travolta and Meloni makes for throwaway entertainment. As I said, this has a Death Wish vibe with some added material to pad things out story-wise. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 1.25/5 |
| This release comes with a matted slip cover. Inside is redemption code for the Digital HD copy. Sadly, the features are light with only an Audio Commentary with Director Chuck Russell and Writer/Actor Paul Sloan. |
VIDEO – 4.0/5 |
| Lionsgate releases I Am Wrath onto Blu-ray presented with a 2.40 widescreen aspect ratio and a 1080p high-definition transfer. Colors aren’t entirely vibrant though it is in keeping with the crime-drama genre while detail was sharp and well defined throughout. The transfer itself is clean, free of artifacts and aliasing. |
AUDIO – 3.5/5 |
| The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is decent enough but nothing overly impressive. Although dialogue levels sounded crisp and clear enough, the action elements lacked the depth I expected from an action-oriented film. That said, the soundtrack/score makes good usage of the rear channels, so it’s at least a satisfactory lossless track. |
OVERALL – 3.0/5 |
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Overall, I Am Wrath is hardly a great action flick and although Travolta is a shell of what he once was, he at least possessed some charm to make the thin plot enjoyable, along with some nice scenes with Christopher Meloni as well. This is the quintessential rental type movie and one where you shouldn’t expect anything profound. The Blu-ray released through Lionsgate offers good video, good audio but fails in the features department. |
Check out some more screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.