JoeLumb's Movie Review Silent Rage (1982)

 This is the first Chuck Norris Movie review I'm about to do. The movie "Silent Rage" is a sci-fi/action/thriller starring Chuck Norris as Sheriff Dan Stevens he must stop a mentally ill man named John Kirby played by Brian Libby,who goes on a violent rampage after he had been granted near indestructibility in a medical experiment. 

The start of the film showed the mentally ill man John Kirby murder two family members. So sheriff Stevens and Deputy Charlie (Stephen Furst) respond and arrest John,however he breaks out of his handcuffs overpowers other officers and grabs a shotgun forcing the officers to shoot him.  Now John is severely injured and near death gets transported to an institute where his phychiatrist Dr.Thomas Halman (Ron Silver) and he works along side Dr.Phillip Spires (Steven Keats) and Dr.Paul Vaughn who are two doctors/genetics. In order to save John from death Dr.Spires propose treating him with a formula created by himself and Dr.Vaughn,Dr. Halman objects to it's use to to John's psychosis and Spires pretends to agree but administers the formula anyway once Dr.Halman leaves. Revived and rendered to near mute he is now virtually invulnerable. John escapes from the institution and tracks down Dr.Tom Halman at his home having overheard him tell Dr. Phil Spires to die earlier on. Well John ends up killing Dr.Halman when Tom's wife Nancy discovers he's dead John killed her too. Tom's sister Allison (Toni Kalem) came home to discover the corpses of her brother and his wife. But John didn't kill her he fleed the scene as Allison ran to Sheriff Stevens and Deputy Charlie as the police arrived. Dan and Charlie take Allison to the institute knowing that John is going to see Doctors Spires and Vaughn to treat his wounds,but instead John kills the two doctors as well stabbing Dr. Vaughn with a syringe after he threw acid on John and then John kills Dr.Spires by snapping his neck. Charlie attempted to arrest him but John broke his back and he is left to die so now Dan has to protect Allison from this monster John has become. When Dan and Allison escaped the institute John climbed in the back of Sheriff Steven's truck into the back window and they were forced to jump out as the truck crashes and explodes lighting John on fire but again he survives,only injured so he jumps in the lake and recovers. So now with Allison watching Dan and John get into a fight that ended with the only way Chuck Norris knows how to end it with several roundhouse kicks before being thrown into a nearby well. Seemingly dead by this point Dan and Allison leave,but deep in the well John seemed to arise from the water and then we get the rolling credits. 

"Silent Rage" was directed by Michael Miller the screenplay for this movie was written by Joseph Fraley and produced by Anthony B. Unger and Distributed by Columbia Pictures. Released on April 2,1982 the movie did $29.5 million in the box office. Chuck Norris was on a hot streak when it came to starring in profitable films starting with 1979's A Force of One,followed by 1980's The Octagon and 1981's an Eye for an Eye. 

I rate this movie an 85/100 unfortunately it's not ranked in the top 10 of favorite movies of 1982. Years later Michael Miller had hoped to do a sequel to Silent Rage however he felt that Chuck Norris was not a fan of those kind of slasher movies now was it Norris' favorite pictures to do. Who could blame him?

JoeLumb's Movie Review Fatal Attraction (1987)

 When preparing for research for this movie I found out some very recurring themes when it comes to director Adrian Lyne. See Adrian Lyne is a british born writer,director and producer. He began his career in the 1970's directing television commercials,he then went on to make well received short films that are entries in The London Film Festival. He would begin making feature films in 1980 his movies are known for sexually charged stories and characters. Which brings me to the topic of today's movie Review.

"Fatal Attraction" is a psychological thriller directed by Adrian Lyne(who directed Flashdance in 1983 and 9 1/2 weeks in 1986 and would go onto direct movies such as Jacob's Ladder,Indecent Proposal and Unfaithful) The film stars Michael Douglas as Dan Gallagher,Glenn Close as Alex Forest and Ann Archer as Beth Gallagher. Released on September 18,1987 The film's budget cost $14 million to make and made $320 million at the box office worldwide. A Huge Box Office Success.

The movie plot centers around Dan Gallagher(Michael Douglas) having a weekend fling with Alex Forest(Glenn Close) while his wife Beth (Anne Archer) and kid were out of town. Well once the wife and kid return,Dan ends the affair,but Alex becomes obsessive refusing to let the affair end. Then Alex drops the bombshell to Dan that she is pregnant with HIS child. Fearing for the worst he changed his phone number so that she can't get to him,suddenly she shows up at his apartment which is up for sale to meet Beth. Well Dan did not take that too well and confronted Alex about it. She tells him "She will not be ignored" So Dan relocates the family out of his Manhattan apartment into a beautiful house in Bedford but did that dissuade Alex? No she stalks him pouring acid on his car,delivered a tape recording of herself filled with verbal abuse. Then she had the gall to follow him home where she can see the sight of his family and it made her sick that she ended up throwing up.  The final straw was when Dan,Beth and their kid were away Alex snuck into the house killed the little girl's pet rabbit and boils it on the stove. That horrified Beth and then Dan comes clean and says the woman who killed the rabbit is the same woman he had an affair with and confesses she's pregnant and that enraged Beth who ordered him to leave. Dan then calls up Alex and tells her that he told Beth everything,Alex didn't buy it until Alex got on the phone and warned her she will kill her is she persists in harming her family. Than Alex really crosses the line where she takes Ellen(Dan and Beth's daughter) out of school and takes her to an amusement park,when Beth learns that she is not in school she frantically looks for her all over town and she ends up getting into a car accident which required hospitalization. Once Dan learns of what Alex did by kidnapping  Ellen and Beth had been in the hospital he became enraged and busts into Alex's apartment and attempted to strangle her,suddenly he stops short of killing her,she then grabs a kitchen knife and lunges to him,but he disarms her and departs fearful for his life knowing that she is psychotic. He then goes to the police as they search for Alex. Well Since that day Beth forgave Dan and welcomed him back home. Well just before Beth was about to take a bath Alex appeared out of nowhere and she attacks her,Dan appears after hearing Beth's screams from downstairs gets a hold of Alex and drowns her in the bath water. Suddenly Alex emerges from the water and attempted to stab Dan until a gunshot pierced the air and Alex is seen bleeding from her chest. Beth shot Alex and she died. After Dan gave his statement to the police he embraces Beth in the living room and we see the photo of the happy family and then the rolling credits. 

"Fatal Attraction" was adapted by James Dearden with assistance from Nicholas Meyer from Diversion a short british film done in 1980. Now there was an alternate ending other than the one we got. You see Alex was originally supposed to take her own life at the film's end with the knife Dan had left on the counter framing Dan for her murder. After Dan gets arrested by police Beth finds some incriminating evidence the cassette tape filled with verbal abuse you know the one calling Dan a "cocksucking sonofabitch"  and she threatened to kill herself. Upon this revelation Beth takes the tape to the police and Dan is cleared of all charges. The last scene shows a flashback of Alex taken her own life by slashing her throat while listening to "Madame Butterfly"After doing test screenings Joseph Farrell who does all the final screenings suggested a new ending be shot where Dan drowns Alex,but Alex would emerge only for Beth to shoot her dead in sel defense. 

My overall rating of this movie is an 85/100 This was one of the first of many great films Michael Douglas has done throughout his career and he has done some remarkable movies before this like Romancing the Stone and Jewel of the Nile and latter movies like Wall Street and Basic Instinct. I rank this somewhere in the top 5 best movies of 1987.