Vin Diesel is mostly associated with the “Fast & Furious” series, or also with the “Triple X” and “Riddick” films. Amazon Prime now offers a somewhat lesser-known revenge thriller with the action star – from the “Fast 8” maker.
While F. Gary Gray made his contribution to the mega-successful action film series around Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto with “Fast & Furious 8”, the director was known for many years primarily for his relentless revenge thrillers and high-voltage vigilante thrillers such as “Negotiation”, “Law of Revenge” or “Extreme Rage”, for which Gray already worked together with Vin Diesel in 2003 – albeit less successfully at the time.
The film grossed only 44.3 million dollars worldwide and is thus considered a complete flop from an economic point of view. But it wasn’t just financially that “Extreme Rage” had a crash landing; the trade press was also less than enthusiastic: the average ratings on critics’ platforms such as Metacritic (36 out of 100 points) and Rotten Tomatoes (11 per cent positive reviews) compare with a similarly meagre 2 out of 5 stars in the FILMSTARTS review. Vin Diesel fans who may not yet be familiar with the superstar’s rather unknown film are thus warned – now have the chance to fill this gap especially comfortably. “Extreme Rage” is now included in your Amazon Prime Video subscription:
Don’t have a Prime subscription and didn’t want to sign up for one for the diesel actioner? Then Netflix is an alternative, because “Extreme Rage” is currently available there as well.
THIS IS “EXTREME RAGE “
After Sean Vetter (Vin Diesel) once grew up as a petty criminal in the gang milieu of Los Angeles, he now puts himself at the service of the fight against crime as a DEA narcotics officer. When he and his partner Demetrius Hicks (Larenz Tate) take on a powerful drug lord of the Mexican cartel and finally put him behind bars, he doesn’t have too much time to savour this triumph. For now he has the new ruler of the cocaine empire breathing down his neck. The first official act of the mysterious gangster boss known as “Diablo” is to hunt down Sean Vetter.
Diablo’s henchmen take on the DEA agent, who just barely escapes the hail of bullets. His wife Stacy (Jacqueline Obradors), however, is not so lucky – and dies. Hateful, the grieving widower cousin has only one thing on his mind: revenge.
ONLY FOR DIE-HARD DIESEL FANS
While F. Gary Gray regularly entertains us with films like “Straight Outta Compton”, “The Italian Job”, “Be Cool” or the aforementioned thrillers, “Extreme Rage” is not exactly one of the finest moments in the filmmaker’s career. If you’re hoping for a constant barrage of action, you should be prepared for a fair amount of idle time, while the dialogue is too flat for a truly gripping drama and the revenge thriller sinks far too often into old-fashioned clichés that noticeably dull the film experience.
Our critic Jürgen Armbruster, who in the end gives the film just 2 out of 5 possible stars, praises, contrary to expectations, above all Vin Diesel, who is not exactly known for his versatility as an actor, who nevertheless brings his role across quite credibly. But whether that alone is enough to invest two hours of your life, you’ll have to find out for yourself in the end…
