Review: Silent Rage


Small town sheriff Chuck Norris takes down a psycho killer (Brian Libby), but a mad scientist (an overacting Steven Keats) at a private clinic, decides to use the psycho as a guinea pig to test an experimental new drug that apparently has great healing powers. But wouldn’t ‘ya know it, the nutjob escapes, and hey, now he’s damn-near indestructible! Ron Silver plays a doctor with more scruples than Keats and his colleague William Finley, meanwhile Toni Kalem plays Silver’s sister who is also the love interest for Norris (who otherwise has very little reason for being in this story anyway, outside of having shot the nutter in the beginning). Stephen Furst is Norris’ soft-bellied, soft-headed deputy, AKA Mr. Light Comedy Relief.


Cheap, incompetently written 1982 Michael Miller (“Jackson County Jail”, “National Lampoon’s Class Reunion”) vehicle for karate dude Norris never for a second tries to make it’s stupid plot the slightest bit believable (And what kind of doctors were Silver, Keats and their buddies? I never quite figured it out). It also throws in a fight at a diner for no reason outside of giving Norris some people to beat up. And even the action isn’t all that exciting.


If it weren’t for the presence of some competent co-stars and familiar faces (notably Furst who despite a crap role, plays as directed, and a young Silver, who actually isn’t all that great here), this would be among the worst action films of the era. Keats, meanwhile, nearly gives Norris a run for his money in the bad acting stakes (no mean feat, as I’ve never found Norris to exhibit the slightest bit of thesping ability and I’ve seen a lot of his films).


Rating: D

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