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I Am Wrath
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Lions Gate Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Eric Cotenas (14th August 2016). |
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The Film
 No sooner does former Chrysler plant manager Stanley Hill (Pulp Fiction's John Travolta) get back from an interview for a position at Honda than he and his gubernatorial aide wife Vivian (The Hand That Rocks the Cradle's Rebecca De Mornay) are assaulted in the airport parking structure, leaving her dead of stab wounds and him badly beaten. While he positively identifies one of the three attackers as drug dealer Charley Lawes (American Heist's Luis Da Silva Jr.), investigating detectives Gibson (True Blood's Sam Trammell) and Walker (Exit Speed's Asante Jones) let the suspect go, telling Stanley that he is not a credible witness and that the streets would take care of Charley's type soon enough; although the audience soon learns that the detectives have ulterior reasons for turning the suspect loose since he belongs to the crew of kingpin Lemi K. (Vigilante Diaries's Paul Sloan, who also wrote the scrip) and they are off limits. Stanley's eldest daughter Abbie (Center Stage's Amanda Schull) is concerned about his emotional welfare, but the ex-Black Ops officer is consumed with thoughts of revenge. Turning to ex-partner turned barber Dennis (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit's Christopher Meloni) for information and resources, Stanley starts tracking the men down and killing them for what he believes was a random act of violence but soon starts to suspect that Vivian's death might have been a professional hit related to EPA-independent assessment of Governor Meserve's (Super 8's Patrick St. Esprit) planned pipeline and its effects on clean water. Meanwhile, Gibson and Walker are under the impression that the hits against Lemi K.'s men are part of a new gang war. When one of Lemi K's informers takes a photograph of Stanley and Dennis dumping the body of one of the assailants, he tries to have them killed. When this results in further carnage on his side, he orders a hit against Stanley's family. With director Chuck Russell (A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors) behind this, I Am Wrath might have been something interesting in the eighties – particularly with the R-rated violence here that would have only been accessible via foreign versions by late eighties MPAA standards – but now, however, it is not so much a throwback as simply… dumb. From the opening credits onwards, it is pretty obvious that the governor is corrupt and no real spoiler that the results of the pipeline report confirming the EPA findings motivated the attack on Stanley's wife as soon as it is mentioned; and the audience will be way ahead of the film's protagonist when he flashes back to his wife's throwaway comments and finally listens to message on her mobile phone. None of the villains are remotely interesting, with their dialogue consisting of such clichéd lines like "This goes all the way to the top!", "Who is this guy?", as well as "Who are you?" definitively answered with the titlular statement by Stanley after he has sought solace in his wife's bible and gotten a thematically-significant tattoo. Travolta, looking not so much air-brushed as sandblasted, is fairly dull and non-committal in the lead, and others seem to follow his example through the paint-by-numbers plotting with only Meloni bringing any novelty to his underwritten part (he might have actually made a better lead since this was never going to be a major theatrical release). Identikit action thrillers of this ilk glutting the store shelves could be a proving ground for new filmmakers to express their own style within the limitations of genre, but Russell – in his first feature effort since 2002's The Scorpion King – seems to be just getting his name out there again even though his The Hunchback – an adaptation of Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame – seems DTV-bound and potentially-interesting return to the horror genre with the Witchboard remake might seem redundant to theatrical audiences after the Ouija took the concept and bland-ed the hell out of it for PG-13 audiences.
Video
LionsGate's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.40:1 widescreen encode is up to their usual professional standards, with the visual blandness an effect of the original photography including some shots that appear noisy because of the exposure rather than the dialing down of brightness and contrast. Detail is good in close-ups, so Travolta's waxen face cannot be blamed on any excessive DNR.
Audio
The sole DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 option gets the job done in terms of music and effects, but it is not a particularly adventurous or original mix in the first place. Optional English, English SDH, and Spanish subtitles are included as per usual with LionsGate.
Extras
The sole extra is an audio commentary with director Chuck Russell and writer/actor Paul Sloan that is actually more entertaining than the film. Russell discusses the film as a "fun, gritty movie" and that he had to reach back to his low-budget origins (he served as producer on films like Hell Night, The Hearse, and Dreamscape) to mount the film's pre-production quickly given Travolta's limited window for shooting the film. He and Sloan discuss the script's drafts and changes, the chemistry between Travolta and Meloni (Stanley was initially a lone character and they decided to make it a buddy movie) as well as shooting in Columbus, Ohio with the support of the locals by making sure to give Travolta time to spends with his fans. Russell also discuss concerns over the film's rating (the commentary was recorded watching the first finished version and had not yet been submitted to the MPAA) and his preference for a bit more graphic violence than on display without giving the film too much of a grotesque edge.
Overall
With director Chuck Russell behind this, I Am Wrath might have been something interesting in the eighties but now, however, it is not so much a throwback as simply... dumb.
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