Facebook Twitter Instagram
    Latest
    • Thank You
    • 4000. Scenes From A Marriage (1973)
    • 3999. The Pianist (2002)
    • 3998. Philadelphia (1993)
    • 3997. Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)
    • 3996. The Green Mile (1999)
    • 3995. Doctor Zhivago (1965)
    • 3994. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022)
    The Mad Movie Man
    • Home
    • Blog
      • All Posts
      • Best Of The Year
        • Best Of 2015
        • Best Of 2016
        • Best Of 2017
        • Best Of 2018
        • Best Of 2019
        • Best Of 2020
        • Best Of 2021
        • Best Of 2022
      • The Decade In Review
      • Box Office Analysis
      • James Bond
      • Oscars
      • RANKED
      • Star Wars
      • The Big Questions
      • Top 10
      • World Cinema
    • Ratings
      • Top 250
      • Top 100 Foreign Films
      • Bottom 50
      • 0 – 1.9
      • 2 – 3.9
      • 4 – 5.9
      • 6 – 7.9
      • 8 – 10
    • Genres
      • Action
      • Anthology
      • Animation
      • Christmas
      • Comedy
      • Crime
      • Documentary
      • Drama
      • Fantasy
      • Film-Noir
      • History
      • Horror
      • Kids’
      • Musical
      • Psychological
      • Romance
      • Sci-Fi
      • Short
      • Silent
      • Sport
      • Superhero
      • Survival
      • Thriller
      • Western
    • Release Year
      • 2020s
      • 2010s
      • 2000s
      • 1990s
      • 1980s
      • 1970s
      • 1960s
      • 1950s
      • 1940s
      • 1930s
      • 1920s
    • Country
      • Afghanistan
      • Argentina
      • Australia
      • Austria
      • Belgium
      • Brazil
      • Cambodia
      • Canada
      • Chile
      • China
      • Colombia
      • Costa Rica
      • Czechoslovakia
      • Czech Republic
      • Denmark
      • East Timor
      • Faroe Islands
      • Finland
      • France
      • Germany
      • Georgia
      • Greece
      • Hong Kong
      • Hungary
      • Iceland
      • India
      • Indonesia
      • Iran
      • Iraq
      • Ireland
      • Israel
      • Italy
      • Japan
      • Latvia
      • Lebanon
      • Laos
      • Malaysia
      • Mexico
      • New Zealand
      • Nigeria
      • North Korea
      • Norway
      • Paraguay
      • Peru
      • Philippines
      • Poland
      • Romania
      • Russia
      • Saudi Arabia
      • Singapore
      • South Korea
      • South Africa
      • Soviet Union
      • Spain
      • Sweden
      • Switzerland
      • Syria
      • Taiwan
      • Thailand
      • Turkey
      • Uganda
      • United Kingdom
      • United States
      • Uruguay
      • Vietnam
      • Zambia
    • About
    The Mad Movie Man
    You are at:Home»Review»2124. Rampage (2018)

    2124. Rampage (2018)

    0
    By The Mad Movie Man on April 22, 2018 100-109 mins, 2018, 6 - 7.9, Action, Apr 18, Movies Of 2018, Review, Sci-Fi, United States
    7.1 Not endlessly entertaining
    • Acting 7.3
    • Directing 7.2
    • Story 6.7
    • User Ratings (0 Votes) 0

    Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Naomie Harris, Jeffrey Dean Morgan

    Director: Brad Peyton

    Running Time: 108 mins


    Rampage is an American film about a primatologist and a geneticist who join forces to save Chicago and the world from three animals infected with a dangerous pathogen.

    The Rock and a massive gorilla – what more did you expect? In all truth, Rampage is the epitome of a big studio blockbuster, with fantastic visual effects, a massively entertaining and chaotic finale, and an effortlessly charismatic lead in Dwayne Johnson, but not much else when it comes to holding your attention from beginning to end, largely due to a generic and occasionally even non-sensical story for the first two-thirds.

    In all honesty, though, you don’t watch a film like this for engrossing storytelling, you watch it to see monsters fight each other in the middle of a major city while an epic action lead saves the world. In that, Rampage caters to all of your expectations in providing a fantastically dumb yet enjoyable watch, all coming to a head with an enormous finale filled to the brim with brilliant blockbuster entertainment.

    I’ll get into the opening two acts in a second, but it’s the film’s finale that is undoubtedly the most memorable. The visual effects are fantastic from the start, and really start to show their worth in that final showdown, as we see three massive animals descend on Chicago and tear the city to pieces, with Dwayne Johnson trapped right in the middle, having to fight his way out against the most impossible and ridiculous adversaries.

    Talking about Dwayne Johnson, Rampage features yet another one of his endlessly charismatic performances, as he dominates the film from beginning to end with his textbook likability and action chops, single-handedly giving the entire film an energy and enjoyability that would have likely been non-existent without Johnson in the lead role. Much like many of his other big blockbusters, he’s able to carry the entire film and add a whole extra level of fun even when there’s not all that much else to marvel at, which was great to see.

    Despite that, however, the fact remains that there isn’t all that much to Rampage, and it suffers the fate of being a very generic blockbuster that offers little else than big action. The film is generally an enjoyable watch, but over the course of the first two acts, I felt regularly frustrated whenever there wasn’t any major action on screen, simply because the writing for the rest of the movie was so poor.

    The story isn’t all that interesting, and follows a very predictable formula from beginning to end, occasionally punctuated by a random and rather poorly-written twist that makes the flow of the whole film really rather awkward to follow.

    What’s more is that when the story’s not there, not even the humour can save the day. As I’ve said, Dwayne Johnson is very charismatic, but the rest of the actors don’t have the chance to help in the same way, and the awful comedy throughout, which almost always falls flat, means that the majority of the film is a far more underwhelming watch, without the entertainment value of watching Johnson in massive action sequences.

    As a result, those first two acts are a bit of a drag, and there’s barely anything memorable about them apart from a couple of good action sequences. Fortunately, however, Johnson’s performance is enjoyable enough to engage you throughout, while the finale of the film is a massively entertaining action extravaganza, ultimately saving the film from being a waste of time, and that’s why I’m giving it a 7.1 overall.

    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
    The Mad Movie Man
    • Website
    • Facebook
    • Twitter

    The Mad Movie Man, AKA Anthony Cullen, writes articles and reviews about movies and the world of cinema. From January 1st, 2013 to December 31st, 2022, he watched and reviewed a movie every day. This is the blog dedicated to the project: www.madmovieman.com

    Related Posts

    8.2

    4000. Scenes From A Marriage (1973)

    7.8

    3999. The Pianist (2002)

    8.2

    3998. Philadelphia (1993)

    Follow Me Online!
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • YouTube
    • Tumblr
    New Releases
    8.2
    December 25, 2022

    3994. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022)

    5.6
    December 10, 2022

    3969. Falling For Christmas (2022)

    6.9
    December 4, 2022

    3956. The People We Hate At The Wedding (2022)

    5.4
    December 3, 2022

    3954. Disenchanted (2022)

    7.4
    December 3, 2022

    3953. Meet Cute (2022)

    7.6
    November 23, 2022

    3934. Do Revenge (2022)

    7.0
    November 18, 2022

    3929. The Wonder (2022)

    6.7
    November 13, 2022

    3924. See How They Run (2022)

    Recommended Movies
    8.7
    Review
    February 28, 20150

    873. We Need To Talk About Kevin (2011)

    8.4
    Review
    September 30, 20150

    1105. The Martian (2015)

    8.4
    Review
    October 12, 20180

    2312. First Man (2018)

    8.3
    Review
    July 17, 20150

    1027. Million Dollar Baby (2004)

    8.4
    Review
    October 28, 20180

    2328. The Perfect Crime (2004)

    Popular Posts
    December 31, 2022

    Thank You

    8.2
    December 31, 2022

    4000. Scenes From A Marriage (1973)

    7.8
    December 30, 2022

    3999. The Pianist (2002)

    8.2
    December 29, 2022

    3998. Philadelphia (1993)

    7.5
    December 28, 2022

    3997. Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)

    9.1
    December 27, 2022

    3996. The Green Mile (1999)

    7.6
    December 26, 2022

    3995. Doctor Zhivago (1965)

    © 2023 ThemeSphere. Designed by ThemeSphere.

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.