#66: I Am Wrath / Vengeance: A Love Story

Travolta/Cage

This week, Travolta and Cage go down the revenge rabbit hole (again) in two Cage-produced schlockfests centered on middle-aged men with bad wigs and leather jackets shooting people in the face. Go figure!

First is I AM WRATH, a low-budget JOHN WICK riff that was originally meant to pair Cage with director William Friedkin! Instead, we drew the short end of the stick in this timeline, so we've got a constipated-looking John Travolta in a shock-black party wig and the director of The Mask (Chuck Russell). Here, Travolta avenges his wife's death in a seemingly-petty murder, only to go back to his life as a black ops expert, armed only with his wits, a Bible passage, and his old war buddy (Christopher Meloni).

Then, there's VENGEANCE: A LOVE STORY, the first (and hopefully only) action picture adapted from a Joyce Carol Oates novel. (Eat your heart out, BLONDE!) Here, Cage plays a virtuous cop who takes pity on a young woman (Anna Hutchison) whose gang-rapists get acquitted thanks to a sleazy country lawyah (Don Johnson). It's equal parts weepy social-issue melodrama and C-level Cage thriller, shot with all the gauzy cheapness of a Hallmark original movie. Joy!

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