{"id":3963,"date":"2024-09-13T01:36:40","date_gmt":"2024-09-13T01:36:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=3963"},"modified":"2024-10-13T18:12:05","modified_gmt":"2024-10-13T22:12:05","slug":"certain-fury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/09\/13\/certain-fury\/","title":{"rendered":"Certain Fury"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Certain Fury <\/strong>(1985)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 New World\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 87 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong violence, rape, language, racial epithets, nudity, drugs)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Stephen Gyllenhaal\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Michael Jacobs\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Russ Kunkel, George Massenburg and Bill Payne\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Kees Van Oostrum\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: March 1, 1985 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Tatum O\u2019Neal, Irene Cara, Nicholas Campbell, George Murdock, Moses Gunn, Peter Fonda.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: N\/A<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0Certain Fury<\/strong> certainly is trash, but what cracks me up about it is how it tries to lure in viewers with the promise of two Academy Award winners playing the lead roles. Since it\u2019s New World, you know not to expect Marlon Brando and Meryl Streep. In this case, it\u2019s Tatum O\u2019Neal who won her Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Paper Moon when she was 10 and Irene Cara who didn\u2019t even win for acting. Both of Cara\u2019s Oscars are for Best Song- \u201cFame\u201d and \u201cFlashdance (What a Feeling)\u201d. She also sings the theme for Certain Fury<\/strong>, but it\u2019s not even in the damn movie. I recall hearing it over the end credits when I saw it at the movies, but never again after that. It\u2019s replaced by some instrumental piece in every version (cable, video and DVD) I\u2019ve seen since then. I\u2019d really love to know why it was removed.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019d like to say that Certain Fury<\/strong>, best described as a female version of The Defiant Ones, continues a tradition started by C.H.U.D. and continued by Body Rock in that it\u2019s filmed in the filthiest, poorest areas of New York, but it wouldn\u2019t be a true statement. Unlike the other titles, it\u2019s not even filmed in New York (it was shot in Vancouver). It\u2019s just as dirty-looking as director Stephen Gyllenhaal (Losing Isaiah) takes viewers on a guided tour of tenement buildings, drug dens, back alleys and junkyards. It makes Certain Fury<\/strong> look cheap and shoddy but it\u2019s actually the right tone for this story of two female fugitives on the run from the law.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Certain Fury<\/strong> starts on an awesome note with a violent, bloody shoot-out in a courtroom when two prostitutes attempt to escape custody. In the resulting mayhem, Scarlet (O\u2019Neal) and Tracy (Cara) try to run away. Although they had nothing to do with what happened, the police aren\u2019t inclined to believe them since several of their own died. Things get worse for the girls when a cop drowns in the sewer after accidentally setting off an explosion. He tries to light a cigarette down there; has this genius never heard of sewer gas? Tracy tries to save him to no avail. Now the girls are in even bigger trouble.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Scarlet and Tracy come from different walks of life. Tracy is the privileged daughter of a surgeon (Gunn, Amityville II: The Possession) who got busted for driving a stolen car and possession of marijuana. Also, she called the arresting officer \u201ca honky white-ass dumb mother f***er\u201d. Scarlet, an illiterate white trash street kid, is into prostitution and drug dealing. She\u2019s charged with murdering a client, an act she claims was in self-defense. Talk about an odd couple, right? Enemies at first, they\u2019re forced to rely on each other if they want to survive being chased by cops and vicious criminals like Scarlet\u2019s psycho ex Sniffer (Campbell, Knights of the City). Three guesses as to how he got his nickname and the first two don\u2019t count.<\/p>\n

\u00a0After a great start, Certain Fury<\/strong> goes downhill a bit. The rest of the movie doesn\u2019t live up to the opening scene. I didn\u2019t always like this movie, but I developed an appreciation for it over the years. It\u2019s a cool low-budget B-movie. Neither of the lead actresses give Oscar-caliber performances (how ironic!); in fact, the acting is pretty bad overall. I\u2019m not sure how old the lead characters are supposed to be, but they both look well past their teens. Peter Fonda (Easy Rider) camps it up as a crime boss Scarlet goes to for help (he\u2019s another of her exes). Not only does he refuse, he cuts her on the side of her face thus giving her name deeper meaning. Gunn brings a shred of dignity to the role of a father convinced of his daughter\u2019s innocence and wondering how she could sink this low without him noticing.<\/p>\n

\u00a0There\u2019s plenty of action and shooting in Certain Fury<\/strong>. There\u2019s a drug house that resembles something out of a nightmare. It\u2019s the scene of a huge fire set by Fonda\u2019s henchmen trying to lure out Scarlet and Tracy. The score is kind of nice, but it\u2019s not a perfect fit. It\u2019s more appropriate to a movie like Big Shots, a lighter take on the whole black\/white friendship thing. The action takes place in some ugly areas and it\u2019s not always pretty to look at. It\u2019s still a pretty cool flick though. It\u2019s a relic from a long-gone era, a time when cheap movies like Certain Fury<\/strong> found their way to theaters for one-week runs. Boy, do I ever miss that. Back then, crappy movies were pretty good. Now they\u2019re just crap. Here\u2019s to the old days.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Certain Fury (1985)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 New World\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 87 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong violence, rape, language, racial epithets, nudity, drugs)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Stephen Gyllenhaal\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Michael Jacobs\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Russ Kunkel, George Massenburg and Bill Payne\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Kees Van Oostrum\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: March 1, 1985 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Tatum O\u2019Neal, Irene Cara, Nicholas Campbell, George Murdock, Moses Gunn, Peter Fonda.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4664,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-action-adventure","category-b-movies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Certain-Fury-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3963"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4665,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3963\/revisions\/4665"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}