Very well executed

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Released in 1986 I watched this movie on Cinemax a thousand times. Back then I thought it was the best, today it is even better for different reasons.This movie has 80's music such as Ozzy Ozborne, Ian Hunter, Honeymoon Suite, Robert Palmer, Motley Crue, Billy Idol, Lion and Bonnie Tyler. it has a very young Charlie Sheen, and a very hot, very young, Sherilyn Fenn, a sane Randy Quaid and even an appearance from Clint Howard (Ron Howard's brother), dozens of classic one liners, 80's muscle cars including a Dodge MS4 prototype car.This movie epitomizes the 80's. It is with out hesitation a movie which serves as a historical bookmark for the era of big hair, cheesy dialog and male chauvinistic point of views towards women and undertones of anti-gay views. There are dozens of big car crashes ending in a ball of fire over cliffs.No spoilers here, but the story in basic terms is about revenge. A ghost or wraith (the anti-hero) comes back to seek revenge for the murder of a young man who was in love with a beautiful young girl. The antagonist is the one who steals and dominates every one and every thing in his line of vision, including the love interest.The filming location is out in the Arizona desert which is typical for the 80's. The desert offered a cheap set location and with out much need for dealing with big town politics. Most of the scenes take place at junkyards, a burger joint or on the road.The script is actually very well written. The direction and acting is also actually acceptable. The movie keeps moving with a lot of action. Aside from some minor goofs the movie is practically flawless and filled with hidden classic literary clichés, such as the graveyard scene or the brief glimpse when the wraith's visor opens.There is some language and minor topless nudity. A few dead bodies with eyes burned out. The rest of the movie is filled with bullying and car chases.Overall the movie holds up even after thirty-five years of being lost on the shelf. Recently Hulu started to air it and I'm suspecting that it will show up on Netflix soon. It is worth a watch and remember it is a sleeper cult flick. Try not to expect any thing at all from the movie and watch it with out forwarding through it.

Jamie, killed by neighborhood thugs, returns as a mystical figure named Jake the Wraith (Charlie Sheen) to gain revenge.A movie from the 1980s with fast cars and Charlie Sheen? Sounds like a winner, maybe a mix between "Ferris Bueller" and The Chase". Add in Sherilyn Fenn in a pre-"Twin peaks" role... that has to be good, right? She stole the show there and the under-appreciated "Boxing Helena". Oh, and did I mention Clint Howard? But somehow it all seems so bland. Like a made-for-TV movie, and not a very good one, at that. I feel like the exact same story, with a little spit and polish could have been a minor masterpiece. But no. Somehow this gets labeled a "horror" film, but that is quite the stretch. Though it is not much of anything else either.

Jamie Hankins (Charlie Sheen) is murdered by Packard Walsh (Nick Cassavetes) and the rest of his gang for getting too intimate with a girl he desires, Keri Johnson (Sherilyn Fenn) A mystical figure shows up without warning one day, a man who goes by the name of Jake Kesey. He has an invincible Dodge Turbo Interceptor, and hits it off with Kerri. People don't realize Jake is actually Jamie Hankins who has come back to avenge his death by killing Packard and his gang. I am half and half on this movie. I did enjoy this movie very much in a B-movie type way, but I also feel they failed to execute on the potentially riveting storyline. It doesn't do nearly enough with the set-up and resorts to playing it safe far too often. Jamie was a man who was murdered, and it sure didn't seem like he was that angry about it. We get scattered flashbacks of Jamie's death that don't really amount to much, nor do they provide much emotion. Jamie kills Packard's gang in the most routine ways imaginable, all by car chaos. As a matter of fact, that's all it was really interested in. It felt like it was bragging by saying "Hey! Look at all these cool cars we are throwing your way, be in awe by it, and shut up" You got murdered bro, go nuts! On that note, the cars are indeed cool. We get a dodge turbo, a firebird, corvette, among others. The car chases are certainly exciting, but it gets redundant after a while when the storyline really begins to lack proper substance. The visuals are pretty dated, but still pretty neat, especially those flying lights. The abundance of plot holes can't be ignored. Why was there no conjecturing that Jake was Jamie? How did it take the sheriff so long to figure out what was going on? Charlie Sheen doesn't exactly give his best performance in this one. He's one of my favorite actors, but I'd be lying if I said he wasn't somewhat wooden at times. He was far too cool for a precarious situation that his character was in. I would have loved to see him be more conflicted and emotional, but we can't always get what we want, now can we? it's still Charlie Sheen, and I love him. Sherilyn Fenn is awful as the love interest. She couldn't emote very well, but she was pretty easy on the eyes. Her love story with Sheen is supposed to be very potent, but it fell very flat. Nick Cassavetes gives the best performance in the film as a ruthless gang leader. His menacing performance was quite riveting. Randy Quaid is amusing as the tough sheriff. The rest of the cast range from good to adequate. MAJOR SPOILERS! Here are my thoughts on the anti-climatic ending. Jamie manages to kill Packard, and they gave the viewers a happy ending, but it's rather ambiguous as well. Kerri & Billy find out that Jake is Jamie, and Kerri & Billy ride off into the sunset together. Is Kerri gonna be dead as well, is Jamie gonna stay on earth? it left so many questions unanswered, and it wasn't very logical. Final Thoughts: I almost forgot the amazing soundtrack. It has some classic 80's songs, if you love the 80's like I do. This movie is very enjoyable for what it is. It's a corny B-movie, but it could have been so much more. It had potential to be a suspenseful revenge film, but wound up being a cheesy 80's film. I can't complain too much. Cheesy 80's is just fine with me. Well worth a look, just make sure you temper your expectations5.7/10

So we find ourselves again in the heady, glossy '80's. A film that would delight any 10 year old; special, fast, shiny cars in high-speed races on Arizona desert roads. What more could a boy ask for? Well, in the case of The Wraith, we also have a supernatural avenging spirit.A gang of leather-clad "punks" lead by mullet-wearing Parkard (Nick Cassavettes), 'bothers' teenage drivers, and forces them to race for the possession of their cars. And they don't play fair. Packard is obsessed with Keri (Sherilyn Fenn), and believes that she belongs to him. We are offered glimpses of backstory in an incident where she was caught with Jamie Hankins, and the gang murder him. At the same time that Jake (Charlie Sheen) arrives in town, a visible apparition of possible alien origin arrives in a futuristic-looking sports car: A wraith with the intent of avenging his death (yes, he is the spirit of Jamie; revenge is his motivation). What proceeds is a series of repetitive kills, as the wraith races with the gang and blows their car (but not their bodies) to smithereens. In a different decade, this post-Knight Rider-like ghost-revenge flick, could have been less, well, 1980's. it focuses more on the fast-car elements, and less on the spiritual nature of post-death revenge. It's not a bad film, just very predictable and as I previously mentioned repetitive. There are hammy turns by Randy Quaid (Sheriff Loomis), and Eraserhead- haired geek, Rughead, by nerd regular Clint Howard. This adds nothing to the film, except for decade-cliché. The film bizarrely had a poster that was directly descended from the Back to the Future (1985) promotions (i.e. a figure exiting a vehicle with bright-white light emitting from the drivers door). The wraith itself is clearly lifted from the Japanese Manga character introduced in 1985, The Bio Booster Guyver (which was also turned into a Hollywood film in 1991). The costume almost identical.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com