Certain Fury [Blu-ray]

Couple of trailers, an audio commentary by a film historian. KL, being KL, no subtitles.Directed by Stephen Gyllenhall (Jake and Maggie's father), who also collaborated with Sean S. Cunningham on 1985s The New Kids.Just Another day at the courthouse and the female prisoners are being taken in to have their cases heard before the judge. One of them is prostitute Scarlet McGinnis (Tatum O'Neal), who claims to her lawyer that she can practically get out of a prison sentence on her own, so sure is she the charges are trumped up. Another is Tracy Freeman (Irene Cara), a middle-class girl who has gone off the rails recently thanks to personal issues; her surgeon father (Moses Gunn) is on his way to try and rescue her for attacking a police officer. However, when the first woman goes up to have her say, she starts singing and will not stop; the judge orders her silenced, so one of the guards goes up to her only to suddenly have his throat slashed by her concealed knife - then all Hell breaks loose.Certain Fury was one of those items from New World post-Roger Corman, when their orange globe logo was a familiar sight to video renters across the nineteen-eighties if the video store was out of blockbusters and they were reduced to a cheaper alternative. This was undoubtedly a good example of that, a loose remake of The Defiant Ones that had brought racial issues to the silver screen in the fifties, though whether Tatum was a decent substitute for Tony Curtis and Irene was for Sidney Poitier was debatable. What was, er, certain, turned out to be the studio's propensity for cashing in on the artistic achievements of their leading ladies here: both had won Oscars, O'Neal for her debut in Paper Moon and Cara for writing the hit theme to Flashdance.It may have been more significant that for one thing, Tatum's Oscar was for a performance delivered when she was a child, and her star had somewhat fallen since, becoming better known as "Tantrum" and for her stormy relationship with tennis legend John McEnroe in the tabloids than her acting roles, and Cara's award was not for her acting. They missed a trick by not getting her to trill on the soundtrack for this, which does not even have a proper theme song, so naturally most audiences were going to set their expectations rather low. They would have been wise to do so, and indeed this turned into a minor joke among those who had seen it (it dropped out of sight for decades before its DVD/bluray revival.On the other hand, just because you were watching a pair of celebrities in somewhat reduced circumstances, albeit reduced in the context of the movie, did not mean there was no amusement to be gained from watching them run around and swear their heads off. The rough(even today) language became the prompt for many titters at the time, as if the actresses were trying too hard to be tough in a gritty thriller, but just about every character they met was turning the air blue to a ridiculous degree - fair enough, it was clever to swear, but when Tatum gets called the C word by her junkie boyfriend (Nicholas Campbell) you did wonder if this was an attempt to shock that was having the opposite effect. Still, her Scarlet character had it easy compared to the determination the drama had to drag Tracy into the gutter.Poor Irene was nearly drowned in a sewer, covered in rats, had a shower scene that was interrupted by the scuzzy boyfriend trying to rape her which led to a naked punch up in the bathroom, was injected with heroin against her will... the list of indignities pile on (some of the dialogue is right up there with Mandingo or Fight For Your Life), you had to admire her for putting up with it and emerging as a sympathetic persona. Not that Tatum had it all that easier, as she got into a (non-naked) brawl as well that lasted for ages, and when a burnt out Peter Fonda, as a gang boss on his personal yacht, showed up he contrived to slash her face with his nail file: a woman's trials and tribulations are so much worse than men's, the message seems to be. Naturally, stuffing this with so much incident meant it never dragged, not even when the two runaways from the courtroom shoot out (a way over the top sequence designed to grab the viewer from the first five minutes) had their heads to head and worked out their class and racial differences in lesson making scenes. It probably plays better with the passing of time than it did back in '85, as the female buddy movie remains a rarity even now.

I had seen this movie when I was younger. I had it on VHS and wanted to add it to my collection. I liked Irene Cara and have a small collection of her work. It's a younger female version of the Defiant Ones. It has it's moments, it also stars Tatum O'Neal. It's worth a look of you love the movies of the 80's.

I kind of gave this movie 4 stars, although i should give it three star! You can not really find this movie on DVD! I gave it four stars just for the simple fact that I like the action that was taken place in this film! The movie was just all good to me! I also like Ms. Irene Cara and can't forget Tatum O'Neal! This movie was ok! It shows a little action, but it is not enough to earn 5 stars and i quote. But i really give this movie a play! Thanks Amazon!De'Vear Small(AKA Dee Smalls)Representing Decatur GA

A little cheesy at times but all around fun. This 80's film has a opening that is bloodier than some of the slasher films of the 80's. There are a few loop holes in the story but Tatum O'Neal and Irene Cara are good in their roles. Never a fan of Peter Fonda and he looks creepy and plays a creep!

I remember watching this when I was young on VHS and I have to say the blu ray is a real improvement. It's not a great film by any means but it is what it is... a badly acted but watchable 80's action film.

Tatum O'Neal and Irene Cara were great together two young women trying to get far treatment in the justice system get caught up in A court room shoot out slaughter on the run and not sure where to go or who to trust it's full action and and A lot of violence.

Gooood movie what I like about this movie was that the characters were the total opposite of what you expected!

Non stop action Film. A Bmovie with good actors. Cara is the better of the 2 female leads nice commentary.

great movie worth watching