Russell Crowe Gets ‘Unhinged’ In This Fast & Furious Vehicle (Movie Review)
Unhinged will go down in the record books as the first new studio film to open with a wide release since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down everything five months ago. While I am just perfectly fine with my #10 movie of all time, Birds of Prey, taking home top honors this year at 2021’s Academy Awards it was the trailer for Unhinged that had me hook, line and sinker. Call me a sucker. Call me what you want. When you throw in an addictive cover of a Nirvana song such as “Heart-Shaped Box” in the film’s trailer, you got yourself a sucker here. They say one’s born every minute so that makes me your sucker of the minute here. However, fret not because Solstice Studios feels confident in what they bill as an “edge-of-your-seat” thriller here will remind you what you’ve missed about seeing movies on the big screen. Let’s find out if that’s true or not down below.
Unhinged was first released in Germany on July 16th this year. It’s directed by Derrick Borte off a screenplay written by Carl Ellsworth. The film stars what appears to be two people worth of a Russell Crowe, Caren Pistorius, Gabriel Bateman, Jimmi Simpson and Austin P. McKenzie. The film’s plot is pretty simple. It’s all about road rage and it gets pretty ridiculous. And I know. I still need to convince you of that so please by all means read on. There’s a reason to my madness as to why I have Fast & Furious in my title.
Things become “unhinged” here right from the get go as we’re introduced to Russell Crowe’s monstrous character. I must say they did a great job with his fat suit. It was very convincing. I just wish they would have paid as much attention to continuity right from the get go. I’m not going to divulge any spoilers here, but the film’s first scene would obviously find Russell’s character covered in blood, at least his shirt, but he’s not. A scene later some light blood drops are now visible on his shirt. Where did those come from? As Joe Biden would say, come on man! This is a proper production. Treat it as one.
So where was I? Oh Russell Crowe! He plays Tom Cooper who from when we first meet him we can easily deduce he has been having a rough time in life. Meanwhile, life isn’t exactly roses for a young mother, Rachel Hunter (Pistorius), going through a divorce and doing a horrible job of keeping the lights on herself. Fate happens and eventually these two character paths intertwine as our troubled mother finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time. She does the unthinkable! She honks her horn at him in a manner which he doesn’t like. And even worse she refuses to apologize. Foolishly she doesn’t even believe him when he promises he will teach her what it’s like to have a bad day and wow does he ever.
Unhinged is road rage taken to the EXTREME! That’s actually what makes things fun. Russell’s character knows no boundaries. He not only torments this poor mother, but also everyone she knows. I know what you’re thinking. How? Let’s just say he’s clever (I don’t want to spoil things so I’ll stop there). You really don’t suspect a movie like this could be much fun, but it’s actually a thrill ride should you be able to get over all the Fast & Furious like ridiculousness of the action elements. There’s a lot of carnage, car crashes and chases on the road much like a Fast & Furious film. That’s a blast for me. Also alike, Tom can seemingly get away with anything almost like an “invisible” man. I’m sorry to be political here, but this must have taken place in a New Orleans de-funded police society because they are very slow to react. However, they eventually do and that makes it all that much more fun because the hunter is also being hunted as well.
I know why Solstice decided to release this in the theaters. For those clamoring to get out of their “basements” and back to the theater this one is a sure fire win! However, at the end of the day this one truly does remind me of one of those VHS features you would rent from Blockbuster. That’s not to say it’s a bad thing, but rather it’s not one I would recommend you speeding out to the theater for either. This is a solid rental. Russell does a great job playing a man without a care that we want to see get his. The rest of the cast while not memorable by any means also does an acceptable job. I also love the hard R-rating. It’s not over-abused, but still at the end of the day Unhinged is a violent, sadistic thriller. I can get behind that in our world that is filled with too many PG-13 movies and political correctness. Unhinged is no holds barred right from the get go and its unapologetic in its plight. It’s just a solid road rage movie that delivers on all the B-movie goods through a somewhat choppy, uneven experience. Sadly this isn’t being offered up on VOD so if you do want to see this, you’re going to have to leave the house or the “basement” this weekend. Are you ready for that?
Brian White
Owner/Writer/Reviewer/Editor, Dreamer, Producer, Agent of Love, Film Lover, Writer of Screenplays and a Devoted Apostle to all things Ford Mustangs (the real ones with V8's!). Some of my favorite films include FIGHT CLUB, MOULIN ROUGE, THE DARK KNIGHT, STAR WARS alongside television shows such as SEINFELD, 24, SANFORD & SON and even the often loathed in the geek community BIG BANG THEORY. Outside of my three lives I live I also enjoy spending time with my girlfriend and our three girls (of the furry kind).
