UNHINGED review

We're living in a country right now....

...where a president who conspired with a foreign adversary to rig the election 4 years ago is again conspiring with that same country to rig the 2020 election, with the rubber stamped help of the AG, postmaster general, and countless state officials.

...where that same president has let a global.pandemic kill over 170,000 people, with zero plan or intention for it to ever stop. 

...where police are still brutalizing citizens, and brutalizing citizens who protest their brutalizing of citizens.

So it's almost quaint to watch Unhinged, a thriller about a really bad case of road rage. Compared to the dismantling of American democracy, having Russell Crowe pissed at me seems manageable.

Honestly, this movie probably will only be remembered for being the first wide release since COVID shut everything down. It's like a lot of thrillers, that may or may not maintain suspense for 2 acts, but typically wind up getting very dumb in the 3rd.

I liked how simple it was. A woman honks her car horn a few times at Crowe, as he is sitting at a green light. He snaps and spends the rest of the movie terrorizing her, and whatever friends or family members happen to get in the way. And we already know from the pre-credit sequence that Crowe is a psychopathic murderer.

Yeah you gotta swallow some plot contrivances, like how Crowe commits an assault, then murder in the middle of a busy diner, then doesn't even leave right away yet still is gone before the cops arrive. And Crowe has a few of those movie villain moments where they are omniscient. 

But I was with it. Crowe is a naturally intimidating figure even in movies where he plays an unquestioned good guy, so it's strange he hasn't been deployed as a bad guy much at all. And he doesn't play it for dark comedy. He's over the top sometimes but he isn't doing it as a goof. We could have used a better actress as the lead, I think. Caren Pistorius (who has been in a few things I've seen but I don't remember her) is decent and blandly appealing, but there's nothing memorable about her.

As I said the movie does that dumb 3rd act thriller shit. The final plan to outwit Crowe makes no sense and then they go against their plan for no reason and the cops are involved but considering what happens they were irrelevant. Pretty good final zinger directed at Crowe though. 

Best* movie of the summer!

(*also only movie)