Ingenious Media

‘Unhinged’ is Not Unhinged Enough

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

“Unhinged” was one of the first movies to be released in theaters near the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. This may very well be its biggest claim to fame as what results is an action thriller which is never boring, but hints at a motion picture which could have been so much better than it is. As much as I want to look at a movie for what it is as opposed to what I want it to be, this one has me inescapably thinking of what could have been improved with the material. Seriously, this could have been an epic thriller which stood proudly alongside Steven Spielberg’s “Duel” and “The Hitcher” (the original, not the terrible Platinum Dunes remake), but no such luck.

We are introduced to Tom Cooper (Russell Crowe) who, as “Unhinged” begins, breaks into his ex-wife’s house, murders her and her boyfriend who has the bad luck of sleeping at her place on this particular evening. These actions are preceded by Tom holding a lit match in his fingers and letting it burn right down to the tip of his skin. I kept waiting for him to flinch, but he never does. Clearly, he has already reached his D-FEN’s “Falling Down” moment, and it is all downhill for him from there.

We then meet Rachel Flynn (Caren Pistorius), a recent divorcee who, like me, sleeps in a lot later than they should. This particular morning, she is supposed to be meeting with a client, driving her son Kyle (Gabriel Bateman) to school, and figuring out what to do with her brother Fred (Austin P. McKenzie) and his girlfriend Mary (Juliene Joyner) who have taken up residence in her house due to their unfortunate financial circumstances. On top of all of this, one of Rachel’s clients coldly fires her while she drives her son to school. Clearly, she is already having a very bad day and is understandably pissed.

Then Rachel ends up behind Tom in his truck, and she becomes irate when he is not quick to step on the gas before the light turns red. She ends up passing him, more or less flips him off, and when he asks her for an apology in an effort to smooth things out, she is dismissive as she sees his problems as being no more or less important than anyone else’s. From there, Tom becomes determined to show her what it is to have a very bad day. This reminded me of when Robert De Niro told Nick Nolte that he would teach him the meaning of commitment in Martin Scorsese’s remake of “Cape Fear,” and we all came to see how vicious De Niro’s intentions were.

The first thing I should point out about “Unhinged” is Russell Crowe’s performance as Tom Cooper. The material might seem beneath him as this is the same actor who gave such epic performances in “Gladiator,” “A Beautiful Mind” and “Cinderella Man,” but he helps to give Tom a little more dimension than the screenplay might imply. Crowe helps to make Tom’s psychotic behavior all the more frightening than it might be if it were another actor taking on this role. It also helps that Crowe is playing a man who is prepared to commit suicide by cop as he has nothing left to lose, and this makes him all the more frightening as a result.

Playing Tom Cooper’s unfortunate victim is Caren Pistorius. I am not familiar with her work, but she made a breakthrough with her performance in “Slow West” in which she co-starred with Michael Fassbender and Kodi Smith-McPhee, and she appeared in Derek Cianfrance’s “Light Between Oceans.” She was also born in South Africa and raised in New Zealand, and this makes her American accent all the more impressive.

Pistorius makes Rachel Flynn into the type of protagonist you quickly come to care for. Rachel is not perfect (who is by the way?), but we root for her because the actress makes her into an everyone we have to recognize in our own lives. Like her, we would flip off any driver who would never be quick to step on the gas once the light turns green to where it is like an automatic impulse, but we don’t expect said drivers to come after us with a murderous vengeance. Watching Rachel deal with Tom’s murderous advances makes the furious emotions on display all the more brutal.

Having said all of this, “Unhinged” still has a lot of problems. Among them is that there are many plot holes throughout. Whether or not I could quickly identify these holes is not important. What is important is that I could tell they existed as much as the great white shark’s unrealistic roar of pain came about in “Jaws: The Revenge.” I mean, seriously, how does Tom get to learn about Rachel’s life through her cell phone ever so quickly?

Plus, there are many things which are telegraphed throughout like a cell phone being left in an individual’s car which you know will get stolen, and a pair of scissors which figure prominently in the climactic battle to where you wonder where in Tom’s body they will end up. Just when I thought “Unhinged” would subvert the cliches a movie like this is expected to have, it falls victim to them in ways which just kill the tension and the plausibility.

I recently came across an article on The Guardian website regarding Robert Harmon’s “The Hitcher” in which Rutger Hauer, who played the murderous psychopath John Ryder, stated that he didn’t play bad guys. This made Hauer’s performance in that film all the more fascinating to me, and it also made me want to believe Crowe had the same intentions when it came to him portraying Tom Cooper. But in the end, “Unhinged” blows a lot of opportunities to make it stand out from so many thrillers like it, and it will not last long in the memory after you have watched it.

* * out of * * * *

‘Predators’ Rescues This Franchise From its PG-13 Depths

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

Predators movie poster

WRITER’S NOTE: This review was written in 2010.

After those two god-awful “Alien vs. Predator” movies which brought each franchise down to an unforgivably cartoonish level, at least one franchise gets back on track with the Robert Rodriguez produced “Predators.” It puts, as Arnold Schwarzenegger described them, the ugly motherfuckers back into the action-packed R-rated territory where they belong, and we are provided with a cast of characters who are mostly complex and a bit cliched, but they are never bland like the standard bunch of fools which inhabit every other summer blockbuster movie in existence. It also completely disregards the groan-inducing existence of the aforementioned “AVP” movies and acts as a direct sequel to “Predator” and “Predator 2.” Still, it is clear from the get go how this one owes much of its inspiration to the 1987 original.

Schwarzenegger continues to evade each sequel made to “Predator,” so we instead have Adrien Brody starring as Royce, an ex-military soldier who has long since become a mercenary. In light of movies like “The A-Team” and “Green Zone” which were clearly anti-mercenary, now we have one we can root for without too much cynicism. “Predators” commences with Royce waking up as he is free falling in a way Tom Petty never sang about through the atmosphere to a planet’s surface where his parachute opens just in the nick of time. Once there, he comes into contact with others who have arrived in the same manner. They are all from different ethnic backgrounds but have one thing in common; they are the worst of the worst and are the best at what they do which is eliminating their respective enemies. Not all of them make it safely though as one slams to the ground when his parachute fails to open. This reminded me of Michael Rooker’s line from “Cliffhanger” when he said, “Gravity’s a bitch, isn’t it?”

They believe they are still on earth as the jungle looks all too familiar in their eyes, but it is soon revealed they are actually on some distant unnamed planet and have been dropped into a game preserve. Upon realizing they are in foreign territory, Royce correctly surmises they are the game. The predators are out there in their camouflage disguises, ready to dismember their prey in the most lethal way possible. I’m sure many you have seen the first two “Predator” movies and have gloried in their gloriously gory kills, and you can expect many good ones in this sequel.

The one thing I really liked about “Predators” is how it surrounds us with characters that are not the least bit watered over. Their lives have descended into the dark spaces we live to avoid, and their actions over time have branded them as criminals who are among the most wanted by their governments. Regardless, we still root for them to defeat the Predators on their turf which resembles an Amazonian rain forest. None of them are easily likable, but they are also not the same boring stereotypical schmucks which overpopulated the “AVP” movies. Like the characters from the original “Predator,” many whom have since become politicians, each one has their own set of quirks and crimes to run away from.

In addition to Adrien Brody, Alice Braga co-stars as Isabelle, a sniper from the Israel Defense Force and a CIA black operations assassin. Braga’s role continues the genre’s popular usage of strong female characters who can never ever be defeated easily, if at all. You also have Danny Trejo as the ruthless enforcer for a Mexican drug cartel named Cuchillo, Oleg Taktarov as a Russian commando Nikolai (a lot of Russian characters get named Nikolai in movies), Louis Ozawa Changchien as Yakuza enforcer Hanzo, Mahershala Ali as Sierra Leone RUF death squad soldier Mombasa, Topher Grace as a doctor named Edwin who seems misplaced among the group but has his own dark secrets, and Walton Goggins as San Quentin death row inmate Stans. They have their own specific weapons which act as an extension of what they are capable of doing, and despite their differences and varying levels of corruption, they need each other to survive. The writers did a good job of individualizing each character to where they stand out memorably, and each of them show how predators are equal opportunity decapitators. But therein lies the meaning behind the title of the movie; the humans are predators as well, and it’s kill or be killed.

By destroying the predators before they get murdered in a most vicious manner, the humans see this as their shot at redemption for all their bad deeds. Stans, on the other hand, who was on the verge of being executed, sees this as an opportunity to do the same things he got sent him to death row for. Its proof once again that crime makes you stupid.

While Rodriguez’s name has been plastered all over the promotional materials for “Predators,” the movie was directed by Nimród Antal who previously made “Vacancy” and “Armored.” Nimród gets a good dose of suspense and tension going, and he shows no interest in giving us a PG-13 movie we did not ask for. He does, however, let the pace drag towards the middle and gives us a little more exposition than we need. Things do pick up towards the end though, so he certainly did not forget the kind of movie fans expected to see.

The Predators themselves still look very threatening after all these years, and the filmmakers also bring us different versions of them throughout the carnage, just like at the end of “Predator 2.” We even get some Predator-like dogs which speed off after the protagonists like they are cougars coming out of nowhere. They look like the most vicious German shepherds you could ever come across. I know people think Doberman pinchers are the most dangerous dogs, but German shepherds freak me out more.

At first, it feels odd to see Brody cast as an action hero, but he pulls it off and makes Royce one of the more authentic antiheroes I have seen recently. Yes, he does have that moment where he takes his shirt off to show us how often he goes to the gym, but that is indeed an authentic six pack you see on him. Once again, Brody proves to be an actor who deserves a little more credit than he often gets.

I also really liked Braga as Isabelle as the actress sells you completely on her character of a female soldier who is tough as nails and not to be trifled or flirted with. She’s also the one who convinces the group how they are better off sticking together in the midst of odds which threaten to be as harsh as those of winning the California Lottery.

There’s also an inspired supporting performance by Laurence Fishburne as Roland Noland, a soldier who has managed to survive for “ten seasons” without having been slaughtered. The price for his survival though is the loss of his sanity as he has been on this planet for much longer than anyone should. Morpheus he ain’t, and Roland threatens to be every bit as lethal as the Predators. Granted, it’s kind of hard to make friends when many of them get sliced in half before you get to know their middle name, and it’s easy to develop invisible friends and talk to yourself as these aliens prove to be lacking in conversational skills. Fishburne is a kick, and it would have been cool to have seen more of him here.

But let’s not forget one of the most pivotal characters in this franchise which is the music of Alan Silvestri. The score for “Predators” was actually composed by John Debney, but Silvestri’s unforgettable themes are on full display here. All the heavy horn blasts, staccato string rhythms, and undulating timpani rolls are on display, and they continue to highlight all the action and tense proceedings throughout. While Debney does make the score his own, even he can’t ignore the themes Silvestri made famous.

Still, there is really no way to fully capture the menace these cinematic creatures had to the same level of the original. One of the great things about “Predator” was that, as with “Alien” or even “Jaws,” you didn’t get to see the full creature until the movie’s last act. As a result, they were scarier to where the thought of them alone left you deeply unnerved. These creatures have been around for so long now, and we have become all too familiar with how they look and attack which does take from this finished product.

But for what it’s worth, “Predators” does provide some slam bang entertainment which helps to make up for those horrifically bad “Alien vs. Predator” movies, and it brings this particular franchise back to its roots, something that was long overdue. My only other complaint is there is not enough of Danny Trejo to see here, but we’ll be catching up with that badass soon when “Machete” gets released, and I can’t wait for that one.

* * * out of * * * *