Unhinged

I actually had no idea about this film until a couple of days ago. I didn't watch a trailer, I read a little of the premise and I only knew Russell Crowe was in it so I pretty much went in blind and it's very entertaining.

To start off the positives, the best thing about this film is it knows what it wants to be. It doesn't overcomplex it's main plotline, it doesn't overstay it's welcome, it wants to entertain and deliver thrills and it does that.

The acting is also pretty good. Carin Pistorius delivers a intensely great performance and Gabriel Bateman is another standout. He's one of my favourite rising stars right now and I look forward to everything he's in. Russell Crowe gives an intimidating performance as Tom Hooper but I'll get back to him soon enough.

And finally, this film doesn't feel generic. It feels like a thriller that intends to avoid typical cliches and there's times where it can surprise us so I appreciated that.

Onto the mixed aspect of the film is the messaging in the film. When the film starts off, it feels like it's sending out a message about dangerous drivers and that's how the main plot starts off and it does that to an extent but it doesn't fully commit to it. Tom Cooper is pretty much the cause of the films events for being an idiot and when the film does focus on dangerous drivers, it's completely irrelevant to the story.

Onto the negatives now and there's quite a few. I'm not sure if this will be a hot take but whilst Russell Crowe gives a good performance, he feels a bit miscast in this film for a few reasons:

1. His character is completely one dimensional and underdeveloped. He has a really weak motivation for targeting the main character in this film and whilst you could argue his mental state could be sufficient to his motive, the film doesn't explore his character enough and his character is irredeemable when he's willing to murder a child in this film.

2. Tom Cooper is very overpowered in this film. I just struggle to believe overweight Russell Crowe can beat people up easily, overpower younger fitter people, can survive car crashes that kill other people easily as the plot goes along.

3. Russell Crowes casting ultimately feels like a safe route to market the film to bring in more people. I would have preferred it if they casted a more unknown and physically capable actor rather than overweight cranky Russell Crowe.

Finally, this film just relies on suspending your disbelief. Now in places, there is some clever writing in this film but other times, there's some frustrating moments that can easily be called our. For example, Tom brutally beats up someone in a diner and no one pulls him away or stops him. There's a lot of people in that diner and everyone is scared of an overweight cranky old man. Or the amount of car chases in this film and no speed cameras catch them and no police attempt to pull them over. That really got to me whilst watching this film.

Overall whilst it has a lot of flaws, this is an enjoyable film that delivers the thrills that you want from this genre.

⭐⭐⭐