If Russell Crowe demands an apology, then I demand my time back.

Movie theaters are starting to reopen in various parts of the country with classic and current movies bring audiences back. “Unhinged,” the latest thriller starring Russell Crowe, is one of the new flicks to be shown on the silver screen. Unfortunately, it will never live on, because it’s nothing more than a mindless and pointless action movie that turns Crowe into a bad guy with no purpose, besides him being a psycho.

The movie opens with his character Tom Cooper smashing a couple’s door with a hammer, whacking them to death, and burning their house down, as he drives away. But why did he do that? What did they do to him? All I know is he’s crazy. Remember in last week’s “Spree” when Joe Kerry as a streamer was killing people just so he can get famous online? At least, he had a purpose. And you know Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis’ Mickey & Mallory characters in “Natural Born Killers?” These two come from abusive lives, and want revenge on society. This guy, however, is so thinly written by Carl Ellsworth, that every time you see come up, you aren’t scared of him. You’re just aggravated by him. He’s too formulaic.

His latest victim is Rachel (Caren Pistorius), a young mother on the brink of divorce, as her little brother (Austin P. McKenzie) and girlfriend (Anne Leighton) crashes with both her and her son Kyle (Gabriel Bateman). While driving her boy to school, she gets caught in rush hour traffic, and deals with the main antagonist, who refuses to get out of her way at a green light. He apologizes for obstructing her way, and demands an apology from her for beeping at him. But when she refuses, he decides to make her life a living Hell.

This psycho is given no basis or depth, other than some televised discussions about mental illness and instabilities, and he just loves cursing trouble for people. He steals her cell phone, murders her lawyer and friend (Jimmi Simpson), threatens her family, and causes one car accident after another.

CRASH, WHAM, BAM, CRASH, WHAM, BAM!!!

That’s basically what it is. It’s no fun to drive on a one-way street with people asking you if you’re stupid or something? And it’s no fun to have someone rear-ending you. I should know since I was rear-ended last year. The way director Derrick Borte handles the violence and mayhem is both tedious and stressful. And what’s worse, they’re just there to wake the audience up.

Pistorius and Bateman both provide some solid acting as the mother and son, who are trying to fix their relationship, given the divorce circumstances, while Crowe uses a phony New Orleans accent and relies only on the evil to shake up his character. There’s nothing worth liking inside him. He just wants an apology even though he’s the one who wouldn’t go at a green light. Did he deliberately do that just to grind her gears? Is he the only one who wants revenge on someone who beeps at him? Maybe and maybe. All I know is that on par with “Winter’s Tale” and “The Mummy,” he’s wasting his talents.

Again, “Unhinged” is one of the few new movies to be shown in a movie theater, while at the same time, “Inception” is celebrating its 10th anniversary. I suggest you see that, if you’re one of the few who haven’t, instead of this.

⭐️1/2

In select cities this Friday

Categories: Thriller