Movies are starting to come back, and I am so happy. Nothing beats seeing a movie on a big screen with some “buttery” popcorn and reclining seats. Theaters are also doing a good job of following safety protocols. So all the pieces are in place for a wonderful movie immersion experience…except where are all the movies? Except for “Tenent,” the big studios are still holding back the good ones, hoping to get better box offices with late year releases. It is in this kind of an atmosphere that a movie like “Unhinged” even gets a chance to be noticed. “Unhinged” is a bad movie that stars a good actor. Russell Crowe plays a man who has been beaten down by life and a messy divorce that has turned him into a psychopath. He does that quite well. When the movie opens, we watch him beat in a suburban house door, murder the couple inside, torch the house and impassively watch as it explodes in flames. Only later do we find out that this was his ex-wife and her new husband. In the meantime, our protagonist Rachel, played by Caren Pistorious, is not having a good day. Late for an appointment because of traffic, she gets frustrated with a man who is slow to move when the light turns green and honks her horn at him. Of course, we know who it is, even if we hadn’t already recognized his massive pickup truck. This small act has huge consequences. The rest of the movie revolves around the Man’s vendetta against Rachel, her family, and friends as he becomes more and more unhinged. As Rachel is chased by this unglued man, she makes the most ridiculous decisions, most of which do not involve going to the police for help and result in a number of people dying gruesomely. Like all good psychos and their chosen implements of destruction; the Man is mostly unchallenged, his truck nearly indestructible and he is virtually impervious to crashes and physical injury; until the last 20 minutes or so. He unerringly finds Rachel, her son and family; though some of this is because Rachel, dopey throughout, leaves her no password protected cell phone in her unlocked car to be stolen while she shops at a gas station convenience store. The end of the movie was totally ludicrous. In normal non-COVID times, this movie would be forgotten among the big blockbusters like “Wonder Woman” or the next James Bond movie. Still, a return to the movie theater experience has to start somewhere! So even though it is a subpar movie, I don’t regret watching it, and can’t wait for our next big screen adventure!!
The Mummy
Disney has the Marvel superhero world, while Warner Brothers has the DC heroes like Batman and Superman. Hoping to at least get a piece of the substantial money to be made in these franchises, the powers that be at Universal have decided to release ‘The Dark Universe,’ which will feature an array of classic movie monsters from their heyday in the 1930’s; to include Dr. Jekyll, The Invisible Man and Frankenstein. To start things off, they have chosen to reboot The Mummy. Tom Cruise stars as a sort of low rent anti-Indiana Jones, who is out to look for and resell ancient artifacts while serving as an Army recon specialist (He is no George Clooney from “Three Kings!”). In the deserts of Iraq, he accidentally stumbles upon Ahmanet, an Egyptian princess buried far away from Egypt due to the extremely heinous nature of her ancient crimes! She was buried alive (as all good monster mummies are), and her sarcophagus submerged in mercury, to keep her from rising up in the future to complete a nefarious scheme that included murder and world domination. Most of the movie involves her chasing Tom Cruise so that he can be her new partner and love, and they can rule the world together for eternity. I found the whole premise rather silly. Along the way, we meet Dr. Jekyll, played by Russell Crowe. This short segment was the only part of the movie I found fun. Dr. Jekyll heads a secret organization that finds, studies and destroys evil in the world. The fact that he does this while trying not to turn into the diabolical Mr. Hyde adds some much needed camp to this movie. I think if you go in with low expectations you will be surprised, and even entertained; but you will not be dazzled like you would be watching the newest “Wonder Woman” or “Guardians of the Galaxy” movies. I was so excited when I heard that Universal was rebooting all of the classic monsters; but after watching this first movie, I am not so sure. I am intrigued to see what Johnny Depp does with Invisible Man, and Javier Bardem seems like a great choice to play Frankenstein. I just hope they have a better script and can give their movie a little more heart.