'Unhinged': Film Review

Australian films that deal with homosexuality have been few and far between over the years, but there are three that come to mind which enjoyed success at the all-important box office. The Sum Of Us which starred Russell Crowe was an instant hit when released into cinemas in 1994 and the sexual content in Ana Kokkinos’ feature Head On raised eyebrows in 1998. The emotionally charged Holding The Man brought the true-life story of a gay relationship between two men to the screen, the tragic

coronavirus pandemic shut them down. Because, well, besides an energetically committed (no pun intended) performance from Russell Crowe, “Unhinged” comes off as a frankly mediocre effort, with no apparent point other than titillating (but somehow tedious) gore, misogynistic rage, and endless (though impressive) car crashes.

plus in Disney+, “The One and Only Ivan” arrives on Aug.

Like a crude and profane marriage between “Falling Down” and “Joker,” movies about aggrieved and disenfranchised American white men seemingly justified with their rage about a cruel and unfair world, director Derrick Borte’s reminiscent revenge thriller “Unhinged” is deeply misguided. “Unhinged” wants to map a similar Venn diagram sweet spot where the Worst Day Ever ™, a cruel lack of empathy, and selfish incivility trigger a point-of-no-return path to unholy violence and retribution.

unhinged pretty much says it all.

Far fairer than Artemis Fowl, the poorly-received, previous live-action/CGI hybrid to be rerouted from theaters to Disney+, The One and Only Ivan is a notably muted, soulful portrait of a silverback gorilla who re-evaluates his seemingly contented life as a mall circus performer.

Following his 2012 directorial debut, martial arts homage The Man With the Iron Fists, and 2017’s romantic musical drama Love Beats Rhymes, filmmaker, composer and producer RZA changes up genres once again for his third feature, a convoluted New Orleans-set heist pic.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaWhen “Unhinged,” a road rage thriller starring Russell Crowe, opens in the U.S. on Aug.

Also Read: How Larry Kramer Pulled Off the First Film With Frontal Male Nudity - Back in 1969The film is certainly entertaining and even educational, with filmmakers and actors like Peter Bogdanovich, Malcolm McDowell, Amy Heckerling and Sean Young offering revealing (pardon the pun) looks at their adventures on the front lines.

The North American box office is resuming after an unprecedented five-month shutdown due to the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic. The major circuits in Canada reopened in earnest over the weekend to welcome Paramount’s The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run and the Russell Crowe road-rage thriller Unhinged, from Solstice Studios.

Also Read: 'Spree' Star Joe Keery on His 'Highly Misguided' Character's Pursuit of Viral Fame (Video)The movie is kind of fun if low-budget horror appeals to you. And the way the film is shot — jumping from one small screen to another and piling different social-media windows in the frame so you can read comments as you watch the action — can be a sometimes dizzying kick.

Also Read: Is 'Greyhound' Based on a True Story?The film, which is being released in some theaters (and virtual theaters) on the Aug. 14 anniversary, will also air on the Discovery Channel on Labor Day weekend, which is closer to the Sep.

When Netflix began promoting its latest entry in the summer-that-never-was blockbuster stakes, Project Power, it was hard to suppress an eye-roll of weary puzzlement at the fanboys eager to slam it as lame and derivative. Sure, it has conceptual similarities to the Bradley Cooper vehicle Limitless, to DC Comics property Hourman, to Image Comics'War Heroes.

A Russia-set creature feature whose intensely serious tone belies some awfully silly stuff in its plot, Egor Abramenko's Sputnik locks an Alien-inspired parasite up in the steppes of Kazakhstan and waits to see if humans can figure out how to handle it. Suffering a bit in the charisma department, the film moves sluggishly for the hour or so that it takes to get on its feet, finally giving its humans something interesting to do.

Teen love proves stronger than death in Endless, Scott Speer's tale of a young man (Nicholas Hamilton) who dies in a car crash, but whose spirit clings to Earth to comfort his grieving girlfriend (Alexandra Shipp).

The title may sound incendiary, something left over from the Russ Meyer era, but Danny Wolf’s Skin: A History of Nudity in the Movies turns out to be informative and even-handed as well as entertaining. Meyer’s movies are inevitably included in this freewheeling documentary survey of nudity from the silent era to the present.

Naman Ramachandran As the mercury soared, collections plummeted as the heatwave across England took its toll on the U.K.

Serving as a much-belated sequel to the 2007 Australian sleeper hit “Black Water,” director Andrew Traucki’s B-movie influenced follow-up, the blandly titled but effectively executed “Black Water: Abyss” is lean killer crocodile film that upgrades the appropriately lo-fi aesthetic of the original, replacing the expansive swamp setting with a claustrophobic cave descent.

Nancy Tartaglione International Box Office Editor/Senior ContributorWhile Universal’s Dolittle and Warner Bros’ reissue of Interstellar were the big kahunas in China this weekend, Russell Crowe-starrer Unhinged hit the road in 19 new markets over the session. Among them, the UK, Australia, Netherlands and New Zealand where the Solstice Studios pic was No.