Salvaje

This film won't ever win any serious awards. It is nothing more than a short-shelf-life popcorn film and, for that, it is great. I wanted to escape for a couple of hours and have an entertaining time and, I did.

Russell Crowe sure packed the weight on recently and in this, he is nothing short of a tank and whilst he was unpredictable, menacing and definitely unhinged - I can't help but feel it made certain parts of the film laughable (Hence the 6 out of 10). For example, if a guy of this size repeatedly punches a slim build woman than I doubt very much she is going to get back up again for another barrage of punches to land on her. The way Crowe moves, the force of his punches and the added sound effects of the "impact" make it sound like it would take someone's head clean off or, at the very least, knock them out cold. But, that's a minor gripe.

Some of the scenes are pretty tense but if you know nothing about the film, I would avoid the trailers for they give way too much away.

A cross between Joyride (Paul Walker) and Falling Down (Michael Douglas), although that's almost an insult to the latter.

Yes it is paint by numbers filmmaking but if you want something well acted, enjoyable (if you like film violence) and looking to pass the time - you'll leave happy enough. You just probably won't return to watch it again any time soon.

The 6 rating is mainly for Russell Crow. I mean if she would have given that courtesy honk in the first place all of this could have been avoided.

You will never flip the bird to another driver again once you've seen "Unhinged". This is the most intense road rage movie since Spielberg's "Duel" in the 70's with the pressures of life, marriage and death at its core. Except the Truck is now just a Ford Pick Up with no discernible logos. Obviously the Blue Oval didn't want to pay for product placement...it is an older model like its manic driver played by Russell Crowe. This man can happen to anyone. He only picks one project each year, but he chooses well. His body of work speaks for itself. His co-star Carin Pistorius moved to New Zealand as a child from South Africa and she brings a gritty, real performance to the big screen. She also delivers the best action movie heroine line for 2020. Veteran horror child actor, Gabriel Bateman, hold his own as her on screen son, Kyle. This movie is adrenaline charged from the moment the curtain opens and rarely takes it foot off the pedal. The road carnage and Rustys salary make up most of the 33 million dollar budget, but its investors will be making money off this film and buying many more new cars in the years ahead. This is Crowe at his best and most threatening study of pure menace under Derrick Bortes direction.

This movie had me stressed from start to finish. Russell Crowe is so menacing and believable. Somehow I don't think this role was much of a stretch for Rusty! We left the cinema and was sitting at a green light and the car in front of us didn't move. We just sat there, too scared to toot the horn!

There's nothing wrong a decent thriller where two people face off on the road using their wits and their heavy machinery. So this movie could have been the Duel (1971) of the 2020s (or at the very least a Joy Ride (2001)), but unfortunately, it lacks a director like Steven Spielberg or John Dahl to make it work.

After a shocking opening scene, director Derrick Borte starts off nicely with a disturbing montage that shows us the horrible consequences of explosive aggression and road rage. For a long time, his movie seems to be a passionate plea to have more patience and compassion with others in a harsh society where everyone is under constant pressure, because you never know what the other person is going through. Too bad that he gradually undermines this message with cheap shocks and sadistic violence.

It's good to see Russell Crowe again after such a long absence, because watching his heavily disturbed maniac snap and terrorize a lady that just happened to piss him off is definitely one of the scarce highlights of the film. No Oscar material, but the man is still an acting heavyweight (no pun intended... well, maybe a little), so much so that leading lady Caren Pistorius cannot hope to carry this movie in his presence. In fact, her character is so passive and uninteresting that I felt very little sympathy for her plight. I don't know if it was the intention here, but I always love movies where you cheer for the bad guy for a very long time, like Face-Off and Law Abiding Citizen; everyone loves tragic villains, and you always hope that the makers can delay that moment where you lose sympathy for them until the very last.

Unfortunately, this moment comes way too soon in the movie. In the first half we get some motivation from Crowe's and Pistorius' character for their actions, but that wears off quickly in an endless rampage that seems to be an excuse for a lot of torture porn. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with that, as long as you keep developing your key players. Especially psychopaths work best when they remain completely unexplained mysteries, or when they get fleshed out properly, like the psychologic-meltdown classic Falling Down. However, Crowe and Pistorius never get beyond their minimal and one-dimensional backstories. When the bad guy gets to the point where I no longer rooted for him (again, way too soon), you hope that your allegiance changes back to the heroine. But Pistorius' character keeps making such bad decisions (up to and including a laughably set up climax) that by that time, I no longer cared about either, and could only worry about the collateral damage.

Too bad for Crowe and Jimmi Simpson, who probably have one of the best scenes together when this movie is still promising. But the pressure to marry action with psychology, and to increase the stakes with such disregard for realism really starts working against the film and characters. I don't mind violence in movies at all, but it should make me invest in characters, not get desensitized and bored.

I like a good battle of character like everyone else, but when the action and suspense start feeling stale because I'm no longer emotionally engaged, then it's just mostly a waste of time. But granted, it's not a complete disaster and it had its moments. I hear people praising this movie as super-suspenseful, so by all means, try it out. But don't say I didn't warn you.