Russell Crowe’s 2020 action revenge thriller Unhinged has driven into the Netflix Top 10 since landing on the platform this week. With action movies being a huge draw for Netflix audiences, Crowe’s turn as the villain in a movie that has been mostly forgotten thanks to its release happening during the Covid pandemic has proven to be another hugely successful addition to the platform.
Unhinged was one of the first major releases in theaters during the COVID-19 pandemic, making its debut in August 2020. While many cinemas remained closed, Solstice Studios chose to stand firm and ignore the fact that other studios were opting to either delay their movies or release them direct to VOD services and streaming. In the circumstances, the film managed a respectable $44 million worldwide gross against a $33 million budget.
Critically, Unhinged was not a great success with critics and holds a 48% “rotten” Tomatometer score. Although the majority of reviews commended Crowe’s villainous turn, there was little praise given to either the film itself or the actor’s co-stars. Variety described the film as “a pulpy genre exercise that is, at times, too brutal for its own good,” while The Hollywood Reporter praised Crowe’s unnerving portrayal but couldn’t get past its “thin” plot. As in many cases, though, audiences completely disagreed. Rotten Tomatoes’ Popcornmeter currently has the film on 77%, and makes it clear that when it comes to action movies, there is a huge divide between what audiences and critics want from the usually loud and violent genre.
What is Russell Crowe’s Unhinged About?
Unhinged is a classic cat-and-mouse revenge thriller, with Crowe playing Tom Cooper, a man who decides to get extreme after a confrontation with single mother Rachel (Caren Pistorius) at a set of traffic lights. What begins as an easily forgettable exchange takes a much darker turn when Cooper becomes fixated on Rachel and makes it his mission to make her pay for being rude to him. As Cooper’s mental state worsens over the course of the movie, his brutal revenge drive spirals out of control, and into Rachel’s worst nightmare.
Since Unhinged began streaming on Netflix in the U.S., the mostly forgotten entry in Crowe’s impressive list of credits has discovered a new audience. Despite the initial wave of mixed reviews from critics, those watching for the first time have found plenty to love from a movie in a genre that has mostly been successful when pushing the boundaries of believability – just ask Jason Statham or Tom Cruise.
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What perhaps sets Unhinged apart from other action movies is the prospect of its story actually happening in today’s society. Social media is often flooded with candid videos of seemingly random and unprovoked violent road rage incidents, and the idea that a real-life Tom Cooper could be out there makes the film as much a horror movie as an action one. Thanks to Crowe’s intense and believable portrayal of a man with a petty grudge to settle, you may want to think twice before beeping your horn at the lights.