ENTERTAINMENT

See it at the Movies with Joyce & Don Fowler

Posted 9/3/20

UNHINGED

*** (Joyce)

**½ (Don)

Tense, violent road rage thriller

This tense, violent movie has a big message: If you are behind somebody and the light changes and they don’t …

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ENTERTAINMENT

See it at the Movies with Joyce & Don Fowler

Posted

UNHINGED

*** (Joyce)

**½ (Don)

Tense, violent road rage thriller

This tense, violent movie has a big message: If you are behind somebody and the light changes and they don’t move … Don’t beep your horn! And if you do, pray that the person in the pickup isn’t a psychopath.

Caren Pistorius plays a divorced mother who is having a bad day. Unfortunately, she upsets a man (Russell Crowe) who is having a worse day. When he pulls up beside her in traffic and chastises her for beeping, both become agitated and she refuses to apologize. We are then off to the races.

The psychotic man follows Rachel, becoming extremely violent, crashing dozens of cars and murdering people until the 90-minute, non-stop movie comes to an ultra violent end.

Rachel has her young son (Jimmi Simpson) in the back seat. He tries desperately to calm his mother down and is the only one with any self control.

Joyce, who spent part of her nurse’s training in a psychiatric hospital, is fascinated by movies about sociopaths, so she liked “Unhinged” better than I did.

I found it to be a bit over the top – actually quite a bit over the top.

Arson and murder take place before the credits, while scenes of violence splash across the screen during the credits. If you have a weak stomach, some of the violent scenes scattered throughout the movie are difficult to watch.

Crowe sure makes one mean antagonist with his scowling face and demeanor. He also looks like he has gained 100 pounds since we last saw him.

At the Warwick Showcase – where it is being shown in a number of screens about every half hour, day and night – you pick your own seat. Social distancing was no problem with only six of us in the theatre for the 3:30 p.m. showing.

A PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD

***½ (Joyce)

*** (Don)

Good news for Avon fans. The Thayer street cinema has reopened after what Richard Dulgarian calls “a long intermission.”

“The Personal History of David Copperfield” is a comedy/drama and a modern telling of Dickens’s classic, which I had read over 65 years ago and remember very little.

We both enjoyed the colorful characters surrounding David as he retells his life story from birth a time we he finally settles down.

Dave Patel makes a convincing title character who is given a variety of supporting characters, especially Tilda Swinton as his aunt, Hugh Laurie as Mr. Dick and Peter Capaldi as Mr. Micawber. A few delightful actors play David during his younger years.

The Dickens classic has been told many times on the screen, but never quite like this. David’s difficult life – from orphan to child laborer to boarding school to trying to make a go of it in a dreary London of 1850 – is told with much humor, with bigger- than-life, diverse characters and experiences.

David is a student of human nature, observing the craziness around him and keeping notes on little scraps of paper, which make up his life story.

I thought it got a bit silly and convoluted at times, and had some problems with the heavy English accents, while Joyce, who was unfamiliar with the novel, found the movie quite clever.

Social distancing has been made easy by Dulgarian and his staff, and face masks are required as you enter and leave the theater.

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