Retro Review: Unlawful Entry (1992)

Unlawful Entry
1992
Cast: Kurt Russell, Ray Liotta, Madeleine Stowe, Roger E. Mosley
Genre: Psychological Thriller

Worldwide Box Office Gross: over $57 million 

Plot: Finding their house has been burgled, a couple call for a policeman. But when the cop develops a crazed obsession towards the woman, it is up to the husband and wife to fight for their lives 

'He's A Maniac!, Maniac.... Cop'

A paint- by- numbers thriller is elevated and redeemed by stylish and impressive direction and an over-the-top performance by Ray Liotta as a psycho cop. Pete Davis is an L.A. police officer, who answers a call from a yuppie couple, happily- married suburbanites, Michael and Karen Carr after a knife-wielding intruder breaks into their home and threatens to kill the wife. Considerate and sympathetic at first, Pete charms his way and befriends the two by installing a home security device and even letting Michael ride in his police car on a patrol. Michael accepts and goes along with this until Pete's infatuation towards him, and more so his missus turns sinister and nasty that it isn't long until they find their lives are endangered and with a psychologically unhinged stalker cop on their trail. Thus, it turns out that Pete is a cop from hell, not heaven as he seeks to not only terrorise them but to ultimately destroy Pete and claim Karen as his own. 

Unlawful Entry was released in U.S theaters during the summer of 1992, debuting at #2, only to be pipped to the post by Tim Burton's Batman Returns, which topped the U.S box office chart. The former eventually grossed over $57 million, domestically. 

Jonathan Kaplan (The Accused) does a terrific job of building up tension from start to finish, providing some genuinely hair-raising and nail-biting moments, with several diversions thrown in, to keep the suspense flowing, and making the most of the relations between Pete and Karen, as well as exchanges of Pete and Michael. Even though it has been done before, and after Unlawful Entry came out. 

The acting, as a whole, is consistently on par with Liotta going full steam ahead in fruitcake mode as the cop; he plays the part realistically, whilst a bespeckled Kurt Russell is an effective presence as the husband & Madaline Stowe was okay in the unlucky victim as Karen; just that the nature of the script and the way her role was written never really gave her much to do with it. Russell, much like in 1997's Breakdown, plays a somewhat regular joe, well not exactly regular as Michael is an interior designer & husband, whose other half is in danger from a maniac: a role that required Russell to act dramatically and his so-called action movie hero antics, as well as status that he has solidified through the likes of The Thing, Escape From New York and Big Trouble in Little China of the 1980s, being put on the backburner. I sort of liked that Michael wasn't written as and portrayed as a wuss, yet besides that, the characterisations were a little underwhelming. Word is Kurt Russell beat out Mel Gibson, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Costner for the part, with Ray Liotta who bagged the bad guy role over John Travolta, Mel Gibson, Tom Berenger and Charlie Sheen. 

With a fairly standard plot, Unlawful Entry doubles up effectively as a victimisation thriller in the same vein as Fatal Attraction and Single White Female; the latter of which was also released in 1992, aspects of this film also mirror The Hand That Rocks The Cradle. One area the film needed to touch upon a bit more, but of which was never fully delved into is that whilst it is apparent to see Pete's affections towards Karen develop into something that bordered on obsession, the sexual tension between the two through Ray Liotta and Madaline Stowe is absent whenever they shared a scene with each other; there was little to practically nothing in the way of onscreen chemistry with Liotta & Stowe. Nada. Whereas on screen, for some reason, Kurt Russell and Madeline Stowe together seem mismatched; separately and individually, their performances are fine, but I couldn't help but feel something was off, just by seeing them as a pairing. 

Furthermore, the tale of Unlawful Entry is a cautionary one that symbolises how people in positions of power feel they are entitled to abuse that power, and that their actions and decisions, together with their mental instability give them the free reign to do whatever, to whomever, irrespective of the consequences, and the people they hurt. How someone else's kindness can be easily exploited, and the psychological effects and well-being of a person, who doesn't take no for an answer & finds it difficult to do so.   

The finale descends into a 25- min crescendo of entertaining anarchy and intensity -, but the way it ended, given its strong build-up, was tame. Besides that, there is a hint of film noir, it is all well-directed, well crafted, the story improves, the acting is impressive. Some may say that under Jonathan Kaplan, it is shamefully unsubtle and exploitative; and yet the point the film was trying to make was how there are good cops and bad cops, that nothing is clear cut and Black and White. 

Final Verdict:

Taking all this into account, Unlawful Entry remains a gripping-yet overlooked '90s contemporary crime thriller that, decades on, still hasn't lost its competitive edge, & is grittier & better paced than Breakdown. 

Overall: