Sun 24 Jan 2021
A Movie Review by Jonathan Lewis: UNLAWFUL ENTRY (1992).
Posted by Steve under Crime Films , Reviews[5] Comments
UNLAWFUL ENTRY. 20th Century Fox, 1992. Kurt Russell as Michael Carr, Madeleine Stowe as Karen Carr, Ray Liotta as Officer Pete Davis, Roger E. Mosley as Officer Roy Cole. Director: Jonathan Kaplan. Currently streaming on Starz & Starz/Amazon Prime.
The movie begins with an image of suburban bliss. A two-floor house in an affluent part of Los Angeles, a married couple, and their house cat. The perfect setting for the perfect life. But if it were only so peaceful, there’d be no story to tell. And in the case of Unlawful Entry, it doesn’t take very long whatsoever for a shocking act of violence – a home invasion by a crack-addled burglar – to permanently change the course of this married couple’s lives. As if that were not bad enough, one of the cops assigned to the case turns out to be even more dangerous than the criminal.
Such is the plot of Jonathan Kaplan’s taut and suspenseful thriller. Kurt Russell, always good as an everyman, portrays Michael Carr, a club owner who is working to get his latest project off the ground. Madeleine Stowe, who appeared in numerous thrillers in the 1980s and 1990s, plays his wife, a teacher at an exclusive private elementary school.
But the real juicy role goes to Ray Liotta, made famous to audiences from his roles in Field of Dreams (1988) and Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas (1990). As LAPD patrolman Pete Davis, Liotta gets to showcase his acting chops. Davis is a lonely, angry man with more than a bit of a misogynistic streak. It’s clear that years of being exposed to the worst of humanity on the mean streets of the City of Angeles has warped his mind. Even his partner, the cynical but clear headed Roy Cole knows that to be the case.
As much as Unlawful Entry is a movie about a suburban nightmare, it is also a story of unrequited love and dangerous temptation. Things go completely haywire once Pete (Liotta) begins to develop a pathological obsession with Karen Carr (Stowe). At some point, Pete is no longer an unhinged cop; he’s a stalker. And if stalkers are terrifying, think of the damage a stalker with a badge can do. Break into your home and claim they are there to protect you? Check. Fix the computer system so it looks like you have unpaid parking tickets? Check. Boot your car? Check.
What makes this film work is that, despite the occasional moments in which it verges into dark comedy, it never condescends to the audience, nor winks at it as if it were all a game. It’s a disturbingly effective thriller with many film noir aspects. There’s not a lot of light in this tonally dark film. At the end of the day, it asks the question that never ceases to provoke ample fodder for genre cinema: how far would you go to protect your family when the duly sworn authorities cannot be trusted?
January 24th, 2021 at 8:43 pm
The worm turns is always a good formula for a suspense film and the cast is fine, but it’s Liotta that makes this work for me going right up to the line, but right up to near the end staying just the right side of believably effective at concealing what he is from the people who might stop him.
January 24th, 2021 at 11:13 pm
I must have led a sheltered life so far. Looking at a long list of movie & TV credits for Ray Liotta, I don’t believe I’ve seen him in anything he’s ever done.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Liotta#Television
I saw more of him in the video clips I watched to get sceenshots to use for this review than at any time before.
It didn’t take me long, though, before realizing that he was perfect for the part he played in this one.
January 25th, 2021 at 9:26 am
Ray Liotta was part of the good ensemble cast for OUR FAMILY HONOR (1985). This was a TV series about two families, one mobsters, the other cops. It was an odd but successful fusion of soap opera and crime show. Haven’t seen this since its first run.
He was great as a sympathetic Sinatra in the very good TV biopic THE RAT PACK (1998). A high point.
He also shone as the villain, in the off-trail screwball comedy/thriller film SOMETHING WILD (1986).
He had a supporting role as a waiter in the short-lived TV version of CASABLANCA (1983). He was a waiter at Rick’s Cafe, IIRC.
Saw UNLAWFUL ENTRY when it came out. Thought Liotta was better than his material.
Liotta looks like a handsome leading man. Sometimes he’s been cast as the neighborhood nice guy. But often he’s the unhinged killer of the month.
January 25th, 2021 at 9:38 am
I’m not a fan of GOODFELLAS, as a whole.
But everyone should see the long take:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJEEVtqXdK8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfrpmF1GzC0
FIELD OF DREAMS is a triumph of story telling.
August 20th, 2021 at 11:46 pm
Handsome? I’ve always found Liotta’s looks very disturbing. He has a small head and a large, swollen face, his chin sticks out like a witch, and those horrible pock marks on his cheeks look like craters on the moon’s surface. His eyes are weird too, like he’s always wearing eyeliner or something. Maybe it’s just his ridiculously long, thick eyelashes. Anyway, the man has always creeped me out. He’s exactly what I’d expect a psychopath to look like, though, so it’s good casting. No wonder he’s always playing villains. Physiognomy vindicated yet again!