tatianavoloshka A couple are rudely awakened in the middle of the night by an intruder. The next day two police officers come to check on them and file a complaint. One of them- played slyly by an in-form Ray Liotta develops a fixation on the wife. This fixation leads to everything from stalking to murder and death. Unlawful Entry is a decent early 90s psychological thriller starring Kurt Russell and Madeline Stowe as the bothered couple with the aforementioned Ray Liotta playing the perfect sociopathic creep that makes life hell for them. For Liotta's fine turn this movie is a recommendation.

richspenc This was a very interesting movie. I have a few questions as an amateur movie critic but all in all this movie was definitely not boring. Kurt Russell (Michael Carr) and his wife Gwendolyn (Madaline Stowe, who is extremely sexy in a steamy nude sex scene) live in a nice upper middle class LA house that gets broken into by a lowdown thug. Michael, which may or may not have been a bad move, trips him and then runs up to him threatening to whack him with a golf club which may or may not be the reason the sonofabitch (as Michael called him) put a knife up to Gwen's throat. That issue goes back to the law that once an intruder has broken into your home, whatever you do to him is nice and legal. There has been debate on that though, that only certain circumstances when they're broken in your home, is it legal to do something to them. I believe it would have to be an immediate kind of self defense or wife or kid defense situation, or else you could still be changed with assault or manslaughter. I'm not 100% sure on that, and since when Michael tripped the intruder it wasn't an immediate defense situation like it was a minute later when he had the knife to Gwen's throat. He could've been attempting a citizen's arrest, so he probably didn't do anything wrong. Next scene enter the police officers Ray Laotta (Pete) and his assistant who, after scolding Michael and Gwen's not very good watch cat (lol), begin to take very good care of the couple in light of their bad experience. Pete goes out and beyond. He not only gets the forensics crew over there the next day to dust for prints, etc. He personally helps the alarm system company install a system in the house. Michael, Gwen, and Pete really hit it off. He joins them for dinner and invites Michael for a ride along the following night.Pete crossed over some lines as the film progressed. In my opinion though, I didn't think Pete did anything wrong as soon as Michael thought he did. Later on in the movie, I definitely found Pete to be psychotic. I did notice little hints even early on of Michael feeling a little overwhelmed from by him attaching himself on a little too much a little too soon even when generally Michael was still being happy and friendly back towards Pete. For instance, when Pete asked Michael about the ride along, Michael was pleased at the idea, but when Pete said "how about Tomorrow?", I noticed how Michael then hesitated for a second as if thinking it was maybe it was a little too much too soon. The end of the ride along was when the plot thickened. It was when Pete caught the knife wielding intruder, it looked like Michael was totally on Pete's side saying "yes! That's him!". And Pete said to the thug "Ya hear that!? You've just been made!" The second after Pete said that was when the fault came in; for some reason I just can't understand, Michael suddenly switched over to taking the thug's side. Pete was rough on him, but Michael automatically started feeling sorry for him. If you saw someone beating up someone who broke into your house and assaulted and threatened your wife, would you feel sorry for him for getting beaten up? Neither would I. Michael's wife pinpointed it, "I just don't share your newfound sympathy for the man who broke into our home and put a goddam knife to my throat!" No kidding! Then Michael, during the opening night of his new nightclub, yells at Pete to get out of his life. That was just so unnecessary. If Michael was really wanting Pete to give him and Gwen some space, there were definitely better ways to handle it, especially since Pete was a cop. Michael was a freakin moron for talking to Pete that way, especially with the circumstances. That was the big fault of the movie. As much as Michael was the one at fault up to that point, there was still no excuse for the things Pete did next. Of course if Michael didn't act so stupid, Pete wouldn't have done them. But still, Pete became the one in the wrong in the scenes following the nightclub scene. Pete started getting obsessed with getting some sweet revenge on Michael. He rigged the system to make it where he owed $600 in parking tickets, put a boot on his car, and walked in on Michael and his wife having sex after the cat tripped the alarm. Pete then crosses over into psychotic territory. He knocked Michael to the ground and put a gun to his face, frames him for being a major drug dealer with Michael looking at a few years of hard time, made a lot of noise about taking Michael's wife (and tried to when Michael was locked up), and murdered two people. Michael's lawyer friend bails him out of jail by putting up his house and his savings, now that's a good friend. You'll very rarely ever find someone who'll do that for you. Michael tells him about how it's all about him wanting his wife. I think it's a combination of that and revenge from the nightclub scene, Michael filing a formal complaint to Pete's superior, and Michael crying about Pete to Pete's partner Roy. Roy takes Michael's side which sure doesn't help matters, actually it results into Pete fatally shooting Roy. He also kills a friend of Michael's wife in Michael and Gwen's house and stuffs her body into the closest. What a deranged psychopath. Pete is played by Ray Liotta who has been very good at playing psychopaths. He plays similar type roles in "Goodfellas" and in "Something wild" with Jeff Daniels.

Mr-Fusion Sixteen years before "Lakeview Terrace", there was "Unlawful Entry". And the two are rather similar, except instead of Samuel L. Jackson terrorizing a young neighboring couple because of their lifestyle, it's Ray Liotta doing the terrorizing because he can't have the good-looking wife. After a low-rent thug breaks into the house of Kurt Russell and Madeline Stowe, LAPD officer Ray Liotta arrives on the scene (and immediately has eyes for Stowe). Liotta cozies up to the couple, hooking them up with an alarm system and slowly ingraining himself into their lives. But it doesn't take long for Russell to suspect there's something not quite right about Liotta, and tries to distance them from the questionable officer, a particular cop who doesn't take kindly to being jilted.You can see where it goes from there, and that's what ultimately sinks "Unlawful Entry" (for me, at least). Ray Liotta plays unhinged pretty damn well, and Kurt Russell is his usual bounty of charisma. And Jonathan Kaplan uses all manner of tracking shots, jump scares and lingering camera moves to create a palpable tension. But Lewis Colick's screenplay makes it pretty obvious how this story will unfurl (Liotta's introduction is what gives away the movie), and sometimes things don't make sense. For instance, if Liotta's partner (Roger Mosley) knows that he's fixated on Stowe, then why doesn't he address it? Instead he waits for Russell to beg him for help, and this problem never reaches their superiors. His partner's not too bright, in the grand scheme of things. And Madeline Stowe is painted as some helpless victim, always scared until her husband gets home. "Unlawful Entry's" strength, therefore, is seeing all of the nasty ways Liotta terrorizes Russell. Like maxing out his credit cards, booting his car, planting coke in his house. But none of these characters are sympathetic, so what do I care that two affluent white people are being terrorized? It's the kind of thriller that feels tawdry in the end, leaving a mildly bad taste in my mouth. 4/10

Boba_Fett1138 Thing I like about this movie is that it isn't overdoing anything, or feels the need to spice things up with gunfights or explosions. It rather relies on its story, characters and underlying tension, like every good thriller should do, in my opinion.No, this movie doesn't has the most likely story in it and some of the developments aren't all that convincing but the movie is simply being good and enjoyable for what it is. As a thriller it does serve its purpose well and probably won't disappoint anybody that is looking for a good thriller.In its simplicity and setup, this is being a quite effective thriller, in which a cop starts terrorizing a family, when he falls for the wife. Things are slowly starting to get worse and more troublesome for the family. The way the entire movie gets buildup ensures that the tension of the movie works out effectively. It's basically being one of those stalker movies, a lot got made of, during the '80's and '90's. This happens to be one of the lesser known ones but it most certainly is not among the worst ones as well. You could even say that this is being a bit of an underrated and under-appreciated movie.This movie also made me realize what a shame and waste it was that Ray Liotta's career never truly reached great heights. There was a period, around the time of this movie, that he truly was an A-list actor but he never really managed to maintain this status and there are too few classics, starring him, to consider his career to be a truly successful one. There was far more in it really. It's not like he has stopped acting but it's hard to imaging his career is still going to take off now. He was an absolutely great and charismatic presence and villain in this movie and almost completely stole the show away from other fine actors such as Kurt Russell and Madeleine Stowe.This really is being a good, straightforward, old fashioned thriller, that is definitely worth a watch.7/10 http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/