Unlawful Entry (film)

Unlawful Entry
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Jonathan Kaplan
Screenplay by	Lewis Colick Ken Friedman
Story by	George Putnam John Katchmer
Produced by	Charles Gordon Sulla Hamer Gene Levy
Starring	Kurt Russell Madeleine Stowe Ray Liotta
Cinematography	Jamie Anderson
Edited by	Curtiss Clayton
Music by	James Horner
Production company	Largo Entertainment
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date	June 26, 1992 (1992-06-26)
Running time	112 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$23 million
Box office	$57.1 million (US)[1]

Unlawful Entry is a 1992 American psychological thriller film directed by Jonathan Kaplan and starring Kurt Russell, Madeleine Stowe, and Ray Liotta.^[2]

The film involves a couple who befriend a lonely policeman, only for him to develop an unrequited fixation on the wife, leading to chilling consequences. Ray Liotta was nominated for an MTV Movie Award for Best Villain in 1993 for his portrayal of the psychopathic cop. The film was remade in Bollywood as Fareb in 1996.

Plot[]

Michael and Karen Carr (Kurt Russell and Madeleine Stowe) are a couple living in an upscale part of Los Angeles. One night, an intruder enters their home through their skylight, upsetting their tranquility. The intruder briefly takes Karen as a hostage, before dumping her in the swimming pool and escaping.

The Carrs call the police, one of whom, Pete Davis (Ray Liotta), takes extra interest in the couple's case. He cuts through department red tape and quickly installs a security system in the Carrs' house.

When Michael expresses an interest in getting revenge on the intruder, Pete invites him on a ride-along with his partner, Roy Cole (Roger E. Mosley). After dropping Cole off, Pete takes Michael out to arrest the man who broke into the Carrs' house, offering Michael a chance to take some revenge using Pete's nightstick. Michael declines, but Pete viciously beats the intruder, leaving Michael deeply suspicious of Pete's mental stability. He suggests that Pete get some professional help and, especially, stay far away from him and Karen in the future.

Rejecting both suggestions, Pete instead begins to stalk the couple, particularly Karen, with whom he's obsessed. Pete even appears in the couple's bedroom one night while they are making love, just to "check that everything's okay".

When Michael files a complaint against Pete's unwanted attentions, Pete uses his police connections to destroy Michael's business reputation. Encountering bemused apathy from Pete's superiors in the LAPD, Michael turns to Cole, who orders his partner to cease his obsessing, see a shrink or face suspension. Pete then murders Cole, blaming it on a known criminal. Pete then frames Michael on drug charges by planting a supply of cocaine in the Carrs' house, enabling him to move in on Karen. Jeopardizing his attorney's finances, Michael gets out on bail and takes matters into his own hands.

Back at the Carr house, after finding that he has brutally murdered her friend, Karen rejects Pete, and Karen's rejection, plus her making an attempt to shoot him with Pete's gun, causes Pete to go berserk, dismissing her as worthless and attempting to rape her. Michael returns home and an enraged Pete attacks him and Karen, attempting to kill them both. Pete and Michael fight, during which Pete accidentally causes the police to start heading over to the house after attempting to answer a phone call while acting as Michael. Pete holds Michael at gunpoint outside of their bathroom where Karen is, and Pete demands that Karen open the door and escape with him or he'll kill Michael, while Michael begs Karen not to, saying Pete will kill him anyway. Karen ultimately bursts out of the room and uses an ornament to strike Pete in the face, allowing Michael to gain the upper hand, punching Pete and knocking him down the stairs.

As Karen and Michael, who has Pete's now-loaded gun, wait for the police to arrive, Pete regains consciousness as Michael holds him at gunpoint. Pete tauntingly asks Michael if he'll arrest him as a citizen, unknowingly asking the same question Michael asked him in an earlier confrontation, which Pete answered that he would rather kill Michael instead of arrest him. To Pete's shock, Michael chooses to shoot him, ultimately killing Pete. A relieved Michael and Karen then go outside and watch as the police arrive at the scene.

Cast[]

Production[]

Filming[]

Principal photography began on October 25, 1991. Filming took place in and around Los Angeles, California. The house that was used for the Carr residence in the film is located at 546 Wilcox Ave. The school sequence was filmed at Doris Place Elementary School. The sequence where Michael is in jail was filmed at Lincoln Heights Jail. Production wrapped on February 5, 1992.

Soundtrack[]

The original soundtrack was composed by James Horner. It was released on Intrada records, an extended version of the soundtrack was released by La-La Land Records in 2017.

The movie featured several songs that were not included on the soundtrack. "Pa La Ocha Tambo" and "Just a Little Dream" by Eddie Palmieri, "National Crime Awareness Week (Alfred Hitchcock Presents Mix)" by Sparks, Everybody's Free to Feel Good" by Rozalla, and "Don't Go to Strangers" by J. J. Cale.^[3]

US CD (Intrada Records) track listing

All tracks written and composed by James Horner.

1. "Main Title" - 3:14
2. "Intruder" - 2:08
3. "Being Watched" - 5:42
4. "Leon's Death" - 3:01
5. "Drug Bust" - 3:06
6. "Bail Denied" - 2:26
7. "Pete's Passion" - 11:15
8. "End Credits" - 4:22

Reception[]

Box office[]

The film was released in the U.S. on June 26, 1992, opening at #2 in 1,511 theaters, an average of $6,662 per theater. Grossing $10,067,609 in the opening weekend, it went on to gross $57,138,719 in the domestic market.^[1] It was a box-office success, and brought back its $23 million budget.

Critical response[]

Unlawful Entry received positive reviews from critics, as it holds a 74% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 34 reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.^[4]

Roger Ebert praised director Jonathan Kaplan for giving the film's story a sense of realism with its locations, characters with "unrestrained realism" from the actors and having "undertones of a serious social drama" when confronting fears about a delusional police authority.^[5] Variety's Todd McCarthy wrote that despite being another film that follows in the mould of Fatal Attraction, he called it "a very effective victimization thriller", praising both Liotta and Russell's performances and Kaplan's direction of the script into "areas of social and class-structure observations" when dealing with unhinged police figures in an urban setting.^[6] In her review for The New York Times, Janet Maslin was critical of the three main leads lacking depth and substance in the motivations of their characters but gave credit to Liotta for giving "complexity" to his role, a solid supporting cast and the "level-headed" direction Kaplan takes with the plot, even as it stretches credibility.^[7]

See also[]

• List of American films of 1992
• List of films featuring home invasions

References[]

External links[]

• Unlawful Entry at IMDb
• Unlawful Entry at the TCM Movie Database
• Unlawful Entry at Box Office Mojo
• Unlawful Entry at Rotten Tomatoes