Rating: 
Summary: HIT THE PANIC BUTTON NOW!
Review: PANIC ROOM starrring Jodie Foster and Forrest Whitaker, is without a doubt the most intense movie I've seen this year. The storyline is very realistic and quite suspenseful.One interesting element is that though there is a soundtrack, composed by Howard Shore, it doesn't overwhelm or seek to cue your emotions like many lesser soundtracks will try to do.
Instead, the music is used rather sparingly, letting the actors' dialogue and the scene's extreme tensions play out to the maximum. All in all the acting is top-notch, the suspense very real, and the pacing measured and highly effective. You can't go wrong finding yourself in the Panic Room!
Rating:
Summary: Panic room, well fear room maybe
Review: Although I really felt again too much had been given to me by the previews the movie was a thriller. Several times I found myself jumping in my seat. Screams occasionally came from the rear of the theater, a good sign I think. The diabetes information was a bit off, incorrect responces. All an all though a good movie.
Rating:
Summary: Sadistically Suspenseful
Review: Perhaps you saw Fight Club and could appreciate the visceral intensity but were put off by its muddled message. Or maybe you saw Se7en and noticed the slick and grainy visual style, but couldn't handle the more grotesque aspects of that film. Or maybe you (like me) love everything Fincher's ever done and cannot wait to be once again welcomed into his world of paranoia, pathos, and amazing visuals. Well, no moatter who you are, you need to see Panic Room. In Panic Room, David Fincher pulls out all the directing stops, every trick in his magic black bag of film wizadry and delivers on a simple, solid suspense story with none of the concept or pretense of his previous films. This one goes straight for the gut, fiedishly manipulating every standard suspense contrivance, mercilessly playing with any jangly nerve, and keeping you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. There is not one sour note in the whole film (with the exception of the possibly too Hollywood ending, but it still works). Every aspect of Fincher's technical mastery is on full display. His camera moves gracefully across every square inch of the house which becomes a prison for Jodie Foster and her daughter, and the three men who break in one night in search of the former owners hidden riches. In one amazing shot, Fincher moves from the fourth floor of the house where Foster and her daughter are sleeping soundly, all the way down to the first floor where we see the intruders beginning their break-in, throught the handle of a coffee pot, and then all the way BACK UP to the fourth floor where they finaly succeed in getting in without the shot breaking once and sliding the whole time with the cool, slow, impartial grace of a cat burglar. The premise is simple: Foster and her daughter are locked in an impenetrable room in their home, along with the loot that the 3 bad guys are looking for. The bad guys want in, the good guys want them out of the house. The plot is really as simple as that, but in Fincher's hands it turns into a beutifull paranoid battle of wits. No time is wasted on anywhere and the suspense is instantly in high gear. The performances are all perfect, with characters fully developed in their first moments of screen time. You know who everyone is right away, with no time wasted on extraneous details, so all that's necessary is to sit and wait while the tension builds to the breaking point. It is a terribly effective tactic as it leaves the audience totally open to watch the sparks fly without miring them in sentimentality. Essentially, if you like suspense, see this movie.
Rating:
Summary: A strong film!!!
Review: Sometimes, I worry that Jody Foster is all hype. However, she did a great job here and I now see why so many in Hollywood give her such respect. I loved "Alien 3" and "Fight Club", thus this movie corroborates the excellence of David Fincher's directing. The movie felt like most people's dreams, so the viewer will feel like the thriller is happening to them, or has during some night of sleep. The visual techniques were great (though they may get tired if Fincher overuses them.) Forest Whitaker plays the villain with a sense of decency. He was able to be the black bad guy without Hollywood dipping into its typical racism. In addition, this movie brings up the issue of childhood diabetes and I can't think of any other film that has covered that territory. Everyone should definitely see this work.
Rating: 
Summary: Great movie...previews don't do it justice....
Review: I wasn't expecting much after seeing the previews, but this is the best movie I have seen all year. For those of you who saw the previews and think it looks boring or think the previews tell you the whole movie like "Cast Away" did, it doesn't. The acting was great and David Fincher's fresh, awesome directing made this movie great instead of good. Go see it. You won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Fincher delivers the goods
Review: It's surprising that a person who once directed music videos for the likes of Aerosmith, among others, has become such an exciting and refreshing presence in the demographic-driven tiger cage that is mainstream cinema. David Fincher, who's cemented a visual style all his own, is also in tune with characters, plot, and action, seldom sacrificing one at the expense of another. It's hard for expectations to be low for "The Panic Room" after films like "Seven," "The Game," and "Fight Club," which gleefully shattered the mold of bland, conventional cinema, but Fincher pulls it off. Jodie Foster moves into a New York brownstone with her diabetic daughter (Kristen Stewart), only to wind up fending for her life against three thugs searching for money in the impenetrable room of the title. That's the basic setup, and for about two hours Fincher (and screenwriter David Koepp) mounts one terrific suspenseful scene after another, all while keeping the heroes and villains human. Granted, there are some draggy passages, but patient viewers should be satisfied by this exercise in the Hitchcockian style. Terrific camera choreography, expert performances, and constant twists make "The Panic Room" a refreshing alternative...
Rating: 
Summary: Close, but not quite there....
Review: My problems with Panic Room started at the credits, a weird sort of 3D modeling where the names of the players and writers, etc., are on strange, beveled 3D letters put over New York buildings, it looked like something done in Bryce. If you are reading this it is safe to assume that you know the premise, a recently divorced mother of one is the victim of a home invasion and hides in an impenetrable cubby hole designed by the former tenant, a paranoid old man, a film like this needs three things, great actors, good directing and camera work, and a convincing story and believable dialogue, Panic room has two of these. Jodie Foster and Forest Whiticer (Spelling)?are as good as ever, Whiticker as the long suffering "Good crook," in the "good crook, bad crook" drama that unfolds from the first time we see the intruders. The director of "Seven" gives us lots and lots of cool camera moves and great lighting, menacing blue and lots of shadows and light, but sadly this cannot cover the silly script and forced plot, we just don't believe it. Many, many times the crooks banter floats off into unintentional humor, there was some laughing on the part of the audience at places we know were supposed to be serious, and way too often we see a character do one thing and then another, for no reason other then the script calls for it. Foster is great at gasping, panicking and protecting her cub like the lion hearted actress we all know and love, but when she is given a chance, I thought, to do something she doesn't. The daughter is a very fine young actress who could have been sappy as the diabetic little girl, she has spunk and some good lines but mostly she is there to be rescued. The over done film school shots of the "Clues" at the beginning (The camera zooms in on the insulin in the fridge, and we see Jodie has bare feet, with a foot close up) are obvious set ups and when the pay off comes we have all seen it coming. Many, many times a phone or a gun are just out of reach, this wears thin. Then there is the ceaseless "suspense music" that would have been over done in a radio drama, too much, too loud, too bad, I hope Jodie Foster does better next time, I am sure she will, it wasn't bad, but two out of three just doesn't cut it.
Rating:
Summary: Panic on the Big Screen
Review: After anticipating this Thriller for so many months after delays in recasting the Lead with Jodie Foster, I finally was fortunate to view the Movie on Monday Night at the Premier. The dynamics from the very beginning are highly energized by the introduction of the Stars of the Movie: Forest Whitaker,Jodie Foster,Dwight YOAKAM,Jared Leto,Kristen Stewart
Rating:
Summary: Much better than I thought it would be...
Review: *PANIC ROOM (superbit-single disc)*
I thought Panic Room was going to be boring and not worth the time. On the contrary, it was quite entertaining. I couldn't imagine how they would fill an hour and a half of being stuck in a panic room shelter hiding from the bad guys. Turns out the movie is about 20 minutes longer than that. There are a few twists and turns that keep it very interesting. The hook is a clever story line of a criminal and his struggle to do right when he's doing wrong. Also, the strength of a parent when their childs life is in danger. It leaves you with a good feeling and I can appreciate that.
I absolutely loved the camera work. Some of the neatest camera pans you'll ever see in a movie are in Panic Room. A little too much cursing but, it's almost expected with thud criminals to speak at that level, it's understandable but there's a lot of it.
Very well done. Better than I expected.
Rating:
Summary: COME OUT, JODIE, PLEASE COME OUT!
Review: America's sweatheart, Jodie Foster, plays a recently- divorced mother who moves into a huge (the kind you only see in movies) New York City apartment with a "panic room"-- a self- contained, steel-walled room built for protection in the case of home invasion. Shortly after moving into the new place, claustrophobic Jodie and her strangely androgynous-looking 11-year old daughter get the unfortunate experience of testing the room out, when they're invaded by a trio of robbers. For most of the movie, the invaders try to get Jodie to come out (ahem...), because there's supposedly money in the panic room,left there by the apartment's wealthy former owner. Eventually, Jodie does come out (ahem...), only to face more danger when her daughter, on the verge of a diabetic coma, is now trapped in the panic room with two of the robbers. "The Panic Room" is a psychological thriller with Jodie in a role which has become too common in movies lately: the vulnerable, fragile woman who rises to the occasion and gets tough when she or her family is threatened. Jodie is perfectly adequate in the role, but a hundred other actresses could have done just as well. And the movie, while it does have some thrills, isn't exactly the nail-biter that it was hyped to be-- leaving the audience's mind to wander and think about unimportant details...for example, why is Jodie's ex-husband in the movie so blatantly unattractive? Personally I'd like to have seen the tragically underused Ms. Foster in a character that better accentuates her charms: her brains, her matter-of-fact attractiveness, and most of all, her enigmatic persona. Will the real Jodie Foster please, ahem, come out?
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