Rating: Summary: Major snore fest Review: I'd heard that this movie was riveting - that you'd be on the edge of your seat the entire time. Instead, I was bored stiff the first part of the movie until the hostage situation. Then I was utterly amazed at the plot twists necessary to keep them from logically ending the movie in only fifteen minutes. Boring and contrived are the two top descriptive terms for this film. Save your time and money. Virtually any movie is better than this one!
Rating: Summary: Geez, is this movie scary! Review: Don't watch this too late at night in a big, old house. This movie was gripping. Forest Whitaker plays a wonderful "good" bad guy. Jodie Foster and the girl playing her daughter have wonderful chemistry. As usual, Foster plays a woman able to keep her head in a crisis. The idea of the "panic room," an impregnable room to prevent the take over of modern-day castles, is fabulous and certainly lends something to the otherwise typical scary story of a woman alone in a big house when bad men break in. Great!
Rating: Summary: Nothing good to say except it ended. Review: This movie was terrible. I watched it because I really like Jodie Foster films but this one really was awful. The characters were uninteristering and the film lacked a plot. It starts off well with the mother and daughter looking for a new house and being shown the 'panic room'. It's just not a good movie.
Rating: Summary: Panic Room Review: Fincher once again shows how movies should be made. It is a good story, and the Superbit resolution of the disc is simply astonishing. It would be nice if there would be a second disc with extra features enclosed, but the DVD quality is worth the bucks. I wish that every film would be transferred like this.
Rating: Summary: Goes Downhill Halfway Through and Awful Ending Review: The movie was sort of interesting, with a lot of little plot twists--until it was about three-quartes through. Then it got really stupid, contrived, and of course, politically correct. Jodie Foster does a number of really stupid and non-realistic things--like not telling the police there's a problem. Afterall, the thugs holding her daughter can't hear what she's saying. And then, not taking the damn gun herself and shooting. Finally, if I see one more "dead man rising back to life" in any movie, I think I will throw up. Raoul, who already has a bashed arm and is bleeding quite badly, is smashed over the head with a sledge hammer. That would be enough to do any mortal in. But no, he pops up back to life, full of vim and vigor...well, I wish they might have put a realistic ending on it.
Rating: Summary: BEST MOVIE EVER Review: PANIC ROOM IS THE BEST MOVIE I HAVE EVER SEEN. DAVID FINCHERS CAMERA WORK, JODIE FOSTERS PERFORMANCE, THE STORY AND THE STORYTELLING IS THE BEST I HAVE EVER SEEN. BUY IT AS LONG AS YOU CAN!
Rating: Summary: Panic Room Review: Many people asked when the first buzz about "Panic Room" came out, "how good can a movie be about two people stuck in a room?" well, those people didn't know the magic of director David Fincher and the true acting ability Jodie Foster. "Panic Room" (and "Red Dragon") are the best thrillers of 2002.This movie is too good to reveal what happens, but it all revolves around the money being in the Panic Room itself. With such plot twists as Sarah being diabetic and Meg being claustrophobic, along with many others, this one kept me on the edge of my seat. David Fincher is a great director and Jodie Foster completely pulls out the role as mother/fighter/schemer to a T, and does us all in. A must see!
Rating: Summary: Watchable but contrived -- not what I was expecting Review: This movie is more action centered than character centered, so one might wonder why a two-time best actress winner was cast in the lead role. Perhaps the answer is that Jodie Foster likes to play some roles of this sort as well as more intense characters of focus. I hope that is the explanation, for if she's doing something she likes to do here, that's fine, not as if she's wasted in roles not so demanding on her talent without her being much interested in them. That said, she and the rest of the cast do quite a sufficient job of doing what the story demands of them. A few things did surprise me about this movie. A minor one was the pervasive mirky darkness of the mood throughout. Seeing occasional light of day or more brightly lit rooms wouldn't have disrupted the needed theme here, but instead the movie dwells in a pervasive darkness that gets a bit taxing. But the main surprise was in plot contrivances. Previews and some reviews I'd heard before seeing it made me expect a movie about how the house's occupants fare in the title panic room during a typical burglary. The title strongly fortified room, supposedly essentially burglary-proof was designed as a retreat to protect occupants during such a home-invasion. I did get some idea before seeing the movie that the panic room becomes more of a trap that a protection. A general weakness of the whole principle behind a panic room? I expected the movie to imply that. But what happens instead is a plot so contrived for making all intentions of the panic room backfire, that no real light is shed on what a help the panic room would or would not be in a more typical burgalry. The story that does happen is interesting, but it's glaring contrivances can leave one wanting a story of how the title room would work in a more routine siege. One learns from previews and/or reviews that the burglary occurs on the first night the mother and daughter spend in their new house. Does this mean they live in a very high crime area, or is it a highly coincidental happening? That was the question that seemed obvious, but in fact the answer is neither. They moved into the house earlier than expected, and the burglars, who knew what valuables were in the house, were targeting it at a time when they expected it to be unoccupied. Why would the previous occupants have left their valuables behind? That is only the beginning of the contrivances. Furthermore the burglar who is the brains of the heist is none other than the designer of the panic room! That's how he knows just what they are looking for and where, and what the logistics of getting there are, for the safe holding the valuables is IN the panic room. That, at least is one aspect of the movie that has a lesson regarding preparedness against burglaries in general, not just this highly contrived one. If you're going to have a panic room and a safe for valuables, don't put the safe in the panic room! That can just make your place of intended refuge the very target of the burglars!
Rating: Summary: Oh, please... Review: Fincher was so bored with this one he moved a camera through the handle of a coffee pot. Overacting, dopey burglars, stupid situations, complete lack of character development makes this a dark version of Home Alone. Not even the first Home Alone...the third one. Shame on you, Jodie.
Rating: Summary: The Best Live Action DVD Performance I have EVER SEEN! Review: As many of you can tell from the cover that this is what is known as a Superbit DVD! Superbit DVDs encode the disc with just enough information to put the whole movie on the disc while making it look good while leaving some room for sound options. And Superbit really makes this movie look good. I can normally tell when a movie is well remastered by looking at the opening logos. If it has scratches then it is poorly made. Movies like Resident Evil and Panic Room have done well with this. DVDs like Grease do a bad version especially when the case promises digitally remastered picture. Anyway the image is very very sharp and detailed. Most of the disc space is used on the picture. The sound quality is alright but its not a friend presenter. The quality is very nice on DVD. The imagine is so well presented. Anyway the movie is great too.
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