Rating: 
Summary: Fincher rocks!
Review: It's great to see Foster in the movies again, I wish she made more films, she is so intelligent and full of intensity, always wonderful.I was very impressed with Forest Witicer and Dwight Yokum(they play his music at where I work!) The two of them are very driven by different things and it works very well here. Don't see this movie if you are a fraidy cat, you have been warned!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Remarkable Performance by Jodie Foster
Review: Everyone likes to think that they'd know what they would do-- without hesitation, yet-- if suddenly and unexpectedly confronted with a perilous, even life-threatening, situation. It's human nature; we all want to feel, or at least believe, that we are always in control of everything that happens in our lives. But, upon reflection, if that IS, in fact, what you think, then you're probably not being entirely honest with yourself. Because unless you're Dirty Harry, or someone of that ilk (and take note, the key word here is "are," not "think" you are), you're not really going to know how you'd react to any such situation until the moment of truth is actually upon you. And it's that moment that director David Fincher enables you to experience, albeit vicariously, in "Panic Room," a suspense/thriller that very quickly takes you to a very dark place-- a place few have actually ever been or would care to go, if given the choice. But, of course, when it comes to a situation like the one depicted in this film, that's the rub: You simply do not get to choose whether or not you want to participate. And when you really think about it, it's a concept that is more than a bit disconcerting, to say the least. Because whether or not you want it, if it happens, you are going to be confronted with that moment of truth; and in that moment, you will probably learn more about yourself than you've ever known before. As the film begins, recently divorced New Yorker Meg Altman (Jodie Foster) is being shown a property, a spacious Brownstone Townhouse, which she ultimately decides upon and secures for herself and her teenage daughter, Sarah (Kristen Stewart). They move in, and prepare for their first night in the new house. What Meg cannot know, however, is that someone else has an eye on her house, but it has nothing to do with wanting to live there. His name is Junior (Jared Leto), whom, as it happens, knew the previous tenant-- a wealthy, and apparently paranoid recluse-- more than just a bit. He also knows (or at least thinks he does) that there is something extremely valuable hidden in that house. And now that the previous owner has passed on, Junior wants it. Toward that end, he recruits a couple of acquaintances, Burnham and Raoul (Forest Whitaker and Dwight Yoakam) to help him get it. But as fate would have it, Junior makes his move on the very night that Meg and Sarah move into the house, which as far as Junior knows, is still vacant. They break in successfully, but it all goes south quickly when they discover the house is occupied, a situation for which Junior and his gang have no contingency plans; and their hesitation enables Meg and Sarah to make it to a safe room-- the "Panic Room" of the title-- a virtually impregnable room built by the previous owner as a safeguard against intruders. And with the aid of a closed-circuit video surveillance/security system, Meg is able to monitor the movements of the trespassers throughout the house from inside her fortress, and she has no intention of emerging until they are gone. But Junior is adamant; and he's not about to leave until he has what he came for. And at that point, the standoff begins. In his previous films (especially "Se7en") Fincher has established his use of a dark, brooding atmosphere-- pregnant with foreboding-- to enhance the suspense and drama of his story, and this film is no exception. Night falls, and Fincher uses the oncoming darkness and the stillness of the house to create a sense of isolation that is the subtle beginning of the tension he will continue to build and maintain throughout the film. He also uses some imaginative camera work, slowly exploring the house from the audience's point-of-view, which-- combined with Meg's initial apparent trepidation upon entering the panic room itself-- gives it all a pointedly claustrophobic feeling. Those with difficulties in that regard, in fact, may experience some uneasiness during a good portion of this film because of it; and it simply demonstrates what a good job Fincher did in creating the setting he wanted, and which he uses so effectively here to keep you on the edge of your seat. The plot is fairly basic, with an inherently narrow framework within which Fincher must work; but he sets a perfect pace and has an inventive touch both visually and psychologically that enables him to take an average screenplay (by David Koepp) to a higher level in the finished product. Considering the storyline, some of what happens is-- some would say predictable-- though I prefer to call it inevitable (granted, a thin line differentiates the two; in this case, however, I feel "inevitable" is more accurate), and there are some surprises, which Fincher uses to great advantage. It's no surprise, however, that what really elevates this film is the totally convincing performance by Jodie Foster as Meg. Long one of the best actors around, she has the talent and ability to turn any material she's given into so much more than any writer or director could possibly hope to expect. What makes her so remarkable-- as she is in this film-- is not only the fact that she can create such a believable character, but that she can do it with such intelligence and resourcefulness. You have but to look into Foster's eyes to realize how much is going on constantly behind them; this is one savvy lady whom you can readily believe is always one step ahead of everyone else in the room. And she goes a long way in proving that true beauty is, indeed, more than skin deep; she's attractive to begin with, but in a pair of black, horn-rimmed glasses, she looks ravishing. In the final analysis, "Panic Room" is Foster's film; and she makes it a satisfying cinematic experience for her audience.
Rating:
Summary: Searing suspense from David Fincher; Jodie Foster shines
Review: I had to wonder, coming out of the theater, if PANIC ROOM wasn't David Fincher's attempt to Keep Hollywood Happy. After his brilliant FIGHT CLUB suffered mixed reviews and box office failure, he must have been aware that he needed a Big Hit if he wanted to keep making movies. Enter PANIC ROOM, a dark, sharp thriller which showcases the talents of Jodie Foster and Forest Whitaker in a cat-and-mouse game between the new owner of a house and the builder of its security systems who is hoping to steal something the previous owner left behind: Whitaker and his crew break in, thinking the new occupants haven't yet moved in, and Foster has time to rush herself and her daughter into the house's Panic Room, an extremely secure high-tech saferoom: the room keeps the intruders out, but it also keeps their intended victims in. Foster is brilliant as the claustrophobic mom who will do anything to keep her daughter safe, but the film comes up short when she makes choices that most of the audience will perceive as short-sighted at best and stupid at worst. Foster overcomes this script shortcoming by playing the choices convincingly--you can read the conundrum in her face and believe in her reasoning when she makes the poor choice. It's a credit to Whitaker that his "villain" character remains sympathetic throughout--he's not the sort of terrorist-cum-robber that made Alan Rickman famous in DIE HARD. You find yourself hoping that some accord can be reached--that he can just get what he wants and get out safely. Unfortunately, his psychotic partners-in-crime make that an impossibility. Fincher has always done an excellent job of taking us to the dark side of things, leading the camera into places that the human eye could never see. I'm not sure PANIC ROOM will have the staying power and rewatchability of FIGHT CLUB or SE7EN, but it's definitely the sort of taut thriller that's been missing from the A-movie circuit for years. Not quite a Popcorn Movie...more like a hint of Summer in early Spring.
Rating: 
Summary: Delivers suspense and implausibility in equal measure.
Review: What exactly is a panic room? According to David Fincher's new film, appropriately titled "Panic Room," these small, virtually impregnable rooms come equipped with everything from surveillance cameras to a separate, hidden phone line... everything one should need in the event of a burglary or a forced entry. And now, this latest rage in home security finds itself at the center of a thriller that delivers suspense and implausibility in equal measure. Jodie Foster plays Meg Altman, a recently divorced mother in the market for a new home. She shares a slightly distanced relationship with her daughter, Sarah (Kristen Stewart); from a conversation between the two early in the film, we gather that all Meg wants is to move on with her life. Her search ends with the purchase of spacious Manhattan home complete with four floors, four fireplaces, an elevator, and (surprise!) a hidden room found behind a mirrored panel in the master bedroom. The movie does have the good sense to provide an explanation for the inclusion of a panic room in this otherwise normal abode. We are told that the previous owner of the house, a wealthy tycoon fearful of being robbed, had the room built in case of emergences. Coincidentally, this piece of information is followed by the revelation that a comely portion of the deceased's fortune has since been missing (three guesses as to where it's hidden). To keep things succinct, Meg and Sarah's first night in their new house becomes quite the nightmare when three burglars (played by Jared Leto, Forest Whitaker, and Dwight Yoakam) force their way in, unaware that the house is now occupied until it is too late. Before they have a chance to collect their reward, Meg and Sarah find refuge in the panic room, where a battle of wits, wills and intelligence ensues as they attempt the thwart the thieves' tactics to penetrate the room. For all the positive buzz the stronghold attains, there are flaws. For instance, why is it customary that the new owner should have the emergency phone line connected upon arrival? Should it not be a permanently connected line directly to the police? And what about the room's ventilation system, that which enables Meg's aggressors to fill the room with gaseous fumes in one of the film's reality-stretching scenes? Would not such a structure be embedded within the concrete and steel walls of the room? As the attempts to enter the room become more frantic, such questions become increasingly bothersome. The thieves themselves aren't all too challenging, either. Leto, Whitkaker, and Yoakam do fine jobs in handling the moments of humorous intervention, but this comic relief serves to lessen the suspense that surrounds it. Whitaker's character plays the token softy, while Yoakam's character is increasingly agitated, and furthermore, dimwitted. At one point, observing Meg disabling the surveillance cameras, he makes the remark, "Why didn't we think of that?" Director David Fincher ("Seven") does give the film more redeeming qualities than one would think. He wears his Hitchcock pedigree proudly on his sleeve, filling the movie with an arsenal of foreboding shots that begin on one floor and end on another, sweeping through banisters and revolving throughout hallways and rooms. Underneath the film's predictability lies an undercurrent of effective suspense that holds up surprisingly well, due in part to the claustrophobic setting, and Foster, whose performance is marked by fear and determination. In the end, a film like "Panic Room" is best enjoyed with a continuous suspension of disbelief. The setting is quite striking, not to mention original, but much that revolves around the implausible plot becomes increasingly conventional. For the measurable amount of shocks and energy it manages to generate, the movie qualifies as a by-the-numbers crowd pleaser, but it's by no means nothing to panic over.
Rating: 
Summary: Wow, the bad way
Review: Okay Fight Club was brilliant, but key difference is it had a script, a good premise. Panic Room Philosophy: Home Alone, but not funny!!! "lets make a movie about claustrophobia!." No no. Im sorry but amazing cinematography (The likes of M. Night Shalamayan, Mothman-esque) and teriffic CGI compound camera shots cannot make up for the horrendeous lack of plot. The performances by the actors are all good, but really what the... are they doing in this film. The characters are all overly clever in a bad way and act as if the audience cared about watching them. MY friend observed: they could cut to a football game in the middle and no one would notice. The audience didnt know about or car about the dialogue. What a poor film for david fincher to make. Boo.
Rating:
Summary: Panic Room not enough panic
Review: Too much CGI dilutes the tension that could be mounting throughout this clever but cliche movie. Jodie leads a good cast who mount great performances. The script works but the potential to really make you sweat is camoflauged with 21st century Hollywood tricks. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Great Movie Ruined by Weak Ending
Review: Few directors have the stylistic wit and independent ambition of David Fincher, whose previous films Fight Club and Se7en broke boundaries of taste and standards of what makes a film. Both projects succeeded, and although Fincher's other works, like Alien 3 and The Game were less successful, it hasn't stopped him from picking some of the most difficult films in mainstream cinema. Panic Room, written by David Koepp, reflects that. Based on a slim premise - that of a woman stuck in a sealed "panic room" in her new apartment while a band of crooks threatens her outside - Fincher manages to direct a picture with a string-tightening tension reminiscent of Hitchcock. The story seems a little like Home Alone for adults: after a messy divorce, Meg Altman (Foster) and her diabetic daughter Sarah (newcomer Kristen Stewart) find what seems like a dream apartment on the Upper West Side: four stores, all the amenities, and a special "panic room" with its own power, phone, and video surveillance of the house. When the son of the now-dead former owner leads a band of thugs into the apartment on the first night to recover something, Meg find the room quite useful - until she realizes what the thugs want is in that room. The rest of the film is a contest between Meg and the thugs to try and outwit each other and live through the night. With each dark shot, each new plan, and each whittling away of will and strength, the situation continues to get more and more desperate, and Fincher masterfully tightens the noose of suspense. The computer-to-camera effects Fincher pioneered in Fight Club return here, taking the all-seeing eye through floors, walls, tiny drains, mug-handles, and railings. Whereas in Fight Club it was stylistic and essential to the story, in Panic Room it seems more of a distraction. The final ending, too, is weak: after such a gut-wrenching film, one feels let down. Suspense films are based on the payoff at the end, and it's in those final moments that Panic Room fails to deliver. For all Panic Room has going for it, it's a shame that it couldn't have found a better ending.
Rating:
Summary: Far from David Fincher's best
Review: Fincher's other films (with the exception of Alien 3 - allegedly re-edited and butchered by 20th Century Fox before release) are exciting, intelligent thrillers. "Panic Room", however, is a heap of unrealized potential. The premise is interesting but old - "helpless" female(s) trapped in an enclosed space with vicious intruders trying to get to them. This could have been a tense thriller throughout, but the screenplay and Fincher lay a bit too much comic emphasis on the villains, thus robbing them of much of their fierceness. Once you can laugh at a villain, he doesn't seem very threatening anymore.
Generally, the characters are mostly stock: the scared but strong mother, the ill child she must protect, the villain with a heart of gold, etc. So "Panic Room" is too often a re-dressing of characters and a plot many of us have already seen many times before. Typically, Fincher uses many of his old camera and CGI tricks again, but for little reason other than to prove he can be visually stylish. Of note, Nicole Kidman was initially cast in Jodie Foster's role, but had to drop out for health reasons. Too bad, because I think Kidman would have been great here. Perhaps better than Foster, who never seems to really convey vulnerability when the script called for it. She always seems a bit smarter than her captors, so her eventual victory has little resonance or relief. Kidman does have a voice cameo, however, as Foster's ex-husband's girlfriend. TRIVIA NOTE FOR FINCHER FANS: about midway through the film Foster's character and her daughter try to communicate an S.O.S. to a neighbor. The neighbor is played by Andrew Kevin Walker, the screenwriter of Fincher's movie "Se7en" from 1995.
BUT.... The absolute best part of this picture (sadly) comes during the opening credits. Clever use of CGI and aerial shots of Manhattan combine for a visually striking and original title sequence. If only the script was as original, striking, and clever.
Rating:
Summary: Business as Usual
Review: David Fincher has made a career of dealing with the outcasts, the disenfranchised, the rebellious and the denizens of the dark. But in his new film, "The Panic Room" he deals with the relatively safe: murderers and thieves..one even with a heart of gold.
The warm yet patrician Jodie Foster plays Meg Altman, recently separated from her very rich husband, who buys a NYC Brownstone equipped with a concrete and steel protected "panic room." She proceeds to move in with her daughter Sarah (Kristen Stewart). On their very first night there, three thieves break in hoping to steal a cache of millions of dollars said to be stored in the safe of the panic room.
Jared Leto plays the erstwhile leader of the pack and as usual he does everything he can to play against type: i.e. a crazed, doped up liar with a scruffy beard and corn-rowed hair. When is Leto going to realize that, with his matinee idol good looks, he is really the new Robert Redford not the new Steve Buscemi? He simply does not have the acting chops to be Brad Pitt and his performance here is mostly embarrassing.
Dwight Yoakum is scary and volatile as one of the theives and Forest Whitaker is the thief with the heart of gold who saves the life of Meg's diabetic daughter.
The plot is the standard "woman in peril" one that has been around for hundreds of years and Fincher surprisingly does very little stylistically to improve upon it.
"The Panic Room" is business-as-usual for all concerned yet it can't help but be classy in a way that only Foster and Fincher can make it.
Rating:
Summary: Fincher is back at it
Review: Finchers films are obsessed with everything dark. His filmmaking career has spanned the music video and commercial realm then he dove straight into mainstream Hollywood, although one would hesitate to call Fincher mainstream. His movies have been violent and oppressive, and this one continues the trend although not to such a high degree. Panic Room involves Meg Altman played superbly by Jodie Foster and her androgynous daughter played by Kristen Stewart. They are buying a Manhattan mansion in which to live after Megs divorce from her husband. The movie never bothers with backstory, instead opting to dive straight into the action about 10 minutes in. I admired the decision, overlong exposition at the beginning only would have hurt the movie. And the character intros and dialogue during the first 10-15 minutes are enough for me to get a good background of the characters without it getting too detailed. The actors portraying the robbers are Forest Whitaker, Jared Leto, and Dwight Yoakam. They all fit into the mechanical stereotype usually associated with a team of criminals, the hesitant one, the stupid one, and the resolute psychopath. You can just take one look at the actors and you can tell whose who. The performances are well done for the most part, but Jared Leto isn't exactly acting up a storm, he left me cringing with a few of his lines. But the two others convinced me thoroughly. And now with the action. Fincher direction is stellar, his visual flair is stamped all over the movie. The supurb uncut setup shot at the beginning of the robbery, to the CGI shots detailing the layout of a ventilation shaft among other things are great to look at as well as serving the story. Fincher ratchets up the suspense like no one can these days, instead of falling into cliche after cliche, the movie sidesteps every one. There are no "boo" moments, no invasive orchestral score, everything gels extremely well. The only real complaint I have is the ending, it feels unfinished and I was curious about the other characters and what the result of the robbery was, oh well maybe I was asking too much since I didn't want any backstory. But in all its a better thriller than most these days, and I was thoroughly entertained throughout and I might just see it again, so I recommend.
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