Rating: 
Summary: Ick...
Review: I was hugely disappointed with this film. First was the confusion. I thought that Jodie Foster had a son in this film. Turns out, it's a sickly looking daughter with short hair and deep-set eyes (looked like a drugged out Edward Furlong). Then there's the issue of the plot being so silly it made me want to cry. Three thieves enter into the house thinking it was still unoccupied in search of $3 million. They soon realize that there's a mom and daughter living in the house. Before they know it, mom and daughter race to the panic room and refuse to come out. Bad thing because what they want is in that room. So these thieves try to devise ways of getting into the impregnable room while at the same time their lines of communication are breaking down. Forrest Whitaker plays a non-violent panic room designer. One thief is just a greedy relative who was to inherit the place anyway, but didn't want all that money tied up in probate. The last thief is a certified mercinary. Put them together and you can figure out the plot.LEAP rating (each out of 5):
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L (Language) - 3 (nothing special)
E (Erotica) - 0 (n/a)
A (Action) - 3 (a couple of people get shot in the head)
P (Plot) - 2 (sigh... horrible)
Rating: 
Summary: A taut thriller.
Review: 'Panic room' is a taut thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat for most of its running time. The story is simple, yet it is gripping, thanks mainly to the excellent camera angles. Jodie Foster is a divorcee who moves into a new house with her diabetic daughter. The new house is huge, with 3 levels and many rooms. But one room (the 'Panic room') is the centre of all the action. The previous owner of the house was a very rich man and had built this panic room specifically to keep himself safe from anyone who tried to break into the house. On the very first night after Jodie and her daughter move in, 3 thugs (including Forest Whitekar) break into the house. The plot then develops nicely, as Jodie and her daughter take shelter in the panic room and thugs are unable to get into it. But whatever the thugs want from the house is inside the panic room. The rest of the story is the battle of wits between Jodie and the thugs. Jodie tries to keep the thugs away with the added headache of her daughter needing insulin shots (which are not inside the room) and Forest and his buddies try to get Jodie to open the door to the panic room. The whole film is shot inside the house and all the events happen on one night. It seems that Jodie Foster got this role because Nicole Kidman decided to drop out, it is good for the film that Kidman did so because Jodie is a better actress than her. As always, Jodie Foster gives an even performance. Whitekar does his bit commendably and is ably supported by his buddies. The direction is good and the cinematography deserves a special mention since it contributes most to the thrills. The film slows down a bit towards the end, but that still does not make it boring. In the end, this is a tight thriller that is entertaining and worth watching.
Rating: 
Summary: Fincher takes a header.
Review: Panic Room (David Fincher, 2002) I used to think David Fincher was incapable of making a bad movie. Even the last few scenes of Fight Club, as painfully hokey as they were, didn't set me up for a whole two hours of badness. And to be fair, Panic Room isn't all bad. But it's A DAVID FINCHER FILM (yes, in all caps), and that's about it. There's loads of style here, but substance suffers as a result. Newly-divorced Meg Altman (Jodie Foster) and her daughter Sarah (Kristen [The Safety of Objects] Stewart, one of the film's true highlights) move into a four-story brownstone in Manhattan. (Suspend one's disbelief, for the moment, that one could actually FIND a four-story brownstone in Manhattan on the market.) The house was equipped with a panic room by its previous owner, a paranoid and very rich financier. Needless to say, the night Meg and Sarah move in, three guys break into the house, looking for the paranoid financier's money, which, as we're told in the beginning, has never been found. The first review of the movie I read quipped that "one day, David Fincher will make a movie entirely without light." The reviewer neglected to add that the same movie will probably take place completely outside in the rain. To further telegraph that this is, in fact, a David Fincher film, we get the nausea-inducing camera tricks of moving between floors, etc., through various air vents and the like (and through walls when nothing convenient is available). And while the film does ostensibly have humans in it, it's obvious within twenty minutes that the stars of this film are the dark, the rain, and the camera. That said, there's some decent acting in here. Kristen Stewart has already been mentioned, but she deserves another mention. She's good. Jodie Foster does what she can with a limited script (we're given many signs at the beginning that she's claustrophobic, but then when they actually get themselves into the panic room, her claustrophobia magically goes away. Ain't life grand?), as does the usually brilliant Forest Whitaker. Whitaker, along with Jared Leto and Dwight Yoakam, are the three invaders. Leto shows absolutely nothing of the talent that made him so watchable in Requiem for a Dream, but Yoakam (South of Heaven West of Hell, Sling Blade, etc.) gives a career-making performance as the only invader who actually seems as if he's a bad guy. (Another script point woefully underdone: loads of possible tension between Yoakam, Stewart, and Whitaker in an extended scene that, in the hands of the right director, could have been a movie in itself [think Polanski's Death and the Maiden, e.g.].) Also, Ann Magnuson's all-too-brief performance as the real estate agent at the beginning of the movie was up to, well, Ann Magnuson's usual standards. Too bad she never shows up again. I will say in passing that, in the screening I attended, I seemed to be in the minority. The audience (one wonders if they caught Se7en, The Game, or any of Fincher's other superior films) was completely taken in, cheering for the good guys, booing the bad guys, etc. Fincher does manage enough shameless emotional manipulation to make this movie worth killing two hours of your time, but you're much better served waiting for the rental. **
Rating:
Summary: Not too scary
Review: I scare easily, and this movie didn't scare me at all. It was a cool plot, but the Panic Room could have been used better. There was too much banter with the bad guys. When Jodie Foster's character went into protection mode and rigged the house, you couldn't really tell what she was doing. I was hoping that she was at least rigging it up as good as they did in Home Alone. Wait for the video.
Rating: 
Summary: kept me hooked!!
Review: this movie was soo suspenseful! i kept waiting 2 see what would happen next and jumping out of my chair! its a pretty good movie u should watch it
Rating:
Summary: "Room" and (never) bored
Review: Jodie Foster was set to appear in David Fincher's "The Game" instead of Michael Douglas, but was dropped by the studio. She finally returns to Fincherdom here, after Nicole Kidman dropped out due to injury (for my money, Kidman is the female Michael Douglas: all anti-charisma and wooden acting). It's a shame their first collaboration didn't work out, for I thought Douglas was the only thing wrong with "The Game". Imagine what Fincher's career would have looked like if Foster had been kept on: a fluctuation from testosterone driven Brad Pitt black comedy, to intellectually driven Jodie Foster suspense thriller, and back again. That's a career to envy, for sure. Still, as it is, at least we have been given "Panic Room" Foster is note-perfect here. Her Meg Altman is a female action hero, only not in the Ellen Ripley sense. Meg is imperfect. She's just trying to do right by her daughter, while keeping her contempt for her failed marriage under wraps. Foster is strong, but also vulnerable. She plays fear just right, attacking it with both shock and awe ("I can't believe this is happening to *me*!" she appears to be saying, mouth agape, during some of the more tense moments). And she's funny when she needs to be. Her chemistry with Kristen Stewart is potent. The two are convincing as mother and daughter. Stewart, for her part, gets Sarah's rebelliousness just right, while also showing her understanding that she is still a little girl who needs her mother. The plot point, regarding Stewart's character, that ultimately makes it necessary for the two to get out of the panic room, is brought along subtly and assuredly. They never mention the disease she has, or the well-known medication used to keep it in check. Clues abound, but are never in your face. The audience member who is paying close attention will appreciate this; the audience member who isn't will become confused. Fincher trusts his audience. Forest Whitaker, Jared Leto, and Dwight Yoakam play the thieves who force Foster and Stewart into the panic room. They have a definite Keystone Cops feel about them. Which is actually a refreshing change. Most real criminals are miles away from being masterminds. Here, the titular mastermind is Leto's Junior, who sports cornrows in his hair, and has the intellect of a 6-year old. Or at least that's how it appears at first. Once Junior's reason for getting inside the room is clear, you understand the character better. Whitaker is the compassionate brains of the bunch, a security expert with his own reasons for being on the job. The motivations of these two characters are never plainly laid out, only alluded to as the film goes along. I appreciate Fincher again trusting his audience, this time relying on their patience. Yoakam, who's basically playing a quiet by severely demented psychopath with little motivation except a desire to cause havoc, is as menacing here as he was in "Sling Blade". Only a lot funnier. The film overall is surprisingly funny. Sometimes too funny. I'm all for comic relief, and the suspense here is neatly broken up by laughs at just the right places, but the film can't decide sometimes if it is a black comedy or a suspense thriller. It teeters back and for the between the two, never able to make up its mind. Fortunately, the suspense is never ruined totally by the abundant jokes. Fincher's special effects enhanced shots were sometimes necessary and sometimes superfluous. On the one hand, the film's first third holds several shots that allow the audience to see the size and layout of the house. It becomes necessary later on, when the machinations of the plot bring on a sense of disorientation. On the other hand, shots like a quick tour through the filament of a flashlight bulb, felt like the director had a hankering to show off. Fincher, known for hyper-kinetic title sequences that are breathtaking to watch, pulls another rabbit out of hat here. Only this one is static and simple, but no less breathtaking. Giant white letters (I think the font is Times New Roman), three to four stories tall, appear floating in front of a series of Manhattan landmarks (Central Park, Times Square, etc.). It is a sunny day, the letters blend seamlessly into the live action, and the whole thing is poetic and gorgeous. It's the film's one concession to expanse, for the remainder is spent cooped up in the claustrophobic brownstone. Darius Khondji, who quit/was fired midway through filming, usually gives Fincher's dark films a crisp look. You can always tell what you are looking at through his lens. Conrad Hall, whose career has been spent mostly as a camera operator (and who has worked twice -- "Se7en" & "Alien: Resurrection" -- on Khondji-lensed films), stepped up to the plate for his second turn as cinematographer. The results are hit and miss. He has trouble handling the shadows in Fincher's world; everything becomes murky and muddled. However, his work inside the panic room, especially capturing the penetrating blues of Foster and Stewart's eyes, is sublime. Up until the end, Fincher's film is near perfect, for what it is anyway. The suspense is toned just right, the surprises jump out at you unexpectedly, and the mood is palpable. In the final ten minutes, however, one character becomes unbelievably immortal (as "Friday the 13th"s Jason or Freddy Krueger might), and another makes an out-of-character choice, to set up the deus es machina ending. Still, even with these two near-fatal flaws, "Panic Room" is a fun and frightening good time. It may not scale the dizzying heights of "Se7en" or "Fight Club", but it's not really trying to. At what it's trying to do it most definitely succeeds.
Rating:
Summary: A simple plot
Review: Being a huge Fincher admirer, this movie was bit of a dissappointment. The most noticeable aspect of his previous movies(seven, fightclub) is the unpredictability of the conclusion, but panic room has more of a run-of-the mill finish. There's only so much excitement that can be packed in this story which centers around a room and 5 characters. Music is not impressive either with gloomy scenes it seems like something is gonna happen but nothing does. All in all panic room is not david fincher like he is, but it sure does manage to hold your attention long enough for you not to feel ripped off.
Rating:
Summary: Very entertaining movie
Review: After seeing the trailers for months, I was very eager to see "The Panic Room," but feared that the trailers gave away too much of the plot. Fortunately, the movie has many surprises and ultimately is a great popcorn movie. It is also terrific to see Jodie Foster again after a three year absence from the screen (1999's Anna and the King), and in such an accessible movie. Jodie plays a newly separated New Yorker who moves, with her 11-year-old daughter, into a great old Brownstone in Manhattan. The apartment features a panic room with concrete and steel-reinforced walls. The action starts right away and continues to build throughout the movie. The plot is fairly simplistic, but director David Finch manages to milk it for all it's worth by employing great camera trickery, including some fantastic shots where the camera zooms from floor to floor in the house, through key holes, etc. On the negative side, the characters are not well-developed and we know very little about Jodie and her daugher. Action movies obviously don't need to have characters as fully developed as do dramas, but it still would be nice to have more multi-layered characters. Also, the burglars are exceedingly stupid and single-minded, particularly Jared Leto who displays some horrific overacting. Overall, however, I enjoyed the movie a great deal, as did the audience with whom I saw the movie.
Rating:
Summary: Very Believable Plot
Review: Jodie Foster did an incredible job in this movie and kudos to her and Kristen Stewart who played her daughter. I don't want to give anything away about the movie but it was definitely one that I would recommend to my friends, male and female alike. I was sitting on the edge of my theater chair during a large portion of the end. Forest Whitaker also did an excellent job in his role as a bad/good guy. You wanted to feel sorry for him but he just wouldn't do the right thing... Dwight Yoakum played an excellent bad guy and had you wishing every step of the way that someone would just knock him down a peg or two. Anyway, don't take my word for it, go see it. I don't think you'll regret it.
Rating:
Summary: pretty conventional stuff
Review: "Panic Room" opens with one of the most stylishly elegant, visually arresting and classily designed credit sequences I have seen fronting a movie in a very long time. Would that the rest of the film managed to live up to that high quality level. Instead, "Panic Room" emerges as second-rate warmed-over Hitchcock with barely a suspenseful moment to be had for love or money. And love and money pretty much turn out to be the two dominant "themes" of this claustrophobic thriller, which stars Jodie Foster as an embittered, recently divorced mother who purchases a spectacular home on the west side of Manhattan for herself and her diabetic teenaged daughter. The great selling point of this property turns out to be an elaborately designed "panic room," which theoretically will provide a place of safety should robbers ever break onto the premises. And lo and behold, what should happen on their very first night staying in the place! You guessed it: three armed men, intent on stealing a secret cache of loot hidden in a safe located right there in the panic room, storm the place and make the young mother and her daughter virtual prisoners in their own fortress-like sanctuary. The majority of the movie is spent with the two terrified women stuck behind the implacable steel door while the three hoodlums work on ways of trying to ferret them out. The single noteworthy element of "Panic Room" is that master cinematographer, Conrad Hall, has managed to make the house itself into something of a character - actually a far more interesting character than any of the people we encounter in the film. He does this by having his camera move through walls, creep along air ducts and spy on the inhabitants' activities from bizarre angles, the effect of which is that we get an impressive sense of geography that helps us to map out the intricacies of the building itself. This is not, however, enough to compensate for an underwritten screenplay filled with hackneyed plot elements, stereotypical characters and precious little in the way of nail-biting suspense. Particularly grating is the team of three familiar burglars, consisting of the humanitarian with a heart-of-gold (Forest Whitaker), the sardonic but ineffectual "brains" of the operation (Jared Leto) and, of course, the trigger-happy psychotic (Dwight Yoakum) who is called in at the last moment and ends up making life just plain miserable for everyone involved, criminals and decent citizens alike. Straight from central casting, these three men provide us with not one single surprise in the course of the film's running time. An actress of the caliber of Jodie Foster need do little but phone in her performance in a role as shallow as this one here - which is essentially what she does. Ms. Foster has exactly two good moments in the film: an early dinner scene between her and her daughter in which she subtly conveys the hurt and confusion occasioned by the breakup of her marriage, and a sequence later in the film when she is forced to play out the required policemen-at-the-door scene (I doubt I am giving anything away by revealing that there IS such a scene in this movie). "Panic Room" will probably manage to get under the skin of only the most confirmed claustrophobics. The rest of us will probably find ourselves breaking out of the theater for quite different reasons altogether.
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