Rating: 
Summary: BAD SCRIPT AND HAMMY ACTING
Review: This was advertised as "the thriller of the year" so I couldn't wait to see it. What a letdown! It started out well enough with Jodie Foster's character looking for affordable housing and happening upon a substantial home with an unbreachable panic room. The room had everything one would need in case of a break-in- telephone, stored food, air conditioning, even a first-aid kit. Interesting premise to be sure. Unfortunately everything fell apart after a trio of dumb-as-dirt thugs broke in looking for some hidden loot. A film which initially had promise as a quirky thriller soon degenerated into very bad comedy. The talented Forrest Whitaker is completely miscast here, looking like a deer in the headlights when subjected to the overacting of Jared Leto and Dwight Yoakum. Yoakum, whom I enjoyed in Slingblade simply reprises that role, adding some unwelcome flourishes along the way. Jared Leto is simply awful as the most profane and least cerebral of the three, laying claim to worst actor honors over Keanu Reeves. Even Jodie Foster's sterling performance could not save this bomb. As I left the theatre, I had two thoughts in mind. First, with better casting and a professional, well-dialogued screenplay this could have been a great movie. Second, that Nicole Kidman had to be thanking her lucky stars for the knee injury that forced her to pull out of this mess.
Rating: 
Summary: Really fun movie--but not always plausible
Review: Recently divorced Meg Altman (Jodie Foster) and her teenage daughter Sarah (Kristen Stewart) are looking for a new place to live, and they decide on a majestic Manhattan mansion. The mansion is unlike anything they've ever seen, but its most distinguishing feature is a secret "panic room," a secure shelter just off the master bedroom. The room is complete with impenetrable walls, a ventilation system and phone line of its own, and an array of surveillance monitors showing most of the home's interior. Meg and Sarah settle in, impressed by the panic room but not intending to use it anytime soon. On their first night in their new home, however, a determined trio of robbers breaks in (played by Forest Whitaker, Jared Leto, and Dwight Yoakum), and they won't leave until they get just what they want from the panic room. Directed by David Fincher ("Se7en", "Fight Club"), "Panic Room" isn't the most brilliant movie you'll ever see, but it's sure to keep you on the edge of your seat. Although the idea of an entire movie taking place in one house sounds pretty restricted, Fincher still manages to make it a vastly entertaining film. The majority of the film focuses on Burnham, Junior, and Raoul (the criminals) trying to lure Meg and Sarah out of the room in order to get what they want there, while Meg and Sarah try to get help from outside sources. This leads to a relentless assault of suspenseful cat-and-mouse scenes upon the viewer, and the various complications along the way make the film even more fun to watch. The musical score, composed by Howard Shore (who would later compose the Oscar-winning music for "The Fellowship of the Ring"), is suitably suspenseful, and the sound effects also work well to increase the film's tension-particularly those of the omnipresent sledgehammer. But by far, the film's most distinguishing feature is the dazzling camera work. The camera is almost always moving and often swoops around the house for a bird's-eye view. This includes zooming into ventilation shafts, downward through the floors, and even straight into a keyhole. The use of lighting is also effective, as virtually the entire film takes place in the home with a "dark and stormy night" setting, so most of the lighting is created with fluorescent lamps. And, with the addition of a *very* attractive opening title sequence, "Panic Room" is surely a visually triumphant film from beginning to end. The acting is also fairly good, especially considering how cheesy most other films of this genre are. Forest Whitaker delivers an especially moving performance as the one criminal whom the audience actually learns to like by the film's end. One of the film's weaknesses, however, lies in the smart but occasionally rough script. While the criminals are realistic and appropriately unlikeable, their dialogue suffers from a few really corny lines. Comic relief is understandable in a suspense/thriller like this, but one rather inane scene involves Junior repeatedly slamming a mirrored door while yelling about twenty expletives in a row, which leads Raoul to say, "That's seven years bad luck." What's more significant, however, is the considerable lack of credibility that develops in the last third of the film. One scene involving an encounter with the cops is rather silly, and doesn't help to explain a later scene when the cops return to the home. Also, one character seems to have somehow developed bones of steel near the end, as he/she is able to survive a tremendous blow to the head, and then still manage to avoid getting shot several times and then wrestle another character to the ground. Finally, a third character's fate is not fully explained, as that character is not present in the film's final scene. Overall, however, "Panic Room" is a very fun film to watch, and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants good, solid entertainment that won't exactly expand your mind, but also doesn't insult your intelligence like most action films do. Just be prepared to suspend disbelief for the ending.
Rating: 
Summary: Better After The First Viewing
Review: Here's the plot:
A divorced woman (Jodie Foster) and her daughter (Kristen Stewart) move into a Manhattan townhouse. But wait, there's a "panic room", a room where you can be safe no matter what, a steel protected room with cameras and its own phone line. This all comes into play when three robbers (Forest Whitaker, Jared Leto, Dwight Yoakum) come to get a treasure from the house, that happens to be in the panic room, which the mother and daughter escape to when the robbers come. Seem interesting? Yeah, I loved the synopsis, but when I first watched the film, I found it mediocre, slow, and boring. Then I watched it again. I loved it. Sure, it follows the same template of most thrillers, but it held my attention and had my heart racing. Also, there was some solid, but predictable acting and script-writing. I loved this movie the second time around, it turned from slow to fast. I reccomend to anyone who wants a thrill ride, but can wait to watch it more then much. There weren't any extras on the DVD aside from a trailer. Movie: 5 stars (because I loved it the second time around)
Extras: N/A
Total: I'll give it a 5 to be nice
Rating:
Summary: Panic room panics
Review: Directed by David Fincher,(Seven,The Game,The Fight Club)
and starred by Jodie Foster (Silence of the Lambs...etc.)- this movie was good before I have even seen it and when I finally seen it this movie has become one of my favorite thrillers of all the time. A distressing divorce Meg is going through spurres her to move into a new house so that she and her diabetic daughter Sarah can have a new fresh start. The house they get is more than modern.In cases of emergency this house had a tiny but computerized room - a panic room in which there is everything one needs in times of emergencies. Soon after Meg and Sarah move in three thieves storm inside their house thinking that no one is living in it yet. Meg, fortunetaly woke up just in this very moment and as in every critical moment she makes fast decisions and at the time there was only one decision she could make. Put herself and Sarah into the Panic Room but from that moment they set their foot in the Panic room everything goes 'wrong'.Sarah is out of her medicines and the phone inside the Panic room is not connected at all.
Rating:
Summary: Edge of the seat good
Review: I don't know about anyone else, but this movie kept me on the edge of my seat. This movie did remind me of a Hitchkock genre type of film,it had all the drama and suspense of today's modern times.Wait until dark for the new millenium is how I would describe this movie, and I highly recommend this movie, if you are a fan of Jodie Foster, who never disappoints.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Panic..it's a decent movie...
Review: Well, David Fincher's new film is not a disappointment. Performances by Jodie Foster, Forest Whitaker, Jared Leto, Dwight Yokam and Kristen Stewart are admirable. The cinematography, editing and direction were top notch and worthy of a great thriller. The film's weakest point, though, is the script by David Koepp (Spiderman, Jurassic Park, Carlito's Way). One of my favorite modern screenwriters, Koepp just seems to 'pump' this one out. The dialogue is dry and cheesy at points and the plot is pretty plain with no 'real' twists and turns. But it's not a horrible script, it's just weak. In general, Panic Room is a fine film and a lot of fun. Check it out!
Rating: 
Summary: Predictable
Review: This was a good, but predictable movie. I was expecting a lot more twists and turns, not to mention much more suspense. The suspense did come, but in bits and pieces, and not at a fast enough pace to build any real or sustainable tension. Despite this, the movie was interesting enough and just a bit out of the ordinary to keep you watching.
Rating:
Summary: Beating Raoul
Review: "Straw Dogs" meets "Lady In A Cage" by way of Hitchcock in this visually impressive but ultimately empty-headed thriller. Single mom Jodie Foster, recently divorced from the CEO of a pharmaceutical company, drowns her blues by purchasing a multi-million dollar Manhattan townhouse. Lucky for Jody and her teenage daughter the new pad includes a high-tech "panic room", because they suffer a home invasion on the first night of occupancy (one word I would never apply to a David Fincher film would be "subtle".) The invasive trio are portrayed by the always excellent Forrest Whitaker (acting circles around most of the cast), Jared Leto (in his first "grownup" role) and lens-breaker Dwight Yoakum (I'm a straight male, but I still must say, this is NOT an attractive man-which may explain the mask) providing unintentional laughs as the cartoonish psycho "Raoul", who proves tougher to kill than Rasputin. Interestingly, the daughter's character is quite reminiscent of the tomboyish roles Ms. Foster used to tackle in her teens. Major suspension of disbelief is required to get through the ensuing cat-and-mouse game, and some of the mom's boneheaded decisions will make you yell at your televsion screen in frustration. Foster and Whitaker's performances make the film worth a look.
Rating:
Summary: Run Jodie Run!
Review: This DVD, encoded using Superbit technology, delivers exceptional video and sound. The movie is a nicely acted and directed masterpiece.
Jodie Foster and her daughter move into a posh lil place after she gets a divorce from a wealthy husband. There first night in there new home someone breaks in. The house had a 'safe room' and Jodie and her daughter hide in it to protect themselves. What the men want is in that room, though. What will happen to the thieves and to Jodie and her daughter? Watch this outstanding thriller and find out.
Rating:
Summary: Feels like a modern Hitchcock
Review: For the most part the entire movie is contained within a single house, via the multiple floors. Because of that, and its overall tone, it reminds me of Hitchcock's Rope.
While this doesn't make use of long takes with very few cuts like Rope did, it does use what seems to becoming Fincher's evolving trademark of interesting camera paths that aren't feasible in reality (through the handle of a coffee pot, between stair railing bannisters, etc).
I am a big fan of David Fincher's films, and this one - while not as great as Seven or Fight Club - still has a great overall tone to it.
It has the overall cold feeling that he attains via flourescent lights as he does in his other films - which seems to be increasingly popular these days.
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