VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, [2], 3 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 02:01:36 10/28/02 Mon
Author: Eric
Subject: Panic Room DVD review

just for kicks, i like coming up with reviews for movies that i've seen. most of the stuff i'll write reviews on is contemporary, and i would enjoy any compliments, criticisms, or disagreements. i have an interest in making some type of movie making my occupation, i hope to be a cinematographer (possibly) any info on that would also be appreciated.

Panic Room a movie review by Eric H of Ventura, CA
The only element that kills Panic Room before it starts becoming engrossing is its setup and genre. It is a thriller that begins with pent-up victims that are trapped in their own home. However, their home happens to be equipped with a state-of-the-art, concrete enforced room, conveniently wired to monitor the house, known as the “panic room.” This abnormal attachment to any house could easily spark the imagination of any script writer and could be without much effort be transformed into some gripping thriller composed of well-known actors which would hopefully equal a box office success.
And so…the production of Panic Room began.
Jodie Foster plays the divorced mother, Meg Altman, who moves in with her daughter. Altman affords the house off the salary of her rich, ran-off-for-a-younger-woman husband. Her new house is a gargantuous four-story behemoth, which appears to be more than substantial for its two residents. Settling down for the family proved to be at first relaxing and tranquil, until the intruders arrived on the first night. Composed of a rag-tag group of three robbers consisting of: the ecstatic and rash leader Junior (Jared Leto), the kind-hearted, and in desperate need of cash Burnham (Forest Whitaker), and the unexpected and violent Raoul (Dwight Yoakum). Altman notices their presence and locks her daughter and herself in the panic room…and the game begins.
What follows is a constantly reversing round of cat-and-mouse. The robbers seek a buried treasure which lies inside the very room the Altmans have sealed themselves into. In one attempt to try to flush them out, the robbers force gas into the panic room through a ventilation screen. Countering their efforts, Meg uses a lighter to send a burst of blue flame back to the thieves. A while later, Meg attempts to gain access to the outside world by momentarily escaping the panic room and racing back while barely recovering her cellphone in the process. The cellphone doesn’t function inside the room, but by connecting a certain phone jack inside the ventilation system to a phone already in the room yields a working phone. Burnham quickly counters this by using a sledgehammer on the main power lines of the house, breaking off Meg’s call for help, but allowing her enough time to contact and partially speak to her nearby ex-husband. The rest of the movie consists solely of these sequences and sadly there is no world altering twist in the end.
While the destination was sub-par and predictable, the ride proved worth the price of admission.
Acted with realistic fear and nervousness, Jodie Foster shines in the spotlight. With relatively little dialogue, her lack of lines are replaced with the emotion in her eyes and the current look on her face. Whitaker plays the cliched good-person-doing-a-bad-deed with quiet energy and sincerity. Foster’s daughter in the movie also pulls a credible performance despite her young age. Leto’s and Yoakum’s characters are sadly not as powerful. Both performances suffer from mediocrity and overacting. If they had not been overshadowed by Foster and Whitaker, they would be most likely deserve kinder criticism.
Two settings consume most of the screen time. One is the sleek panic room and the other being the large, spacious house. The cinematographers crafted a sharp, detailed panic room dominated by the latest in security technology. The video screens give off a foreboding green hue as the Altmans watch with captivity the movements of the intruders. A creepy, claustrophobic atmosphere overpowers this room and the audience, which contributes to an overall (quite literally) chilling tone. Outside this environment lies the complete opposite, a huge and relatively empty house. After the intrusion, the house maintains a biting and dangerous atmosphere very similar to the thunderous downpour outside. These distinct settings combined with the acting set this thriller above its contrived plot and serve to enhance the cat-and-mouse sequences that take place.
Musically, Panic Room is equipped with the standard orchestra that fades and intensifies at all the right, expected moments. Typical, but functional perfectly describes the score, with nothing memorable that truly stands out.
One scene in the Panic Room sums up the entire experience. In the scene, the daughter finds a flashlight in the panic room and creatively finds an outlet to broadcast SOS in Morse code to the neighbors. At this point, the movie has been running for about 45 minutes and it is blatantly obvious that this scheme will not free the family, or else the movie would end and be finished too early. As predetermined, the neighbor shuts his blinds, allowing the movie to continue. Though the sequence is riveting and well filmed and acted, it proves to be far too predictable

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]
Forum timezone: GMT+0
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.