Customer Reviews

Panic Room

5 star:		(108)
4 star:		(50)
3 star:		(44)
2 star:		(30)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

Drama at it's finest. You'll be close to a heart attack by the end of the movie. A very smart drama. It's very well written. A somewhat original idea for a movie.

*PANIC ROOM (superbit-single disc)*
I thought Panic Room was going to be boring and not worth the time. On the contrary, it was quite entertaining. I couldn't imagine how they would fill an hour and a half of being stuck in a panic room shelter hiding from the bad guys. Turns out the movie is about 20 minutes longer than that. There are a few twists and turns that keep it very interesting. The hook is a clever story line of a criminal and his struggle to do right when he's doing wrong. Also, the strength of a parent when their childs life is in danger. It leaves you with a good feeling and I can appreciate that.
I absolutely loved the camera work. Some of the neatest camera pans you'll ever see in a movie are in Panic Room. A little too much cursing but, it's almost expected with thud criminals to speak at that level, it's understandable but there's a lot of it.
Very well done. Better than I expected.

A divorced woman (Jodie Foster) and her daughter (Kristen Stewart) lock themselves into the steel-reinforced "panic room" of their spacious New York brownstone to escape a trio of home invaders (Forest Whitaker, Jared Leto, and Dwight Yoakum). This sets the stage for a stalemate that neither side can afford. The object of the intruders' search is hidden within the panic room itself, and daughter has a medical condition which makes escape imperative. This film is a fine cat-and-mouse thriller that doesn't cheat or insult the intelligence of the viewer. Recommended.

...I wanted something a little more provocative seeing that Director Finscher just came off the triumph of Fight Club to do this. This is a stylish, moody movie in its own right. And the way the two ladies holed up in the panic room hold off the bad guys will keep you entertained for the duration of the movie. Whittaker comes off ultimately as a benevolent bad guy. Jodie is believable as a single mom trying to protect her offspring ala Little Man Tate. But alas, good acting and a hot director could not save this thriller from the throes of predictability. Movies like this one will occupy your time and attention and you will enjoy it, but don't ask for more than that...

I agree it doesn't hold up with Seven and Fight Club but it's way better then The Game and Aliens 3, not that I dont like them movies but this one is good old time. Foster gives another fine tuned performance, Kristen Stewart as her daughter is also excellent. The 3 robbers, Forest Whitaker, Jared Leto and Dwight Yoakam are all sinister and evil in their own little ways though Yoakam is more violent and crazy. Leto holds up his end until he is shot in the eye by Yoakam and Whitaker does great work as well. Predictible yet fun it starts right off and then ends in a violent finale. I guess people have bad tastes. Dialouge isnt that bad, people.

Panic Room is one of those films that start off with great promise because of its title ( like 1992's The Hand that Rocks the Cradle ). Also, like The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, Panic Room's promise disappears within minutes and the film turns into a mindless mess. Jodie Foster who's known for masculine, tougher, butch-like roles plays a single mother who's normal boring world goes from ordinary to thrilling in one night. I thought this would be different but once again Hollywood pees on its own leg. We get a bratty, foul-mouthed child ( whose mother allows her to curse right in front of her ), a disillusioned mother and a couple of criminals in the dullest looking house to ever be in a film. The setting is dark and gloomy making the film as boring as watching a corpse rot. Don't be fooled. The title is wonderful but nothing hooks you in. This is nothing different from a million other films where a woman was trapped in a house with criminals. It's been done for centuries and this is the worst version of anything similar.

The supporting actors Jared Leto and Forrest Whitaker out-acted Foster easily though I felt Forrest was wasted. Bottom line, this movie isn't even interesting enough to review. I just felt I should save someone the time and trouble of seeing this crap. It's one of the most boring, draggy films you'll ever experience. It's like being in a time capsule for fifty years. NOTHING seems to ever move and by the time it does...you'll be asleep or have stopped watching. Why BUY this when it's on Cinemax every day and night? Save your money and watch it on cable. Being drunk or terribly bored may enable you to sit through this, which I consider one of the most horrible films of 2001, 2002 or whatever.

The biggest question isn't if Foster and the girl will get out alive. It's why the heck this dumb film was made in the first place.

Using many of the same techniques he found so successful in his earlier films, David Fincher try's to weave another exciting thriller. But this time whats missing is a truly great story and script. We have seen this basic story before," Home Alone", to "Die Hard". Two very different films, but both with the same premise. Our protagonist is trapped in a building with loved ones at stake by a group of theives.
In Die Hard all the bases are covered in a fairly believable context. With Home Alone we are talking about a comedy, and kid so we have alot of room to play with what could be believable. But here we have a very intelligent adult in Jody Foster a reasonably intelligent teenage girl, and three bad guys. Two of whom aint the brightest bulbs in the box, and one who's got brains, and a decent heart. We know almost from the get go that(as the decent bad guy says) "Everythings going to be alright."
Kinda kills the suspense.
The acting is good from Forest Whitiker, Jared Leto, and Dwight Yoakem. The teenage daughter of Fosters character played by Kristen Stewart is dead on. And as always Jody Foster is terrific.(Baring very ample and distracting cleavage this goround)
The camara moves we've come to expect from Fincher are all here on constant display, and the CGI inhancing is flawless.
The story and script are the problem. In a thriller our protaganist must do the same things we would reasonably do in order to extricate themselves from the situation. That is until the antagonists leave them no option except the extreme. Never happens here.
This DVD is excellent in quality, and quantity. Three discs woth of "how we did it" info. You will see that this was a big, expensive project. Just a shame they didnt spend more money on the script.

Panic Room by David Fincher, I have seen it a couple of times, it's basically another movie involving a heist that goes awry with Foster (Meg Altman) and her daughter Sarah Altman (Kristin Stewart) thwarting the effort of three would thieves into her house.

Of course Fincher doesn't make this a typical heist movie. He adds a bit of paranoid messages into the film making it pretty interesting till the end. For instance, the heist
in question involving the three thieves Burnham (Forest Whitaker), Raul (Dwight Yoakam), and Junior (Jared Leno) breaking into an unbreakable house which has a ''panic room'' (an unbreakable room for emergency). The ''panic room'' is like the 1990's version of the 1950 version of a panic room which paranoid people in that time used because of the so called threat of nuclear war. lol

The dilemna here is that Meg and her daughter are at the house at the same time the thieves are coming in. So Meg and Sarah hide in the ''panic room'' which yes hides the fortune the thieves are after. So while the thieves are trying to break into the panic room, the Altman's are trying to break out of the room (because the room is cutting of oxygen) and to contact the police for help.

Fincher does managed to established a great clautrosphobic ( I think I spelled it right) atmosphere enabling to gasp for our breathes while Meg and Sarah try to conserve their last ones. The lighting of the movie also a certain atmosphere as well, as most of the shots in the movie look dark and gloomy giving us more chills and spills.

The acting is great Jodie Foster does another fine performance in her career, which
I have admired for a long time. Here she pulls of the single mother fighting for
the life of her daughter routine very well. She likes all her other roles, does
gives that tough edge that makes her characters so real.

Kristen Stewart is good too although she doesn't get too many lines.
Forest Whitaker as Burnham and Jared Leno as Junior are the lead thieves who gives some laughs in between especially when these collide with another as to their next plan of attack on Meg.

Burnham is a good character. Whats starts out as a typical thief, turns into a sympathetic character of a thief who perhaps is sick of the life of crime he has led, while Junior represents the most typical violent thief even, someone who continually robs and kills people with no conscience. He is another words like these guys on ''America's Most Wanted'' who gets profiled like a million times, almost taking pride in the fact that he loves being a menace to society

''Panic Room'' by David Fincher is then obviously more than just a heist movie, Fincher puts in some critical factors that prevent from being just a standard crime movie. The characters are different than you would get in a typical movie of this genre. The acting is good, the suspense is good and overall the movie is good.

Panic Room is a decent, if at times predictible thriller from director David (Seven, Fight Club) Fincher. Meg Altman (Jodie Foster) and her daughter Sarah, (Kristen Stewart) are looking for the perfect New York City Brownstone to call home. Eventually, they decide take a place recently owned by a prominent New Yorker, it comes complete with what's known as a "panic room". As Meg, and Sarah settle in, three invaders break into their home. In order to protect themselves, the mother and daughter retreat to the highly fortified panic room. However, the very room that acts as a safe place, is the same room that the intruders want to break into. Burnham (Forest Whitaker), Raoul (Dwight Yoakam), and Junior (Jared Leto) are sure the room holds what it is their looking for.

Fincher, a unique filmmaker, manages to make this limited setpiece film interesting to watch. He allows for unique perspectives and angles on every day items This tactic is very well employed and never overused. The acting from Foster and Stewart holds the film together, and even though the script is sometimes predictible, I was still drawn into the Altnan's situation. As for the 3 intruders, I thought the "banter" and humor was a bit overdone, between the trio for this film.

I remember being very disappointed over the fact that the Superbit DVD of the film lacked any real extras. The studio must have known that the film deserved better treatment. Like the special editions of other films directed by David Fincher, Alien 3, Seven and Fight Club, Panic Room follows suit--and maybe even then some.

Disc One features three audio commentary tracks. The first has director Fincher going solo. Fortunately, he so well spoken and honest, he doesn't need to have any speaking partner this time out. Although, I half expected Brad Pitt to join him, since they make quite a team on Seven and Fiight Club. The second track has Foster, Whitaker, and Yoakam talking about the movie from the actor's perspective. It sounded like the trio was recorded separately. The track is enjoyable per se`with comments from Foster being the most interesting. The last commentary boasts writer David Koepp and special guest William Goldman (he wrote the film adaptation of Misery and other really good stuff for tinstletown over a long career). The duo have great rapport for a very solid track.

Spread over discs two and three are well produced making of featurettes and documentaries, covering all aspects of what it took to make this film. Among the highlights is the hour long documentary on the principal photography phase; a makeup effects featurette, talking sound design with Ren Klyce. There are no less than 21 featurettes on the special effects alone...whew! A multi-angle look at the scoring session of the music conducted by Howard Shore is also well done. And there's more including a few well placed hidden extras. Heck, even the set's menu system, is clever and entertaining.

For fans of the film and anyone who wants to "attend film school" without setting foot in a classroom--the 3 disc DVD set of Panic Room is a must for any collection. The extras make this a better release

I didn't find this movie scarry at all. I expected real panic here but it didn't really do anything for me at all. I got all hyped up to watch it and really be scarred but it got more boring each minute I watched it. OOOOHHH bad guys break into the house I am really frightened there. I won't spoil it for those who haven't seen it yet but I found it very lacking on the frightening side.