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Panic Room [2002]


RRP: £19.99
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Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review

An effective exercise in "confined cinema", Panic Room is a finely crafted thriller that ultimately transcends the thinness of its premise. David Koepp's screenplay is basically Wait Until Dark on steroids, so director David Fincher (Seven, The Game) compensates with elaborate CGI-assisted camera moves, jazzing up his visuals.

A relocated New York divorcée (Jodie Foster) and her diabetic daughter (Kristen Stewart) fight for their lives against a trio of tenacious burglars (Jared Leto, Forest Whitaker, Dwight Yoakam) in their new Manhattan townhouse. They're safe in a customised, impenetrable "panic room", but the burglars want what's in the room's safe, so mother and daughter (and Koepp and Fincher) must find clever ways to turn the tables and persevere. Suspense and intelligence are admirably maintained, with Foster (who replaced the then-injured Nicole Kidman) relying on her Silence of the Lambs resourcefulness. It's not as viscerally satisfying as Fincher's previous thrillers, but Panic Room definitely holds the viewer's attention. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com


great setting and scenario, but executed poorly
Review date: 2008-06-01 Rating: 6 out of 10

Jodie Foster (Silence of the lambs) stars in David Fincher's claustrophobic thriller as Meg, a mother who, along with her daughter Sarah, get trapped inside a panic room whilst robbers invade their house.

I'm a big fan of the claustrophobic thriller genre, having scene great films like Air force one and Die Hard, which are both set in just the one main place are excellent viewing and very gripping. This 2002 picture is fairly exciting, but doesn't match the excitement of those other thrillers.

Taking a while to get going, Panic room centres around, well a panic room in Meg's new house. The setting is very cold, with horrible grey walls and little supplies to get a feel of claustrophobia. Though the setting is there, by the end of the film I felt it could have been executed so much better, as could have the performances.

By far the worst performances I have seen Foster and Whitaker (Last King of Scotland) give in their careers, though in fairness, it does come down to a poorly scripted plot.

The dialogue between all the characters is so poor I wanted to rewrite it for myself. Given the intense situations encoded, there could have been much sharper and intense speaking involved giving a feel of the emotional and stressful situations that the characters found themselves in.

Fincher's direction is very bizarre, with one shot trailing from floor to floor I was wondering what mood he was trying to achieve by using that particular shot. Though it improved, his other films including fight club were so much better.

Despite its faults, I still couldn't tear myself away with the situations and settings the best bits of the film
The situations are excellent as is the setting but had there been a better written plot and more intense dialogue, it would have been up there with the best thrillers, but unfortunately it isn't and only makes it into the mediocre category

7/10


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Reviews


Impressive movie, warning about packaging
Review date: 2008-02-29 Rating: 6 out of 10

I've heard rave reviews of this movie from here and others so decided to buy it, and it definately is an impressive move.

Word of warning, the packaging looks nothing like the pictures amazon uses, it's just the 3 disks in a plastic case like any other dvd, so don't buy it assuming you'll get the fold out version because you'll be dissapointed. not returning as it's opened now.

HOME ALONE WITH GUNS
Review date: 2007-09-27 Rating: 6 out of 10

The idea was there but the story was PANTS.

Americans have a panic room (i wish i had room for another bedroom) which is a windowless, steel doored room which you hide in when burglars get into your house. We have one at home, called a shed !!

Jodie gets broken into and guess where she goes? Yep, into the old Panic room with her daughter. The brainless gang of intruders seek to ferret her out by pulling the light switch off and yelling at her.

Watch it but don't cancel any other plans.

A pale imitation of Hitchcock
Review date: 2007-09-26 Rating: 4 out of 10

There are some movies that when you watch them they feel like they were just thrown together for a thrill ride. Jurassic Park III is a perfect example of this. It's like the screenwriters said, "Hey, lets throw all these characters on an island filled with dinosaurs for about an hour and a half and watch them struggle to survive, and then lets get them out so we can do another sequel." Good character development is thrown out the window because they just want plot.

Panic Room is much the same way. The story is very simple. A mother and daughter buy a new house because Daddy decided to get a new woman. The realtor shows them the house, familirizing the viewer with the layout, gives a brief history of the panic room, which is designed to protect the house's residents in case of a burglary by encasing them in an impenetrable room. The house is on the market because a rich man had just died.

The mother and daughter buy it, and the first night there three burglars enter the house to get money in the panic room. The women get into the room. The rest of the film is much like a chess game, with the rules clearly established. Who wins depends on who has the best strategy.

Panic Room shares the same flaw of Jurassic Park III. While Panic Room does much better than Jurassic Park III, it still feels just like an excuse to see these characters thrown into a thriller where they have to survive. The characters are not established as real people you really want to get to know but just a vehicle for the plot.

Overall, Panic Room lacks those qualities that made Hitchcock's films so memorable. In Hitchcock, his characters never feel like just an tool to move a plot. The plots themselves are ingeniously drawn, and the endings both shock and tantalize the viewer by tying up the plot into a neat package. Best of all, his characters are both convincing and legitimate.


The best asset of Panic Room is Forest Whitaker, the most sympathetically drawn character in the entire movie. He is the only one that feels like a real person instead of just one more plot device. Had they done the other characters like his character, they would have both the suspense and the right character development to make a truly effective thriller.

As it stands, Panic Room is a film that once you see it, there's nothing to go back too. You can always go back to a Hitchcock film.

April 18, 2002


Weak Story but Well Directed
Review date: 2007-07-12 Rating: 8 out of 10

David Fincher has never disappointed me - every movie right from "Alien 3" and "The Game" to the more newer "Seven" and "Fight Club" have been excellently directed. I love this guy's vision and sense of direction. Photography is phenomenal. The flipside is that the story is not too much.... but this is where the director's talent comes through. I strongly recommend people to watch this movie.Jodie is fascinating as always.

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Jodie Foster|Forest Whitaker|Jared Leto|Kristen Stewart

Creators:
Jodie Foster|Forest Whitaker|Jared Leto|Kristen Stewart (Primary Contributor)

Director(s):

Recording label: 4 Front Video
Manufacturer: 4 Front Video
EAN: 5050582340419
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL, Widescreen,
Release date: 2002-10-28
Number of discs: 1
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Audience rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 75 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2002-03-29
Language: English (Subtitles For The Hearing Impaired)
Language: Dutch (Subtitled)
Language: English (Subtitled)
Language: Hindi (Subtitled)
Language: English (Original Language)

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