Panic Room

Another frustrating film that totally gives up on story, so it can concentrate on sterile camera movement, obvious premeditated lighting, character development of people we don't care about in the first place, & the failed attempt to imitate Kubrick by inserting long pauses in random places. Hollywood films have to end the moment the epic music & action ceases for some reason. I would like to know what happens to the character who sacrifices his escape to save the victims. What happened to all the money? Is the farther OK? How did the police get there before Batman even though the gun had a silencer attached, & it was fired during a storm? So how could they have heard it! It's so frustrating to sit through a film that paces itself near to meander, & rushes the ending. Not a film that leaves you feeling fulfilled.

Love this movie very much despite any confusions or absurdity! It's very well shot like a great cohesive platter in my opinion, the editing is spot on too. The 3 villains are great too especially Dwight Yoakum/Raoul with his menacing presence, Forrest Whittaker/Burnham was a delight as the subtle nurturing villain & Jared Leto/Junior as the moronic one. Solid good entertainment for a couple hours although I agree about the conclusion kinda mediocre. David Fincher's films are always satisfying for me with Fight club being my favorite movie!

The only panic I experienced was when I thought I had paid to watch this movie. Although well put together, the plot leaves nothing to the imagination. Throughout the beginning of the film the view is left thinking "I wonder when that bit of information will be used later in the film". The villains are predictable and, given their goal, painfully stupid. In the name of suspense (I assume), the villains bumble around providing windows of opportunity, while the heroes dash around risking their lives with obvious consequences. There are so many points which are simply too far fetched to be believable, for example: The timing & manner of the police arrival - If they took that long answering my distress call I would demand my taxes back!

PANIC ROOM (2002) *** Jodie Foster, Forest Whitaker, Jared Leto, Dwight Yoakam, Kristen Stewart, Patrick Bauchau, Ann Magnuson, Ian Buchanan. Foster excels in this thriller straight out of `Wait Until Dark' with Foster as a recently divorced mother in NYC who buys a pricy townhouse with the aforementioned titular safe house that comes quite indeed handy when a trio of thugs break in on her first (dark and stormy) night. What follows are some standard plot devices and fill-in-the-blank setups with David Koepp's stillborn script yet a well-played by the cast with a few twists and turns laid down by filmmaker extraordinaire David Fincher and skillful camerawork by his co-horts Conrad W. Hall and Darius Khondji. Composer Howard Shore summons the late, great Bernard Herrmann with his atmospherically apropro score and stop-on-the-dime editing by James Haygood and Angus Hall keep the pace lively. ** Kudos to music/sound engineer Greg La Porta's (sadly uncredited) ingenuity as well!