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53 out of 77 people found the following review useful: nothing makes sense in this movie, 13 April 2002 Author: King D (ksayip@hotmail.com) from Canada
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** I like the idea of the panic room, but the room itself has to be much better than the one in the movie. And too many things in the movie that do not make sense: (POSSIBLE SPOILERS, so do not read on if you dont' want to be spoiled, but the movie is SO predictable anyway)1. You call 911 and get placed on hold after you tell them your address and it's an emergency? 2. Cell phones don't work in the room? If it was a room designed for the purpose as described in the beginning of the movie, shouldn't cell phones be usable in it? 3. Isn't it obvious to just kill all the surveilance cameras all over the house so people in the room won't know what you're doing? 4. Can't Jodie Foster tell the cops something or signal something since she was in the room before and should know they can't hear her from inside the room? 5. How can someone get smashed in the head like that not only not die, but still has the power to wrestle someone down and try to kill her? etc.etc. please write a better script next time Fincher.
40 out of 54 people found the following review useful: Utterly predictable and dumb... I cannot Believe Jodie is here!, 10 October 2006 Author: vocklabruck from United States
I really love Jodie. I heard that she had rejected Hannibal millions dollars job offer because its script was stupid. So what in the Earth made her accept working in this piece of garbage called Panic Room? Forest Whitaker is a great actor too. I cannot believe both of them appear here! I would give no stars to this movie, but these 2 great actors make me save their performance.Producers made a big mistake with the casting. Probably they spent all the money paying Jodie and Forest, so they put only garbage actors to complete the group. This is not unusual. The masked criminal does not look menacing without his mask at all. And the little girl is cute and a good actress but she seems a boy. In fact, when I watched the trailer I thought it was a boy! She not only seems a boy because of her haircut but because she has boys manners!***spoilers ahead***The storyline is stupid from the very first minute. Anyway the movie was good at first specially because the camera amazing movements and CGI. After the bad guys break into the house everything is very predictable, full of plot holes and it goes only to show the characters stupidity:1- Why do they get a house so big while they are only 2 small people? This house is for about 5 people! Without live-in help it is impossible to have that house clean!2- There are lots of noises when the guys first talk takes place, they even shout (in lower voice), Meg cannot sleep, she is wide awake but she does not hear ANYTHING.3- Why the guys do not leave the girls alone trapped inside the elevator if what they want is in the panic room?4- The 911 never put you on hold, and if so, I might think they are able to track your call and send an unit.5- The fire thing is no real. Gas does not remain in the ceiling and also the carafe outside should have exploited burning the 3 criminals and the explosion should be noisy enough to alert neighbors.6- It is incredible that both mom and daughter do not wonder what the criminals want from the room and try to negotiate.7- At first it is impossible to talk from outside to inside, but later it is! Sounds strange that the big guy who built the room does not know about the intercom and this new owner does.8- At the end, it is stupid that Burnham comes back to the house because he hears a shout, the police sirens were sounded nearby already. Also it is stupid that Burnham let the bank bonds go with the wind, because he could have raised his hands keeping the papers in his jacket.I will not continue with plot holes because it would be endless, but I have to say that I am tired of "Terminator skills" at the end of all thrillers. How can I guy survive while he has a hand damaged, he is hammered on the head and he fell one floor down? He still has a supernatural strength to fight 3 people! As I said all the movie is predictable from the start to the end. If you watch this movie with someone else I suggest a guessing game and probably you will guess everything! For example, what do you think a neighbor will do if someone in front is bothering him with flashing lights? I understand the Morse code idea, but face it... only a few among regular people get it.Another thing, the finale is tasteless... I felt saying "And where is the panic that appeared in the movie title?"
22 out of 33 people found the following review useful: Stupid B-Movie - should have starred Wings Hauser & Linda Blair, 1 April 2002 Author: billcody from seattle, wa
WARNING **** CONTAINS SPOILERSWhen will the critics quit being so polite to David Fincher. I hear he's a heck of guy, and really swell at parties but this was weak. And how did anyone give David Koepp $4 mil for this piece of garbage. I've seen this movie at least a million times and usually on TV for free!!! Don't studio execs watch movies these days.First of all, I want to know where the audiences were that were on the edge of their seats - because that theater needs bigger chairs. The audience I saw this stinker with didn't make a peep the whole time except for the occasional groan. Forget that the film was boring. Forget that the biggest drama in the whole movie wasn't about whether anyone was going to get in or out of the panic room - but rather whether a young girl is going to get her insulin shot - talk about a cheap plot twist - and the ridiculous sub B-movie twitching that she was order to do - (when someone is slipping into a coma they don't flop around like someone in a low rent sci-fi flick) - what the H was the deal with that ending!!!SPOILER ****Am I really supposed to believe that a skinny little dude like Dwight Yokum - almost has his hand severed in the door - loses about a pint of blood - then gets hit in the head with a sledgehammer at full force - falls down a flight of stairs and can still get up and kick Jodi Foster's ass - even though she hasn't been hurt in the entire film - (everyone else gets beat up but not her) - Jeez - that's straight out of Jim Bob Briggs-land. And as far as the twist that Forrest Whittaker comes back and saves the day - well it might have a little punch if it wasn't so telegraphed in the moments before he entered the room. I mean I've seen it before - but did Fincher really have to show him turning his head to hear the noise inside and then hesitate on the fence!!!!! Lame - lame - lame!!!People (and I include myself here) we are never going to get decent films if we keep accepting garbage like this and then defending it because we're told it comes with a pedigree. This is the same movie we've seen for years. Whether it's a thriller or a slasher film (and they are really becoming the same thing at this point) we keep getting B-grade drivel. And we as an audience keep accepting it. And until we say enough is enough this is what we will get!Boycott drivel now.
12 out of 15 people found the following review useful: Severely underrated, 2 February 2009 Author: timothygruich from Seattle, WA.
Way ahead of it's time. If you can come up with a story based in a single room and make it as engaging and exciting as this one... you deserve to be frozen and preserved for future teaching of inspiring film makers. This is a fantastic film and I'm glad Jodie Foster was available for the lead when Nicole Kidman got knocked up and bailed. I loved the off-character casting of Jared Leto and the unbelievable casting of Dwight Yoakam... DWIGHT YOAKAM. Everything worked. Another great, and yet again... underrated film by David Fincher. How long is it going to take for an established directed like Fincher to take a chance and roll the dice on trying to make a script like this work again? ...No one has the guts.
34 out of 59 people found the following review useful: Really stupid!, 4 March 2006 Author: E. Zucko (the_emil@sbcglobal.net) from United States
1. That says it all! 2. It is like home Alone 2 3. That make is worse than Home Alone 1 - the original 4. There was no sound on her security system so she could have told the police at the door what was going on. 5. She could have turned off the electricity so they couldn't drill the safe. 6. She should have kept the gun. 7. The kid could have loaded the syringes and OD's the bad guys. 8. Jodi always looks great! 9. They should have fired the writer. 10. Is this 10 lines yet??? Ugh! I can't believe this...I only have 6...OK I actually just saw the last maybe 45 minutes...but it was really bad. The evil guy looked much more sinister with his mask on...they should have kept it on...he looked like a wimp without it. Is this ten yet?
13 out of 18 people found the following review useful: With "Panic Room" Fincher Does It AGAIN!, 9 April 2002 Author: jivemonkey from United States
I was leery after seeing the first trailer for Panic Room, but as I saw it each time I noticed something I liked about it. First, the story looked okay, but then I realised Forrest Whitaker was in it (usually a great sign!) and then I saw Jared Leto and noticed Dwight Yokam's name in the credits, and I was ready to see it. Then I realized this was the new David Fincher film, and I was HOOKED! I loved Seven, Fight Club, and I even admired Alien3, simply because of Fincher. The movie is fantastic, full of twists, turns and jolts. The performance of Jared Leto was awesome. His character was funny and seemed to hold the action together. Jodie Foster is great, as usual, and Kristen Stewart was very good as the Sarah (although from the trailers, it was hard to tell if it was a boy or girl...)and Dwight and Forrest were great as well. This is the best suspense film in a while, and Fincher once again proves he is at the top of his profession! "Go see Panic Room!"
25 out of 42 people found the following review useful: Robber with a heart of gold?, 14 April 2002 Author: James Mordecai from Vancouver, British Columbia
At best, Panic Room is mediocre entertainment. A part from the slick direction. Panic has a bland plot, annoying characters, especially the girl, who I couldn't tell was a boy or a girl at first. Stupid situations, how she could get in and out of the room so easily.SpoilersUnrealistic characters, I mean there is no robber in the world who would have helped the daughter and then save both the mother and daughter in the end, losing the money. More lifeless entertainment from hollywood. Disappointing coming from David Fincher. Don't believe reviews, go what you want to see, don't trust other people's opinion just because there highly regarded. Rely on your own personal view when picking movies to watch.
14 out of 21 people found the following review useful: Scream, 5 July 2003 Author: Edu-16 from New Zealand
Scream at the utter stupidity of script writers who treat their audience as if they were as intelligent as an American Foreign policy advisor. Scream at the actors who seem prepared to be made to look so foolish time and time again. Scream at the screen because the damn film made such misleadingly promising overtures - and caused you to watch and hope for a while, wasting valuable sleeping time....Others have asked the question and Ill ask it again in the hope that some in Holywood take note of ranters like me - does anyone at these studios ever sit down and think thru their plot lines to check for 'holes'? After spending so much energy on costumes, sets, stunt work, marketting etc. - why is that the well always runs dry when it comes to penning a cogent script?Why ?SPOILERS (other than the film itself that is) Halfway thru this film, I felt like throwing the remote thru the screen. The whole premise of the film was to generate a believable tension based around a mother and child trapped in a vault-room - unable to get out or communicate to the outside world their predicament. The couple demonstrate extreme cleverness at certain points - however, when presented with the certain knowledge that all villains were downstairs arguing - and possessed also of a mobile phone - why did the mother not 'pop outside' for a minute and make the call to the police? Hmmm? At this point the whole edifice of tensions crashed down in a steaming heap. I can just about believe the crims were stupid enough not to stand guard - even though they knew the mother had the mobile....although on second thoughts - that might be an even more garish mistake... Foster - who I understand to be a rather smart cookie - should have said something. Maybe the order in which scenes were shot didnt make this stand out - but who comes along at the end and checks this sort of thing?Plot holes are ruining films.If claustrophobia and tension is your bag baby go see the much undervalued 'LEON' instead.
22 out of 37 people found the following review useful: GROSSLY disappointing, 26 August 2005 Author: laseleniata from United States
The majority of the movie was not genius or even well thought out...but there was an element of suspense in most of the scenes that I actually did enjoy(although I wonder if it's genuine suspense, or if you feel that way because the actors are doing all but *saying* that's how you should be feeling...) I would have rated the film higher if the ending wasn't such a LETDOWN!!! They waste all this time making Forrest Whitaker into a good-bad guy, with no cherry on top! Does he die? Does he get arrested? Does Jodi save him? All we're left with is Jodi's "I just smelled a fart" look, then BAM! On to finding another flat! No payoff! Sure, some films like to leave the ending open to interpretation...but I don't think this qualifies as a successful attempt at that. Characters are supposed to grow and change by the film's end...in this film we're left at the exact same place we started...with Jodi and her kin seeking a home. Blah, why bother with the rest of the film if their greatest driving force in life is finding a Brownstone? The more I think about it, the more I dislike this movie. I want my two hours back.
8 out of 10 people found the following review useful: Panic Room: High-octane excitement with many clever surprises, 1 November 2002 Author: back2wsoc from Chicago, Illinois
In her first suspense-thriller since her Academy-Award winning turn in "The Silence of the Lambs", Jodie Foster registers quite well as middle-aged New Yorker Meg Altman, who moves into an EXTREMELY spacious brownstone with her daughter Sarah (Kristen Stewart), a diabetic tomboy. The building is equipped with a special shelter designed in the event of a break-in, known as a 'panic room'. Meg and Sarah waste no time in putting the claustrophobic area to use (on their first night, no less) when a trio of burglars (Forest Whitaker, Jared Leto and Dwight Yoakam) make their way into her building to retrieve a large sum of money. The catch is that the burglars' stash is in the very room in which Meg and her daughter are hiding! While 'Panic Room' is not exactly white-knuckle suspense, it definitely has its moments, especially the heart-pounding moment when Meg leaves the panic room to grab her cell phone, and the the tension-building scene when Whitaker and Yoakam enter the panic room when Foster leaves. The only main plot hole is clear in the very beginning: Why would a recently separated woman with one child want to purchase a four-story brownstone? What does she need all of that space for? Besides that, 'Panic Room' is an intelligently written and directed thriller from director David Fincher (Fight Club). The only characters that don't make sense are Meg's friend in the opening scenes and her husband (Ann Magnuson and Patrick Bauchau). They both seem hopelessly unnecessary; otherwise, 'Panic Room' is a first-rate thriller with similarities to several shockers of the early 1990s, 'Unlawful Entry' (1992) being one in particular. Whitaker has to be one of the nicest thieves in recent film history!
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