‘Breaking In’ Review: A Mother of an Home Invasion Thriller

The bad guys in?Breaking In?(henceforth named?Reverse Panic Room) have the Wet Bandits from?Home Alone?look like?Ocean’s 11. They acquire a vague tip of a safe filled with millions in cash that's hidden within a house within the woods of Wisconsin. Chances are they’ll eliminate guy the owner of the safe and get into?the home, apparently never once making the man’s family may swing by to position his affairs if you wish. They certainly, so the crooks basically spend 1 hour 30 minutes getting outsmarted and beaten at each turn.

This is unquestionably intended as a part of?Reverse Panic Room‘s appeal. Moms deserve their capability fantasies up to someone else, and this also one envisions a predicament certainly where an mother of two without having apparent military or police training can fight four armed psychopaths?without difficulty. Gabrielle Union plays mother, plus its pretty fun watching her go Rambo through MacGyver on these numbskulls?- at least for a long time.

Almost the full film is focused inside while using safe?-?except it’s not a ordinary house. It’s basically a handsomely furnished fortress with automated locks, extensive security cameras, and motion detectors. From sometimes a bank of computers inside basement or possibly a touchscreen remote you can monitor every inch on the town for intruders.?No one could possibly penetrate a home this secure!?Naturally,?the four boobs on the lookout for the safe?get in?completely undetected while Union’s Shaun is going inside driveway?sipping a vino or two.

That unlikely combination of events generates a tense standoff: The crooks have Shawn’s kids, Jasmine (Ajiona Alexus) and Glover (Seth Carr), and they’re barricaded inside. The cell phone line’s been cut, meaning the thieves have just 90 minutes to snap in the safe to make their getaway prior to security company occurs to test things. Shaun is outside devoid of phone and, within the obvious nod to?Die Hard, no shoes.?How Shaun enter and save her family?

Very easily actually! By far the most disappointing an important part of?Reverse Panic Room?is how little it exploits its high-concept premise after working a great deal of time establishing all of the how to go about this fortified lake house. Before long, Shaun has returned inside with very little fanfare or explanation. This?Reverse Panic Room contains a lot of reverse Chekhov’s guns too; chess pieces it puts on the board and do not moves. There is a reverse Chekhov’s home alarm system, a reverse Chekhov’s drone, a reverse Chekhov’s stairwell?covered in gasoline. There’s more or less everything setup so little payoff.

Granted, the sight of Gabrielle Union beating the crap from these nerds is fun. Union will make a solid action hero; determined but is not invulnerable. And Billy Burke, since the leader from the goons, projects the right vibe of?no-nonsense?menace. These players could be the stars with the mother of all home invasions.

Instead, they’re dissatisfied by?Ryan Engle’s unimaginative script and the pedestrian direction by James McTeigue. (This might be?Reverse Panic Room,?but McTeigue isn’t any David Fincher.) He thought we would shoot the film in widescreen, plus the 2.35:1 aspect ratio does the claustrophobic atmosphere no favors. Regardless how bad it gets, Shaun never really feels trapped or helpless.

Again, maybe that is what they had been looking for.?Reverse Panic Room seems less aimed at building suspense versus watching Gabrielle Union kick an improbable degree of butt. Burke’s Eddie keeps derisively telling Shaun she’s?an “impressive woman”; that?her survival skills aren’t bad for ladies. Then, certainly, she turns the tables on him.?There’s a fair bit of delight in this particular. There might happen to be more, though, if she had some worthy adversaries, and also a worthier script.