Panic Room (Three Disc Special Edition)
by David Fincher
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Dwight Yoakam, Forest Whitaker, Jared Leto, Jodie Foster, Kristen StewartDirector: David Fincher
Brand: Sony
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 2.35:1
Running Time: 112 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-03-30
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Movie Reviews of Panic Room (Three Disc Special Edition)
Movie Review: Flimsy premise a good movie finally make
Summary: 5 Stars
It's actually kind of remarkable that David Fincher has never made an outright terrible movie. Yeah he did do Alien 3 but in all fairness: with a nagging studio, production problems and an incomplete script, it's surprising there's something at least watchable with Alien 3, particularly its "Assembly Cut". But for every great film from Seven to Fight Club to Zodiac, we have the pretty good films such as the Game and this one. They're not as highly regarded but they're still fun entertainment and worth a watch, even if there's nothing to be gained from watching except for a good time.
Meg and her daughter Sarah have just moved into a new house in New York. It's pretty big (maybe a bit TOO big) and it has a unique feature: a panic room, which has steel plating for walls, video surveillance system and a phone line not connected to the house's main line. It's the perfect place for a family to be safe when people try to break in. Of course that's what happens on the first night as 3 thieves: Junior, Raoul and Bernham show up and rather than wanting Meg's things, they want what's inside the panic room. The film then becomes a game of cat and mouse as Meg has to somehow outwit 3 robbers who want in.
It's often been said that a script in the hands of a talented director can be a great film regardless of the thinner qualities of the script. No more is this evident in Panic Room which had anyone else directed (or at least, anyone who's a hack) it would've been awful. Sure there's not a lot to the script and you can tell screenwriter David Koepp threw as much as he could to give characters to do but damn if it doesn't work. To keep things interesting, Fincher uses a lot of computer assisted camera moves to keep things flowing with one of the best being a long take as the robbers initially start to inspect the house. Some work while others, such as going inside a lightbulb filament seem kind of unnecessary like it was a means to be playful.
Acting-wise we have Jodie Foster who plays a great Meg; someone who's not an action superstar but is more than capable when she has to be. Kristin Stewart, who in my opinion, was the only thing that made the Messengers watchable plays the daughter Sarah and she's also quite good here. The 3 robbers played by Jared Leto, Forest Whitaker and Dwight Yoakam are quite a fun team to watch but have enough menace for Meg to fight with, particularly Yoakam who's quite the crazy bugger and probably also has one of the better entrances when you finally see his face since he had a ski mask a good chunk of the movie.
One might find it odd that a film like Panic Room, which is essentially a superbly made B-movie, has tons of special features, even moreso than Seven or Panic Room's. We have director's commentary, star commentary with Foster, Yoakam and Whitaker who are also directors and a screenwriter's commentary. Then we get behind the scenes looks at the making of the film to featurettes on pre-visualization to the special effects shots one by one. Some discs are packed with stuff but seem kind of light and you could get through them in one afternoon; here it's kind of daunting.
This isn't Seven or Panic Room but then again this ain't no Alien 3. It's entertainment for the sake of entertainment and considering how well it works (for some anyway), that's more than enough for a watch.
Summary of Panic Room (Three Disc Special Edition)
A recently divorced woman and her daughter are threatened by thieves who want valuables hidden in their panic room.Genre: Horror
Rating: R
Release Date: 5-JUN-2007
Media Type: DVD
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 while a relocated New York divorcée (Jodie Foster) and her 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 customized, 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) riffing on her Silence of the Lambs resourcefulness. It's not as viscerally satisfying as Fincher's previous thrillers, but Panic Room definitely holds your attention. --Jeff Shannon
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