Breaking In

This is nothing new. Been done 100 times. Not bad...but just...nothing i haven't seen before. Cheesy yet watchable. But...

I do like whenever we get a home invasion/survival type film so I was kind of looking forward to Breaking In. The trailer didn't really look that great but I was hoping for an enjoyable time. Add the fact that this film was directed by the same guy who made V For Vendetta and you would expect something good. Unfortunately, this film is actually quite bad on a few levels. There was certainly a better way to go about this film and although the film's premise is simple the writer and director involved missed the opportunity with their execution.

The film is about a mother and her two children who drive up to her recently deceased father's house. His house is in a fairly remote area and once there they realize that they are in the way of four criminals who want to rob the fortune in the house. The mother's kids are locked in with the men, while she is outside and must find her way in to save her children from danger. The men definitely underestimate her ability to go the distance to save her family.

Gabrielle Union is an often reliable actress who gives a solid performance in this film. She has no real fault in this and is believable as a mother who has to save her kids. Everything else is bad. We don't really know anything about the strained relationship between Union's character and her father. What went on with them? What was his connection the the robbers? Nothing is explained well and things are left badly vague. The film is short (88 minutes) yet some scenes move at a complete snails pace. We see characters just walk around and look at things for minutes on end.

The film could have even used thrilling moments but doesn't utilize that either. The villains are cookie cutter and despite the premise of the film there seems to be nothing at stake. Its a really disappointing effort all around. I wasn't expecting a masterpiece but the stale and underwritten plot really dampens a film that should have been much better. This film is a bummer that wasn't really worth the time. I do want to see Union at the center of better projects though.

5/10

I have no idea who wrote this script but they need to take a few classes. Dialing 911 will not show up in your call log. For the reason shown in the film. Why did her husband show up at the exact wrong time and not call the police when he saw blood?

Even though this movie was predictable, because there are a million movies with the story line of a desperate mother willing to go great lengths for her children, I really liked it. It had a lot of action throughout the entire movie. So it kept my attention!

Home invasions are nothing new. This sets our protagonist outside the house though, which is not common. The movie itself tries to keep it as real as possible, but sometimes seems uneven when it comes to character behaviour. Then again if they behave just like a one way street it seems to easy to paper thin. So while this overall may seem flawed (I'd argue it is), it still has some nice moments to it.

Suspend your disbelief and let yourself emerge and just feel what the characters go through. The good ones that is. If you do that, you can be entertained to a degree. So while uncommon on one side, not really anything new overall.