The Safe - Niemand wird verschont

Having liked James Franco in other things, liking horror and thriller and being intrigued by the premise (bank heist films are not new in film or television, a very tried and tested formula, but a bank heist with a twist intrigued a lot), 'The Vault' had enough to make me want to see it. It had enough ingredients for it to be a good film, but in the end it ends up being just a lacklustre one with salvageable elements.

'The Vault' starts off very promisingly with an energetic and tension-filled opening that is easily the best thing about the film. Wasn't that impressed by the acting on the whole, but Franco gives it his all and is not bad at all. In fact, while it is a long way from being among his best performances, he is pretty good and convincing and actually looks like he's trying.

Generally the production values could have been better, but the sets are suitably creepy and the atmospheric lighting accentuates the creepiness further.

Sadly, 'The Vault' is lacking everywhere else. Taryn Manning and Francesca Eastwood don't have the screen presence to intimidate even a cat, marionettes have more animation than Manning who doesn't seem to try to act and Eastwood tries too hard. The rest of the cast struggle to do anything with characters that are basically just ciphers with nothing developed or distinct. The script tends to be very flabby with an air of smugness, while most of the film is clumsily directed in a way that's far too calculated.

Despite a great opening, 'The Vault' goes downhill quickly with momentum petering out far too early, meaning that a lot of the film limps along. The thriller elements lack suspense and can be implausible, implausibility turning into complete ridiculousness at the end, while the horror side fails to deliver on the scares, being too over-familiar, tension-lacking and the slow-burning taken to extremes. The film is really dull by this point and one is past caring what happens in the film or to anybody because the characters are so thinly sketched, make illogical decisions and mostly unconvincingly acted.

Just for the record, really liked that there was more than one genre. It was just the way it was executed, it was too much of a mishmash and the whole thing becomes disjointed.

Sets and lighting aside, the production values scream of straight-to-DVD quality with particularly slapdash editing. The music and sound editing can be overbearingly loud at points.

In summary, a strange lacklustre film that is not bad enough to keep buried in the vault but not good enough to warrant a permanent unlocking. 4/10 Bethany Cox

Pretty much everything about this movie was average or below average. At no point was i surprised or feeling the supposed suspense, which was a joke for anyone who has watched more than a handful of horror flicks in their life.

The premise was somewhat promising, but the potential got completely wrecked when the main antagonists were revealed, the movie turned from a promising and suspensful bank heist/hostage thriller flick into a laughable and childish monster story with no relevance in just a matter of seconds, well they tried to justify it, but nothing great came out of it as you are simply unable to take the actions seriously after that.

Overall nothing new or exciting, not worth watching, not the worst movie ever, by no means, but nothing you would like to invest your precious time in!

Saw this recently on a pirated DVD. The trailer showing a heist with horror elements along with Franco was sufficient to buy the DVD. As one character keeps on asking no lies, short answers. Well, i will tell the truth n in short. Bad film. Franco cheated the audiences. The Vault tried to be a mix n mash genre but it failed. There wasn't any tension n action. It is not at all scary or graphic n not action-heavy. The killings weren't that scary or tension filled. The scenes with the "stuff" were shot in dark n the editing was horrendous. In one scene the brother is sitting when the shooting happens n suddenly he is seen cutting the pipe. Ther r numerous badly edited scenes. Non scary scenes which r just there to fill up. The acting was awful by the two leading ladies. Clint Eastwood must b really upset. There was no character development n the twist was kinda predictable. Maybe director Dan Bush's intention was to create a good blend of heist n horror. His Signal is one of my favorite horror film.

I think anything under a 5 is unfair as it's watchable. The acting is pretty decent the story is fine, but ultimately it's drags on too long for it's gimmick. It's not particularly interesting and you can guess the "twist" about 5 minutes into the movie. In fact if were being honest they literally tell you whats going to happen. It's weird that they do that. I'm not kidding. You'll see it and groan. The idea is intriguing enough that you A. hope that they would be stupid enough to give the plot and thats its a red herring or B. Just go with it and enjoy it for what it is. The movie doesn't look cheap so that's a plus. I tried to watch some other low rent horror just before this called berkshire county. The cinematography in the first 5 minutes was so bad and lazy I couldn't be bothered to battle through it. This looks solid and they have 3 or 4 journeyman actors holding this up around the edges. Im like 90 percent I've seen an extremely similar concept on twilight zone or tales from the crypt. However in those cases it was a tight 40-45 minute story. This film is..tiresome. So thats my advise. If you can handle a low-medium rent episode of TFTC stretched out maybe 30 minutes too long this is fine. I didn't hate it, but I got bored more than a few times and checked apps on my phone during it.

This film tells the story of a group of five bank robbers who aim to rob half a million dollars from the bank. The think they hit the jackpot when the assistant manager of the bank offers help to get them six million dollars from the mysterious underground vault.

"The Vault" is a very low budget film, and it really shows. That in itself is not a problem, if it had a good story and tight editing. Unfortunately, there is not much to fill the screen time, and the pacing is just really slow. It takes the robbers thirty minutes to get to the vault, and then another thirty minutes for things to get going. There are many implausible or illogical things happening in the film too. I find it implausible that there is only one man trying to open the vault, while the two women watch on CCTV. Could they not have helped with opening the vault? It is a low budget B film through and through. There will be fans who like this film, but it is not for me.