Buried

What would you do if you were trapped in a box? A coffin to be more precise. In Iraq. With a mobile phone. Make a few calls. Great premise. Man's inhumanity to man is vividly on display here. Uncomfortable to watch. Uncomfortable to be in the box. Uncomfortable ending. Original and intense.

Paul Conroy (played by Ryan Reynolds) awakes to find himself in a wooden box, buried underground. He is a civilian contractor and truck-driver in Iraq. His convoy was ambushed and he was taken captive and buried alive. He has a limited amount of air, giving him a limited time to find a way out. All he has to aid him in this task is his cigarette lighter, a torch, a mobile phone and his will to live.

Minimalist yet highly original, intriguing and tension-filled.

Probably the most minimalist movie ever made. The entire movie is filmed inside a wooden box, a wooden box with one occupant (well, one human occupant...). One actor - Ryan Reynolds - has 100% of the screen time, though there are voices of other actors involved.

Incredibly engrossing and tension-filled. Until the very last moment you don't know how things are going to work out. Director Rodrigo Cortes and writer Chris Sparling keep you on tenterhooks throughout, teasing you with thoughts of one survival option being more likely than the other.

Shows you don't need a big budget to make a great movie.

It's a bit hard to review this special movie. You can't go into special effects because there were non. You can't say anything about the cast because it's just one person you see. And the set is simple too, just a coffin. Yes, indeed, it all takes place in a coffin. So that's already tricky to watch because I know a lot of people who didn't liked it because there was nothing to see or watch and I must agree with them. It takes indeed almost an hour before the suspense comes in. The first hour you will learn everything about the character, perfectly played by Ryan Reynolds. But it's all done on phone. Of course, being buried you can't do anything else than phone but for me it was a bit too long, an hour as I said. But from then on it goes faster and things go from worse to terribly wrong. The ending was a surprise for me. I won't spoil it just watch it. Still, I won't state it as a horror either a suspense or thriller. But you have to experience the coffin setting to sit it through. Simple story, excellent camera tricks.

Here is the proof that an intelligent movie can also be done with a low budget. The Spanish director Rodrigo Cortes mixed every element with a good balance into an interesting, never boring tense thriller. The end was very surprising and unexpected. I don't want to give more details here. Just watch it. I bought the DVD very cheap. Ryan Reynolds delivered a very respectable performance. The running time with 91 minutes was perfect. Buried is not based on true events but it is not far away from the reality.

My expectations have been met. Even my wife had her doubts before but then she looked it with high attention.

At the end we gave both a solid rating of 7/10.

I don't think I've seen a film quite like Buried before. It had me hooked from the onset, and built towards a really shocking and thrilling conclusion. I really enjoyed the story and thought that it maintained a great pace, which is vital for a film of this genre. There were maybe a few moments where things drifted off course, but for the most part it was solid.

Ryan Reynolds was great, which is handy considering he was essentially the sole performer in the film. For large parts of the film he had no dialogue, so he brought his A game in terms of his physical performance.

The camera work was very accomplished, managing to capture the claustrophobic environment without limiting the way the film looked.

A very solid and enjoyable thriller. Nothing truly amazing, but very entertaining and intriguing!