Film Review: Breaking In

"I Know This Is Not How You Wanted To Spend Your Weekend..."

Directed by James McTeigue, a filmmaker who has never really eclipsed the success of his debut big-screen feature in the form of the rather excellent V for Vendetta, Breaking In, starring Gabrielle Union (Sleepless) in the leading role as mother of two, Shaun Russell, is essentially a hybrid crossover of a wide range of famous, historic movies, one which sees Russell attempt to save her children after they are locked inside a ultra-secure familial home with violent burglars who have come to claim a large monetary stash for their own. With a strange shadow of Panic Room airing over it, McTeigue's movie is undeniably wrapped in B-Movie sensibility, and as the action moves from paranoid thriller to Die Hard territory and arguably even more so onto Hostage territory, a movie which in itself was a rather perfunctory rip-off of Die Hard anyhow and a film which too featured Bruce Willis, Breaking In is a movie which ultimately knows its boundaries, its' flaws and complete lack of substance but runs with it anyway, and with a kick-ass leading heroine in the form of Union undeniably audience winning, McTeigue's movie surprisingly falls into the category of enjoyable silliness.

With dialogue so exposition heavy throughout it seems to have been churned out in a cliched text machine, the first twenty minutes highlights the rather extreme security capabilities of the household in which Union's Shaun has been tasked with selling after the sudden and unexpected death of her powerful father. With drones, bulletproof wall coverings and more CCTV coverage than the city of London, the stage is set for the action to unfold, and whilst the movie does fall rather heavily into generic conventions in regards to its' typeface leading villain, lack of real tangible peril and an overly predictable Hollywood ending, the real interest resides in Union's portrayal of a mother figure who will do absolutely anything in order to be re-united with her children, no matter what the consequences and how violent they may be. With laughable editing of obvious foul language and a mixed degree to which on-screen violence is approached, it seems obvious the filmmakers opted for a Taken 3 sensibility by aiming for the 12A threshold which ultimately was rejected, but with a classy eighty minute runtime and enough twisting, narrative turns in order to get to the film's inevitable conclusion, Breaking In isn't exactly groundbreaking but it does the job comfortably enough and for that I'm more than happy with. 

Overall Score: 6/10

Film Review: Lights Out

"Ghosts Don't Exist..."

Although horror films of the 21st century that tend to lean more on the side of the theory that if its' dark and loud, people will find it inherently spooky, tend to be movies that are less inclined to be remembered as masterpieces of the genre, David F. Sandberg's Lights Out, the latest James Wan inflicted horror based upon the short film of the same name written and directed by Sandberg himself back in 2013, doesn't exactly break the mould of bang-average horror re-hashes, but it is most definitely one of the better additions to the genre in the past few years. Although Lights Out is yet another case of a horror movie that includes cliches galore and noticeable riffs from previous horror ventures, the film does manage to at least get the job done in the most effective time possible, swaying away from being dragged out long enough to delve into its' rather questionable plot devices whilst effectively playing out in the correct, logical fashion during its' final act.

Where the films' strengths inherently lie is the age-old idea that darkness is indeed not man's best friend, with the danger and ambiguity it brings being personified by the embodiment of Diana, a malevolent spirit latched onto the broken mind of Sophie (Maria Bello) whose children become the target of Diana's unstable nastiness. Although the film isn't exactly terrifying, the sense of threat that Diana brings with her every time she is on screen in the first hour or so is indeed quite startling. Of course, the fundamental notion of monsters in the dark isn't exactly original either, with films such as Darkness Falls and The Woman In Black coming to the forefront of my mind, yet before the big revelation of Diana within the films' dodgy final act, her presence alone was enough to be worthy of admission. Not groundbreaking, but surprisingly solid, Lights Out is popcorn-ridden horror from start to finish. 

Overall Score: 6/10