To me, this movie is perfection.

Boring

Absolutely Fantastic

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

I saw this film at the movie theatre when it was just released and never watched it again so it is still clear in my memory. It is amongst my favorite thrillers for its brilliant actors, its dark ambiance and every minute suspense. If you like Jodie Foster and/or David Fincher, it is definitely the film for you as they are delivering here the climax of they talent.

Cast, acting, directing, cinematography and editing are very good with Panic Room. Despite some holes which are listed by other reviewers, the plot is not so bad. Yes, the events unfold in quite a predictable way but the movie is still very engaging with its fast tempo and suspense that never lets go. On the negative side, the ending turns out a bit cheesy with too much effort to redeem the character acted by F. Whitaker. One interesting observation is that with good acting and captivating storytelling, the plot holes become less noticeable. After all, engaged audience care more about entertainment than analyzing each and every incident with a fine comb. To sum up, this is a very enjoyable movie with its fast pace, unrelenting suspense and lack of fluff.

Sometimes it's easier to enjoy a movie if you start with relatively low expectations. Panic Room is directed by David Fincher (Seven and Fight Club) and stars two great actors who are capable directors in their own right (Jodie Foster and Forrest Whittaker). Because of this my expectations were fairly high, perhaps unreasonably so.Jodie Foster plays a wealthy divorcee with a teenage daughter. As they are looking at a house they are considering buying in New York, they discover that the house has a unique feature-a hidden room surrounded in concrete and steel. The room comes complete with sophisticated surveillance equipment, a direct phone line and a variety of supplies designed to facilitate survival in the case of a siege.What they don't know is that the house has another secret, a hidden treasure worth millions of bonds. The person who does know this enlists the aid of two henchmen to help him find the hidden treasure. They think they are entering a vacant house. When they discover otherwise, the complications unfold-enter the panic room.One of the henchmen (Forrest Whittaker) has spent the last 12 years installing safe rooms for wealthy people. He knows the ins and outs, and he knows that the treasure they want is locked in the panic room with the two rightful inhabitants of the house.This is an intriguing premise with some interesting symbolism. The safe room that keeps the bad guys out soon becomes a prison that keeps the good guys in. A similar premise was developed in the film The Last Castle when Robert Redford compares castles and prisons. Same basic design, it's just that one is designed to keep people out, the other designed to keep people in.The film has some excellent cinematography and some great editing. Jodie Foster and Forrest Whittaker turn in great performances as would be expected. Kristen Stewart does an excellent job as the teenage daughter. The other characters are, unfortunately, cartoon cutouts. So much so that at points the film looks a bit too much like Home Alone.Don't get me wrong. The film is suspenseful and has some outstanding elements. Jodie Foster continues to be one of the top actors working today and her performance here is compelling. In spite of the aforementioned flaws, the film really is worth a look-especially if I have helped lower your expectations.

PROS: JODIE FOSTER, little KRISTEN STEWART, and FOREST WHITAKER give one of the most passionate and heartfelt preferences of their lives. You could feel for every character, you really were able to see each character as a person and not just as a figure. This is both the actors and directors accomplishments. The director said what he wanted the characters to be like and the actors took that and transformed the people on paper to people in real life. I was captivated by this in general because it gave that extra bit of tension to the film. I was more scared for each person than I would've been if they just acted fake. The other thing that I noticed and appreciated was the story line. It's common to see films with different settings, different motives, and different characters being put together and having the film called creative, but this film was actually creative. They took one location and used every bit of that location to the fullest. They also didn't have any character that was basic. Everything that was done in the movie was mostly original which gave the film that extra umph the movie needed.CONS: The ending felt a little too concise for my liking. I wished that they found so room to give the movie a slightly more resolved finish.www.chorror.com