
I have been saying for years that I have no sympathy for screenwriters. It is their job it to come up with ideas for movies, but with all the remakes that have come out, I truly get the point of “give me a break”. Besides those and all of the superhero films, I just want something new.
“Breaking In” is the new film directed by James McTeigue (The Raven, V for Vendetta) and stars Gabrielle Union (Bad Boys II, Bring it On), Aijona Alexus (Acrimony, 13 Reasons), Seth Carr (Black Panther, Bosch), Billy Burke (Fracture, Twilight), Richard Cabral (Walk of Shame, End of Watch), Levi Meaden (The 100, Aftermath), Mark Furze (Rebel, Underbelly), Christa Miller (Scrubs, Cougar Town), and Damien Leake (Highlander, The Devil’s Own). It is the story of Shaun (Union), who is heading to her estranged fathers’ country house with her two kids: Jasmine (Alexus) and Glover (Carr) after he has passed away. Once she is there to do the paperwork to get the country property and other estate items to be legally able to be put on the market, they are trapped by four criminals led by Eddie (Burke), who are there to find a supposed hidden safe.
There is a tad of CGI used (and the quality was not great), but it did not take away of my enjoyment of the film. The acting is fine, with Union doing well as a strong willed and headstrong character as she has done in the past. Alexus and Carr also give good performances, and I feel like they both have bright futures ahead of them, but I give my shout-out to Burke, who has that demeanor of being the cool headed, analytical, and also evil at the same time.
This film has a basic storyline like “Panic Room” with a few minor differences, but this also unfortunately had a level of suspension of disbelief on the level of the forgettable “Kidnap”. There were many times in the beginning of the film that I saw specific things that set up events later in the film, giving a ridiculous level of predictability. There are also a few scenes where they try to set up the “cheap scare” without much success. “Breaking In” is about 90 minutes long, which is just about the right time length, and did not drag too much. I personally thought the film was OK, but compared to “Panic Room”, it is somewhat of a failure. I will recommend this film but only watching on HBO or cable TV.