Customer Reviews

While She Was Out [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(25)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

"While She Was Out" tells the familiar story of an ordinary woman pushed to extraordinary lengths to survive an ordeal no one suspects she will live through. An improbable thriller, "Out" presents Kim Basinger as a put-upon housewife who encounters a murderous group of meanies on Christmas Eve. Basinger starts out as such a dishrag to her abusive husband, we hope to see her emerge a strong and resilient heroine as she is isolated and pursued throughout the night. One by one, she confronts her attackers and succeeds! The theme of female empowerment through murder isn't a new idea--but one that has a certain appeal. However, "While She Was Out" doesn't employ the device particularly well. No real intelligence or creativity is employed by Basinger--she's more lucky than good. And that's unfortunate, because this might have been a nifty little thriller.

The one thing I was certain of throughout the film was that we were preparing for a knock-out ending. As Basinger took the reins of her own life on this fateful night--how might this change her home life? The earlier scenes are played so over-the-top, the exciting and liberating set-up can be seen a mile away. However, the resolution is so tired, so expected, and so thoroughly underwhelming--it truly removed the last bit of goodwill I had for this picture.

The saddest thing of all about "While She Was Out" is how much I wanted to like it. The image of Basinger clutching a red toolbox on the DVD cover is priceless. The description, as well, is mint--they should have paid the copywriter big! It sure sounds like a sure fire guilty pleasure! Add Guillermo del Toro of the impeccable "Pan's Labyrinth" as a producer, and that just raises expectations even more. But the film really lacks sensibility and surprise (I loved the ridiculous images of Christmas Eve at the mall where women were busy buying sexy lingerie and getting their hair done minutes before the bustling building becomes a ghost town). On several occasions, I recalled Basinger in an equally ludicrous thriller "Cellular." But that film works despite its shortcomings due to characters to root for--and if that Kim Basinger were in this film, maybe things would have turned out differently. KGHarris, 04/09.

Don't be fooled by Guillermo Del Toro's name as a producer on this film... Kim Basinger, Lukas Haas and Craig Sheffer all collect an undeserved paycheck in the straight-to-DVD exploitation revenge flick "While She Was Out".

Basinger plays a (somewhat past-her-prime) upper-middle-class trophy wife who, along with her beloved two children, is stuck in an abusive marriage to a cretinous loser of an alcoholic husband (a forgettable Craig Sheffer). After yet another round of domestic violence with her drunk hubby, Basinger takes off from her gated community digs and decides to clear her head by getting a little Christmas shopping done at the local mall. While there, she happens upon an ethnically-diverse group of particularly stupid teen mall thugs (led by a completely unconvincing Lukas Haas), who thereafter proceed to chase and terrorize Basinger until she is finally driven to fight back.

Sub-standard entry in the revenge film genre is good for one or two unintentional snickers and not much more, as the film alternates between being tedious (the film is essentially one long, badly-paced chase sequence), ludicrous (somehow when stranded in a huge forest at night with her assailants, Basinger just can't seem to escape, no matter how fast she runs, no matter how much lead time she has over them; meanwhile, the bad guys, completely unfamiliar with their pitch-black surroundings and armed only with a flash light, always seem to know the general direction she is going, and never get lost while walking slowly after her) and cartoonishly, gratuitously violent (watch long, close-up money shots of assorted car tools explicitly pummeling and piercing flesh).

Basinger (still looking quite beautiful after all these years) tries her best, as she yelps and quivers convincingly enough, but it's all for naught, as the film is dismal on pretty much every level.

Even those who wholeheartedly enjoy revenge and torture porn flicks will find their patience tested with this one. What initially starts out as intriguing quickly steers into borderline camp (check out the scene where Basinger's character runs into an old friend at the mall) before eventually becoming a flat-out bore, thanks to perfunctory direction, cliched plotting, embarrassing dialogue and dull, cardboard characters. Those hearty viewers that manage to stay awake for the silly "surprise" ending of "While She Was Out" will be rewarded with a newfound respect for Charles Bronson's "Death Wish" series.

Need I say it? Skip this film... even as a rental.

This is just dreadful. I used to like Kim Basinger. Perhaps this is another example of women over a certain age in Hollywood not getting offered good parts. This one is about as bad as it gets. First she starts out with a husband who is abusive and then when she goes Christmas shopping, escaping him for the evening, she gets attacked by three abusive young men and flees from them. That is pretty much the whole arc of the movie.

There was a time when she was the leading lady for Sam Shepard, Michael Keaton, Alec Baldwin and Richard Gere. This movie is a far fall from those heady days. Don't bother.

I just couldn't get into this one and it had huge credibility gaps. The premise: A woman is surprised by a bunch of very bad guys after she finishes shopping. She gets in her car and they chase her (upcoming SPOILER alert), after shooting a mall security guard. Eventually, her car gives out and she races for a construction site full of partly built homes, armed primarily with tools from a toolbox she managed to grab from her car.

I think this was when things were supposed to reach peak suspense, challenging the viewer to wonder, "How does she manage to get out of this situation with only the items in her tool box?" Unfortunately, there were several parts that just didn't make sense. For instance....why didn't anyone hear or report or see the security guard being shot? How could murder and mayhem occur at a construction site without attracting attention? Also - and this may be only my take as someone related to a builder- most construction sites have their own security guards or at least nightly police patrols. For all this to happen as it did and with lots of noise...it just didn't add up.

Finally, the characters just weren't all that interesting. Basinger held her own but she didn't have much to work with. This could have been a much better movie but for me it was yawn-worthy.

Wow. Where do I begin? If you wonder why I gave this movie two stars it's only because I am a big Kim Basinger fan and I like Lukas Haas too. Everything else deserves less than one star but I decided to be generous. This was one of the most ridiculous so-called thrillers I've ever seen in my life. It wasn't crafty. It wasn't clever. It wasn't mysterious, and the only thing frightening was that someone actually thought this needed to be a movie. Why inflict such pain on the innocent movie lovers of the world?

We start off with Della (Basinger) who is supposed to be an abused wife. The only evidence of this we see is her husband (Craig Scheffer, why he's still getting parts I have no idea), yelling at Della about cleaning up the house. He jacks her up and this is supposed to convince us that Della is a battered wife. Please. So Della goes out on Christmas Eve to get some wrapping paper and all hell breaks lose. And I mean for the audience as well because the film goes downhill with every turn to the point where you'd wish she'd just go back to the house and call it a night so we can go on with our lives.

During her outing, Della is confronted by four thugs. She's left a note on their car about them taking up two parking spaces. This was the biggest question mark to me in the whole movie. HOW THE HELL DID THEY KNOW DELLA WAS THE ONE WHO LEFT THE NOTE? No one was in the car when she left it! Yet these guys knew it was her? Come on! This group who I nicknamed the Mickey Mouse club because they were about as intimidating as four little girls fighting over a Barbie doll, decides to teach Della a lesson. Lukas Haas (who I can't believe would even think of being in this mess) plays Chuckie the so-called leader of this "gang". Please. Chuckie is aided by an Asian gangmember, a black gangmember, and a Hispanic gangmember. Yes it's the Junior United Nations. This was the most unrealistic part of the film. Not only was it laughable to believe all of these guys were supposed to be tough, but you mean you have a black and a Hispanic in the group and the white dude is the leader? On top of that I couldn't figure out why Chuckie who is thirty years old is hanging around these "kids" or are we supposed to believe that Haas is a teen? If so I wouldn't be surprised with the BS we were forced to believe in this film.

So after Della witnesses this crew killing a security guard she's thrust into fighting for her life. The movie turns into a bad replica of Judgment Night except this film isn't even in that movie's league. The gang chases Della through the woods. Yeah the woods. She's in the Inner city one minute and five minutes later she is in the woods? Okay.

This movie was horrible! We're supposed to buy Della as being smart but she does the dumbest things. Instead of using every opportunity to get away from the four dummies, she sits around and listens in on their extremely loud conversations. She takes time to reminisce about her kids, even pees, anything instead of getting her butt outta dodge! The smart thing for Della to have done would have been to hide somewhere and wait for daylight. It was the woods! No way they'd find her but no, she runs around in the woods as loud as she can. What was so pitiful was how it did not matter how long Della took off before the dummies found out she was gone, she always ended up in their sights. And it's hard to believe that Della couldn't get away from the idiots seeing how Chuckie can light up the entire woods with his flashlight and he yells her name every two minutes. Obviously Della is dumber than we think because she gets warning after warning that the dummies are close to her, yet never gets away.

The beginning was boring. The middle was horrid and the end makes you wanna contemplate the cast's murder or your own suicide. We have to sit through a very bad monologue by Chuckie (I assume to show us his good side, as if we care). Chuckie decides to use his charms to persuade Della to come out of hiding. Oh yes that's the big thing! Instead of Della getting her butt out of the woods while Chuckie's talking, she's sitting behind a tree trunk, listening! She's listening instead of using this as a time to get away. After Chuckie's hour-long speech, he comes onto Della and by our disgust, Della decides to seduce Chuckie and from that point on I'm convinced this movie was a comedy the entire time. It's so unbelievable with Della and Chuckie that you wonder if the film is actually trying to overlook the fact that Basinger is thirty years older than Haas and old enough to be his mother. Yet while they are kissing and fondling, it's like the filmmakers want us to forget how it's so unbelievable that these two would go down this route. It didn't make any sense. The ending alone delivered more laughs than a Saturday Night Live episode. After that you spend your time pulling out your toenails with pliers, hoping it ends soon and finally it does.

I'd give it five stars if it were a comedy. Unfortunately it wasn't.

This direct to video film can only be described as a regrettable film choice for a once Hollywood heavyweight. Kim Basinger plays a housewife who is terrorized by a pack of young thugs while doing some Christmas shopping. What follows is a game of cat and mouse as Basinger must outwit and escape her would-be assailants. While there was a possibility for some semblance of compelling storytelling here, the execution is simply disjointed. Basinger tries her best to play the innocent victim but her attackers are anything but credible as threats. After all, Lukas Haas plays the leader of the group. A child actor who, even as an adult, still has a baby face and simply cannot convey the menacing qualities needed to hold the driving force of the thinly veiled plot together. Much of the film is riddled with nonsensical scenes but Basinger's steadfast commitment to play the role straight almost makes this worthy of a rental. Ultimately, though, nothing can salvage this film from being anything other than a forgettable effort.

This is a very good movie about someone hitting their breaking point then getting pushed so far beyond it that they can never go back. It is a strong movie about female empowerment and how some people who you might never think would commit a crime are the ones who can be the most dangerous when put into the correct situation. It is extremely violent with plenty of bad language and plenty of people who receive a karmmic retribution. I loved this film because it sends the message that the people who you least suspect can often be the most dangerous and the true nature of someone when after they are pushed into pure survival mode. Plus I loved the plot. It is a kiss off to anyone out there who thinks that I can bully someone else and get away with it.

Kim Basinger is an Academy-Award winning actress! I can't believe she was in this movie. OK, it wasn't as terrible as you may think and her character isn't horrible - but the plot is just dumb. Basically, this abused housewife goes to get wrapping paper at a mall during Christmas time - takes a parking place and is then followed and tortured for an hour by a group of thugs. I don't know if it was a metaphor for how she felt in her life (being abused by her husband and getting to fight back finally...) I couldn't understand why Basinger chose to do this! It didn't even seem like a really good "acting" piece. Maybe she just wanted to do a thriller, who knows. I wouldn't recommend it.

Do the people who made "While She was Out" even watch movies? If they did, they'd know that revenge films require two things: villains who commit reprehensible acts, and a lead character who violently turns the tables. Anyone excited by the prospect of seeing a good actor like Kim Basinger in a modern-day exploitation flick along the lines of "Ms .45" can keep looking, because "While She Was Out" is neither thrilling nor satisfying. At no point did I find the gang terrorizing her to be at all frightening or intimidating, and the film left me waiting anxiously for Kim to open up that red toolbox and start taking these guys apart. Credits rolled, and nothing. The DVD art is incredible, throwing out a "Hard Candy" type of vibe that the film never comes close to delivering.

This is one of the worst movies I've seen in a long time. It's so bad--and not in a campy, funny "Xanadu" way. Poor Kim Basinger--what happened to her once promising career? It's very sad to see her do a horrible film like this. Then there's the little boy from "Witness", Lukas Haas, who's now all grown up and in the same boat as Basinger. So what's "While She Was Out" all about? First, I must say it's a really bad title for a film, but I guess they couldn't come up with anything better. Basinger plays Della, a suburban housewife who is verbally abused by her nasty husband (played by "One Tree Hill's" Craig Sheffer in a thankless role). After we see a cruel scene between the "happy" couple, Basinger goes out on Christmas Eve to get some more wrapping paper at a mall, and she meets up with Haas and his three henchmen in the parking lot. He ends up killing a security guard and then chases Kim into some woods, where she finally stands up for herself and begins to eliminate the bad guys with tools from a toolbox she's carrying around. The violence is quite bloody and gruesome, and the final scene between Basinger and Haas is bizarre and unbelievable. I don't recommend this flick to anyone--especially if you're a Basinger fan. It's a repulsive, unpleasant 86 minutes, and you will regret wasting your time.