Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A Lot of Foreplay with No Climax....., December 18, 2008
Independent movies can be really great....or really disappointing. This particular example has some of both characteristics. Compared to some of the independently-produced disasters I have suffered through recently, I would have to say that the acting was quite acceptable, the inevitable hand-held camera work was not only well done but actually accentuated the uncertainty of the events taking place, the sound quality was good (you could actually understand the dialog), and the majority of the plot was able to maintain my interest. In fact, up until the final few minutes, I would rate this as a better-than-average independent production. But then they dropped the ball.
I cannot explain my dissatisfaction without revealing some plot details, so if you intend to see this movie, perhaps you should read the following after watching it and then see if you agree.
The conclusion was simply not satisfactory. After investing about 90 minutes of your life watching a suspenseful story, you are entitled to a plot resolution that makes the investment worthwhile, or at least makes sense. Other reviewers have discussed the plot in some detail, so I won't bore you with another recap, but at the end, when it appears that the most obvious person was indeed a homicidal maniac, sneering while gouging the one likeable character with broken glass, we get a tour of the entire facility. It is a scientific research center, with lab-coated personnel monitoring every moment of the slaughter that has transpired. In fact, the homicidal maniac must also be a scientist, since she carefully reviews some files and makes some notes in a journal, before entering another room full of innocent (and not so innocent) victims to begin another gore fest.
In what parallel universe do homicidal maniac-scientists run a continuous series of experiments in which test subjects are brutally murdered? What was gained by the experiment? What do we, the audience, gain from this experience? If frustration and disappointment are your goals, then I guess this cinematic experience would be fulfilling, but to me it is simply a matter of a lazy, unimaginative screenplay. They assume that some gore and suspense will justify the time and money we spend on their product, and that we will simply overlook their inability to bring it all to a reasonable conclusion. In my opinion, they are wrong, and I regret that they effectively ruined a fairly good movie with a really lousy ending. With a little more effort and originality they could have created something really good. It's a shame they didn't.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Breathing Room..........Recycled crap, September 30, 2008
The premise of this movie is like, what if you take Saw and crossed it with The Cube? Poof! Breathing Room!
14 Strangers placed in a room trying to figure out how to get out using clues that are revealed as the story unfolds, Each person wearing a jump suit with their contestant Number on it. As clues are revealed and characters die, the level of paranoia also builds, is one person amongst them the killer?
This movie is ok, not as gory as The Cube, and not as intricately layered as Saw. The drama and the dialogue are pretty intense and the different character types are credible and not too cliché . This Movie centers around Tonya the last of the fourteen contestants who wakes up in the dark next to a dead guy. (98% of this film takes place in this room.) Unlike the cube where the people have to work together, the people in BR must figure out who amongst them is the threat. And in a very Agatha Christie fashion BR is kind of a horror And then there was none. The death scenes are definitely not as gory or as thought out as the trap infested rooms of The Cube, or diabolical devices created in Saw.
However, for a low budget movie it was bloody where it needed to be. Which may have merited a PG-13 rating rather than an Unrated tag. For that matter, if this was an unrated film I'd probably be bored out of my mind with the regular rated version.
On a down note this movie is trying to hard to be Saw II. A bunch of strangers in a room(in Saw II's case a bunch of people in a house) using clues to get out, and just like in Saw II the last person introduced in the group is a chick and by the end of the movie you can easily guess that she is.......well for the people that haven't seen Saw II I won't spoil it. Rip off!
The ending of this film is predictable, and held no surprises......at all!
Bottom Line..................If you're going to make a thriller horror make sure that you have an original idea. Not rip off a couple of movies that are better. Rent it don't buy it. 2 Stars
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting thrill ride with NO ENDING, September 24, 2008
"Breathing Room" is a thrilling ride with a terrible conclusion. Fourteen strangers, thrown into a room together, forced to play some horrible, sadistic "game." Basically, it's a blending of "Saw" and "Cube," but it still had potential. You're trying to piece it together, trying to figure out the true nature of the players... until the ending. The ending is absolutely TERRIBLE, because it MAKES NO SENSE. At the end of the film, you're left with an empty feeling that there was absolutely no point to anything you just watched. Avoid this movie at all costs.
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