Breaking In – Movie Review

Breaking In – PG-13
Release Date: Fri 11 May 2018

When the father of Shaun (Gabrielle Union) dies, it is left to her to list and sell off his country mansion. Expecting to spend the weekend and meet with a realtor, Shaun’s children are taken hostage within the house and her father’s security system is keeping her from getting back to them. Can Shaun “break in” and save them?

The movie makes noticeable winks at Die Hard, starting the protagonist off alone to take care of a hostage situation – barefoot and all. That’s where the similarities end as this is a by the numbers hostage house situation. The incredible security system has a bunch of script-necessitated flaws. Shaun gets into multiple incredibly violent fights taking on the four assailants. But she can still run full speed whenever that’s called for.

Not that this is the kind of movie one would expect to stand up to much scrutiny. The pre-credits kill makes no sense to the audience until context is provided a few minutes later. It made the first twenty minutes or so uncomfortable to watch as we saw what is arguably the most violent scene in the film. It also has some warts where it had to be pared down (mostly for language) to get a PG-13. No normal English-speaker would reefer to a meth user as a “freaked-up tweaker.”

I could see high school girls enjoying this as a silly thriller. But on Netflix or Redbox – not at full price in the theater.

Carissa, Aaron, Amber, Matthew and I saw it in the theater and had a discussion in the car: