Just in time for Mothers Day, Breaking In gifts moms everywhere with a thrill-free, home-invasion thriller about a mom (Gabrielle Union) wholl stop at nothing to keep four bad guys from killing her two kids. Thats the plot, folks. It never goes any deeper than that, or gets any less predictable. Some have labeled thisTaken for ladies. If only. The listless, leaden acting, writing and direction in this breathtakingly stupid bomb-ola defies audiences to stay conscious through its drag-ass 88 minutes.
Shaun Russell (Union) and her two children teenage Jasmine (Ajiona Alexus) and kid brother Glover (Seth Carr) are taking a trip to Wisconsin. It turns out that Shauns father, who dies in the opening scene, was a master criminal who built this isolated fortress in the Badger State to protect his ill-gotten gains with every high-tech device imaginable. She hasnt seen the bum since childhood, but figures the family mansion should pull a good price on the real-estate market. Her macho husband Justin (Jason George) stays home, mostly because screenwriter Ryan Engle needs to maintain his one-woman-against-the-world scenario. (To call Engles script contrived would be an insult to hacks everywhere. Why takes your kids to a felons hideout?) And get this: The home invaders have cut power to the security system, which only gives them 90 minutes to get the money and get out. Huh? Wouldnt a loss of power trigger a police warning, like, immediately? You dont ask those questions of Breaking In, not if you want to maintain your sanity.
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Director James McTeigue, 13 years out from his one good film (V for Vendetta), uses every trick in the Directing 101 handbook to distract us from idiocy of what were seeing. Nothing works. Wait, we take that back: Union (Think Like a Man) almost makes it fun to watch Shaun, who seems to have been trained as a ninja while growing up. The dudes are no match for this dynamo. She ties up and gags the gangs tech genius, Sam (Levi Meaden), and works on the sympathies of Peter (Mark Furze), the ex-con with the blonde dye job who doesnt believe in killing kids. Their cohort, Duncan (Richard Cabral), is a straight-up psycho with no such scruples. Eddie, the leader of this man pack, is played by Billy Burke with a calm he means to be menacing but mostly it looks like hes dozing, along with the rest of us.
Its Eddie who provides exposition, in a
misguided attempt by the filmmakers to humanize the demons. To persuade Peter to
murder innocents, the boss points out there will be no more 12-hour work days and no more getting
on your knees in a prison shower stall. [Cue aww.] His lackey, meanwhile, is helpful in stating
the obvious Moms dont run, not when
their babies are trapped in the nest and hes not
above complimenting Shaun on her fighting skills: Very impressive for a woman
alone, trapped by strangers. We suspect Eddie knows hes trapped in a
lousy movie and cant wait to break out. Buy a ticket to this dull, dimwitted con
job and youll know the feeling
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