Breaking In - Blu-ray Review

Movie
Thanks to films like The Purge and The Strangers, the home invasion genre has really had a kick in the pants the last 15 years or so. The idea of people breaking into your home and doing terrible things to innocent home owners is nothing new, but it is terrifying due to the reality of the scenarios. Home invasions where bad guys break in and murder, or torture, home owners is a sad reality that happens every day across the nation. Film obviously embellishes the situations, but it still is one of those things that is unnerving nonetheless. Breaking In is the latest in the string of thrillers to emulate the success of films like The Strangers, but sadly seems to miss the mark a bit. Directed by James McTeigue (the man who started his career directing V for Vendetta), it is a mixed bag of competent film making and an frankenstein hodge podge of nuts and bolts from a myriad of other (and better) films in the same genre.

Shaun Russell (Gabrielle Union) is a mother of two children who has just suffered a family tragedy. Her estranged father has been run over by a car, and his entire estate now falls to Shawn to take care of and liquidate. Heading up to her Father’s spacious Wisconsin mansion with her daughter Jasmine (Ajiona Alexus) and son Glover (Seth Carr), Shaun is readying the home to be sold, but the trio are about to have their weekend destroyed when a group of 4 thieves break in to steal the $4 million that her father supposedly has in the home safe. The “twist” of the situation (or more accurately, “gimmick”) is that Shaun is outside when this all happens, and the children INSIDE. The thieves, headed by the cold hearted Eddie (Billy Burke) lock down the mansion and use Glover and Jasmine as leverage to keep the mother from going to the police.

While the thieves work against the clock (they have 90 minutes before the alarm system calls the cops), Shaun turns into super mommy and vows to get her kids back form the brutal men. Being that his was her family home as a child, she has the home court advantage, even with the handicap of the men controlling the house. Going Arnold on them, the desperate mother uses her wits, her rage, and her familiarity with the landscape to wage a one woman war on the men who have come to her turf and threatened her family.

Breaking In is the epitome of a competent film without a whole lot of heart and soul. McTeigue breaks the film down into the most simple definition of a home invasion thriller, and cobbles together a decent movie on the surface. The issues stem from the fact that it is rote and bland, borrowing scenes and concepts from a dozen different thrillers without making the movie interesting or exciting. It’s almost like he made the film after reading “how to make a thriller for dummies” and just went from there. The villains are bland, the characters only mildly interesting, and the “twists” were pretty predictable from the moment the film started. It’s not that it is a horrible film by ANY stretch of the imagination, but Breaking In has a very difficult time differentiating itself from the crowd with it’s lack of innovation and energy.

McTeigue is an interesting director. He started out with his freshman film being the AWESOME V for Vendetta, but he’s also the same guy who directed Ninja Assassin (which is one of those so awful it’s awesome movies), The Raven and the middle of the road Survivor. All of which are decent enough films, but for some reason he’s never been able to reach the same heights as when he started out. Breaking In follows his recent pattern of making competent, but bland, thrillers as it follows the cookie cutter way of directing that he seems comfortable with. Gabrielle Union is not exactly the best actress in the world (she peaked with Bring it On and Bad Boys II), but she’s more than believable as the angry mother. However, it’s really Billy Burke who steals the show as the cold and calculating Eddie. Burke is excellent at playing bad guys, and he emanates that sense of evil control that makes him so good on screen here. The kids actually do a pretty decent job too (I’m not wildly fond of child actors), as they portray the proper balance of fear, anger and simple child like nature.




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for violence, menace, bloody images, sexual references, and brief strong language




Video:

Breaking In was shot using the obligatory Arri Alex cameras and the finished off at with a 2K digital master for home video, and despite it’s humble budget, looks REALLY good on the Blu-ray. The 2.39:1 framed transfer is very natural looking, with only a slight blue tinge to the film and some hints of amber inside the house. The film takes place MOSTLY at night, so black levels are strained quite a bit, and the end result is more than satisfactory. The shadows are revealing while being as dark as humanly possible, and the fine detailing (even in the darkness) is exquisite. I did notice a little bit of crush when Shaun was on the roof of the house, and in the basement, but overall this is an excellent digital film that looks amazing on Blu-ray.





Audio:

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA track from Universal is a very stable track, but one that doesn’t really “wow” the listener, if you know what I mean. The mix is serviceable, but rather front heavy and has some volume issues with dialog. The opening scenes are so low that I actually had to turn on subtitles for the dialog, but once the 4 intruders arrive the mix evens out a good bit and the back end opens up a bit. Most of the time we have a very front heavy mix, with screams, groans, and dialog emanating from the front of the room, but the score does spread to the rear of the room with the classic music and ominous “dun dun duns!”. LFE is soft, but still present, adding weight to some crashes and bangs (along with the music). The gunshots was one thing that I found most interesting. Usually movie mixes like to overcook the sound of a 9mm or .40 caliber handgun to make it sound like howitzer, but the reports of the glock used in the movie actually sounds like a REAL gun (meaning it doesn’t sound like a sonic attack).






Extras:

• Alternate Opening
• One Bad Mother
• A Filmmaker's Eye
• A Lesson in Kicking
• A Hero Evolved
• Deleted and Extended Scenes
• Feature Commentary by Director James McTeigue and Scriptwriter Ryan Engle











You know the old adage “never judge a book by it’s cover”? Well, you can really judge it with Breaking In. It’s your typical home invasion movie, with Gabrielle Union going super mom to get her kids back from the thieves in her house. The twist is that it’s kind of a “reverse” home invasion, but sadly that really doesn’t do much to elevate the movie. McTeigue competently directs the film, but it’s derived from such a mish mash of other films that it can’t eek out anything that makes it unique or special in the home invasion genre. The best way to describe Breaking In is “stale” or “bland”. It doesn’t do anything egregiously wrong, but wildly interesting it is not. Universal’s Blu-ray is solid, with great video and acceptable audio, and even a decent array of extras as well for this low budget thriller. Still, I’d leave this one as a rental.



Technical Specifications:

Starring: Gabrielle Union, Billy Burke, Richard Cabral
Directed by: James McTeigue
Written by: Ryan Engle (Screenplay), Jaime Primak Sullivan (Story by)
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DVS DD 5.1, Spanish, French DTS 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Studio: Universal
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 88 Minutes (Theatrical) / 89 Minutes (Unrated)
Blu-ray Release Date: August 7th, 2018

Image

• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017