BREAKING IN REVIEW

At one point in the movie Breaking In, a clip is shown of an old Woody Woodpecker cartoon.  It is the gag in which the guy is trying to saw down the tree that Woody is in, but Woody bends his saw around and he ends up sawing off his own ladder.  It is ironic that this was the clip the filmmakers chose to show. 

Breaking In stars Gabrielle Union as Shaun Russell, a mother of two who is returning to her childhood home to deal with her estranged fathers estate upon his death.  It becomes clear very quickly that her father was involved in some shady business.  It shouldn't come as too big of a shock then when a group of men show up to steal some money that is hidden inside the house. 

The movie appears to want to be taken seriously as an intense home invasion thriller.  However, the group of villains it features are so zany that it may as well have been Harry and Marv from Home Alone.  It is amazing how much has to go wrong to make this plot even begin to feel plausible.  The bad guys are quickly reduced to a generic group of bumbling idiots that wouldn't be capable of successfully robbing a liquor store.  At a key point in the film something so ridiculous happens that the movie's title should have been changed from Breaking In to Walking In.  I would like to say more about that, but in the interest of staying spoiler-free I won't.

Gabrielle Union's performance is pretty good.  That may have been as close to a high spot as this movie has.  The problem is that the dialogue is so bad that it really doesn't matter. Billy Burke plays the main villain, the only one that appears as though he may possibly be at least somewhat competent.  His one note performance becomes annoying really fast and the dialogue didn't do him any favors either.  At certain points he seems to be narrating the movie more than starring in it with all the pointless exposition he was having to deliver. 

The film is beyond the pale when it comes to believability, or lack there of.  I get that it is a movie and some suspension of disbelief is perfectly acceptable.  That being said, this film goes way beyond that point.  Apparently if you are a mom you can just instantly become John McClain.  I wasn't aware of that phenomenon.  The movie could have at least tried to explain how Shaun was able to do some of these incredible things under such duress, but it doesn't even try to do that. 

At one point, the main characters make a decision that is actually pretty smart and the movie almost becomes something like a cheap knockoff of Panic Room, which would have been a vast improvement.  However, they went through that part too fast, instead of trying to build any real tension, racing to an ending that was, much like the rest of the film, totally ridiculous. 

We all know what this movie is.  It is a blatant political statement.  I normally wouldn't even bother to address this type of thing but I feel like I have to here.  The whole point of the film was to show how worthless men are and how inversely awesome women are.  Now, nobody has more respect for women than me, but by making this thing so over the top and silly, the movie defeats it's own purpose.  Or, shall we say, it cuts off it's own ladder.  Bottom line; Breaking In is trash.  It is the worst kind of trash in my opinion and the fact that it exists puts a blight on the entire film industry.  THE MOVIE MAN GIVES IT 0 OUT OF 5 STARS.