Dan and Nancy: Now Playing
The Broomfield Enterprise, Broomfield, CO

Jodie Foster stars as a New York mother shopping for a new house for her and her daughter. The house she ends up buying has a secure room, or panic room, that the family can retreat to if they are in danger from an intruder. Not surprisingly, their house is broken into and they run to the panic room for safety. Unfortunately, the intruders are looking to steal something that is in the panic room. Also starring Forest Whitaker ("Phenomenon") and Dwight Yoakam ("The Newton Boys"). Rated ?R' for violence and language. Time spent either overcoming claustrophobia or succumbing to it: 108 minutes.

Nancy's Take: The title of the movie is the only thing that would make someone panic. "Panic Room" was very disappointing. It's portrayed as being suspenseful, thrilling, and maybe even violent. However it was far from being any of those. I was hoping that maybe the ending would make up for all the shortcomings, but again it didn't. It was like the movie "Home Alone," but instead of a little boy defending his house it was a mother and daughter finding ways of getting rid of the bad guys.
One thing that kept me guessing was if the little child was a boy or a girl. The only thing that convinced me it was girl was the fact her name was Sarah and there were pictures of her when she was a baby wearing a dress. I think Hollywood could've done a better part filling the part. Jodie Foster did an ok job, but it seemed like this was her first movie in acting. I would think throughout the years she would get better.
Was this movie worth the price of admission? No! I should have waited to rent it. Maybe I should've seen the signs when I saw what Jodie was wearing at the Oscar's. Would I see it again? I don't think I need to answer that.

Dan's take: While watching "Panic Room," I didn't think I liked it. But now I've decided that it was a decent flick. I've also decided that it would be cool to have a panic room of my own. You never know when the boogieman will show up at your house. It'd also be great for stuff like tornados or a really bad hailstorm, or even one of those freak Broomfield avalanches. Who knows?
Now even though the movie was called "Panic Room" it didn't manage to instill much panic, but it did have some intense moments. It also had some comic relief thrown in to mix up the emotions. I normally hate it when the try to mix the two, but here it worked.
One thing that didn't work for me was some of the cussing. It was fine when the bad guys cussed because they are supposed to, but when Jodie Foster and her kid did it just didn't fit. It didn't fit because it was stupid. They had a young kid encouraging her mom to cuss, and she does it. My mom would have grounded me until the next ice age if I had said words like that around her. She still would.
Is "Panic Room" worth the price of admission? I'd say it's worth the matinee price, not more. Would I see it again? No.

By Dan Marcucci and Nancy Serougi. Broomfield, CO
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