Featured Blu-ray and DVD Review: Breaking In

August 5, 2018

Breaking In - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray Combo Pack
 Video on Demand (Theatrical Release) or Video on Demand (Unrated Edition)

Breaking In

Breaking In wasn’t a big hit at the box office, but it did well enough to cover its production budget during its opening weekend and will likely break even early in its home market run. The film does have a good hook, so I’m not surprised it did as well as it did, but does it have anything more?

The Movie

The movie begins with a man, Isaac Paulson, getting ready for his morning jog while we listen to news reports about an embezzlement scheme he was part of that stole $75 million from a pension fund. While on his morning jog, he’s hit by a truck, but it is not an accident, as the driver gets out of the truck and finishes him off.

In the next scene, Shaun Russell is driving with her two kids, Jasmine and Glover. It was Shaun’s father who was killed in the prologue and she’s traveling to his house to take care of his estate. Shaun didn’t get along with her father, and his summer house represents the parts she disliked the most, so she’s just looking to sell it. When they get to the house, the security system is acting up. When Shaun goes to investigate, she sees the microwave is flashing 12:00, so she assumes it was a power outage that was the root cause. The family splits up and explores the house, which is massive. Glover finds the security system, which is intrusive, to say the least.

That evening, Shaun goes outside for a walk and to call her husband, Justin, to see when he will arrive. Shortly after, she’s attacked by a stranger and when she tries to get back inside to be with her kids, she finds she’s locked out.

And that’s about as far as I can go without running into spoilers.

Breaking In is a home invasion movie with a twist, the woman is locked outside and the bad guys are inside with her kids. Good news, the twist works. Bad news, it’s not enough. There are some elements that do work. Gabrielle Union is the best part of the movie and she manages to rise above the material. She works as an action star, but the film does a good job of making her seem like a normal mother, not some secretly trained combat expert. Additionally, Ajiona Alexus is great as her daughter, Jasmine. Everyone else in the movie is either flatly written and / or not given enough screen time to make an impression.

Unfortunately, outside of those two performances, there’s not a lot to recommend. The film’s biggest problem is its predictability. It is a thriller, but you can’t thrill your audience if they are always one or two steps ahead of the script. Predictability, some cringe-inducing bad dialogue, one-dimensional bad guys, etc. None of this would be enough to be terrible. It would be the epitome of mediocre, but not terrible. However, during the climax, one of the bad guys tries to rape Jasmine. It goes from a mediocre action film to something much worse. Unless you have something poignant to say, sexual violence is never a good addition to a movie. If it wasn’t for this, then I would have recommended a rental, for fans of Gabrielle Union, but this left a bad taste in my mouth.

The Extras

The extras begin with an audio commentary track with the director and screenwriter. Up next is an alternate beginning and some deleted scenes. One Bad Mother... is a four-minute featurette about Gabrielle Union’s character. A Filmmaker’s Eye is a five-minute featurette on the director, James McTeigue, and what he brought to the movie. A Lesson in Kicking Ass is a four-minute look at the stunts Gabrielle Union did. A Hero Evolved is a three-minute featurette at how Gabrielle Union is an evolution in the action movie star.

The Blu-ray also comes with both the theatrical version and the unrated version. They are nearly identical in length, so it is a matter of more blood in some of the kills rather than entirely new scenes.

The Verdict

Gabrielle Union deserves to star in better movies than Breaking In. (Although she also produced the movie, so she’s not an innocent victim here.) The extras on the DVD or Blu-ray Combo Pack are fine, but the movie is not. Even renting it on Video on Demand is too much.

Filed under: Video Review, Breaking In, Jason George, James McTeigue, Gabrielle Union, Damien Leake, Ryan Engle, Seth Carr, Ajiona Alexus