Hot Take: This movie recycles so much, it should come with an Energy Star certification.
It’s tempting not to go back, look through the reviews I’ve written and not just copy an old review of a generic B-movie thriller. Honestly, it would likely fit. I guess there’s a twist with Breaking In as the criminals are INSIDE the house and Gabrielle Union’s character must break IN to save her children BUT, let’s be real, that’s not much of a twist. Instead, it’s mostly regurgitated drama/action that we’ve seen maybe 100 times in the last 10 years.
In Breaking In, Gabrielle Union plays Shaun, a mom of two whose father has recently passed away. Her and her two children have gone to her father’s house with the intent on cleaning it up and putting it on the market to be sold. Upon arrival, Shaun discovers her father has essentially turned her spacious childhood home into a fortress with a full security system and other bells and whistles for the paranoid in all of us. As night falls, a foursome of criminal convicts descend upon the house looking for a safe filled with tons of cash. The convicts (Billy Burke, Richard Cabral, Levi Meaden and Damien Leake) kidnap Shaun’s two children (Ajiona Alexus and Seth Carr) and hold them hostage INSIDE the house as they search for the safe while the clock ticks as the security system’s automated defenses will trigger in 90 minutes.
With a run time of 88 minutes, Breaking In isn’t much of a commitment. However, it’s not much of an original idea, either. Lined up perfectly with Mother’s Day, the trailers for the film have really played up the mother angle and that trend continues throughout the movie. It is easier to market the movie that way if the film is littered with mom references, though. Union is okay in her role and the kids are harmless enough. The bad guys seem so overmatched against mom, though, with little explanation as to why Union’s character is so able to buck the odds other than she’s a mom.
The only way I’ll ever watch Breaking In again is if it’s on television and I forget I’ve seen it before. Even with it’s Panic Room in reverse twist, there’s absolutely nothing compelling about the film that makes it re-watchable. It’s not bad enough to finish in the bottom 10 of the year but it’ll just end up being one of those movies that sits in the bottom half of this year’s releases I might have to Google to remember what the heck it was about.
Why Watch?
You promised yourself you’d watch every Gabrielle Union movie when she was the badass leader of the East Compton Clovers in Bring It On and you don’t break promises.
Why Skip?
You eat Froot Loops not Fruit Rings cereal… so why should we expect you to watch this generic thriller?