Panic Room on DVD

A superior thriller in the “Wait Until Dark” tradition receives the superior Superbit treatment with its DVD release, and that's never a bad thing.

Jodie Foster stars in this David Fincher (Fight Club) outing that, thanks to Columbia Tristar's Superbit process looks and sounds simply spectacular.

Foster is Meg Altman, recently divorced from her pharmaceutical magnate husband and beginning a new life in Manhattan with her young daughter, Sarah (Kristen Stewart). They purchase a beautiful brownstone home in which the previous owner has installed a “panic room,” a virtually impregnable "human vault" off the master bedroom that also houses the home's closed circuit video monitoring system, a secure outside phone line, and various other lifesaving doodads.

Wouldn't you know it, the first night the two females spend in their new digs it gets broken into by a trio of nasty men bent on robbery. Fortunately, or so she thinks, Meg catches on just in time and hustles her daughter and herself into the safety of the panic room.

The problem is, these burglars aren't your average home invaders: they're bent on stealing the contents the house's safe, which they know just happens to be in the floor of that same panic room! So while Meg and Sarah are safely barricaded inside, that won't save them because the burglars need to get them out so they can get at the safe!

It's a delicious irony, made more delicious by the fact that one of the burglars (Forest Whitaker) is an employee of the firm that built the panic room, which is why he's there in the first place. Despite showing up for the burglary, he isn't really a hardened criminal; he just wants his share of the money with no hassle and with nobody getting hurt.

But the other two guys, played malevolently by Jared Leto (the "mastermind" who knows what's in the safe) and Dwight Yoakam, aren't as concerned about collateral damage: they want the money regardless of what it takes to get it.

There are some pretty good twists and turns in the plot, and these manage to help the movie go beyond what's basically a pretty thin premise and lets the filmmakers stretch things out to nearly two hours without straining the audience's credulity or getting boring or forced.

The film's appeal is enhanced by a great opening title sequence and some very arty computer-assisted (or generated) camera shots that are nothing short of spectacular. Unfortunately, they also tend to wear thin by about halfway through “Panic Room” and that causes us to remind Mr. Fincher that it's always best to leave the audience wanting more, and as far as his spectacular CG shots are concerned, he should save some for his next film.

Still, the artistry does make the film even more watchable - and it's pretty watchable to start with.

The performances are wonderful. Foster is always terrific, and the trio of bad guys is also deliciously portrayed.

The DVD itself, of course, is outstanding. We're big fans of Columbia Tristar's Superbit series and, though the differences between them and a good “normal” DVD can be subtle (especially if you aren't watching on state-of-the-art equipment), we'd love to see all movies released this way. Not only do you get a spectacular picture quality (it's presented in anamorphic widescreen, 16x9 TV compatible) that's brimming with detail and color, but you also get the choice between Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS soundtracks that are full and rich sonically as well.

As with most Superbit titles, you lose most of the extras in order to get the "utlimate" audio and visual experience, but that's okay with us: as much as we love supplementary material, we'd trade it for optimum performance from the movie any day.

Fortunately, Columbia Tristar Home Video has begun to offer “Superbit Deluxe” versions that offer both the movie spectacular and the extras, but this release of Panic Room isn't one of them: you only get the teaser trailer as an extra, and we're surprised they've even included that.

Anyway, Panic Room's a gripping yarn that's well worth seeing, as long as you don't mind graphic violence (and it isn't gratuitous, it's just ugly). We look forward to Mr. Fincher's next offering, and to more Superbit DVD's.

Oh, we love the new Superbit packaging, too, which is very classy. it's also slim enough to allow even more DVD's to be stored on your shelf (if they were all released this way, of course).

Panic Room, the Superbit Collection, from Columbia Tristar Home Video
112 min. anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1), 16x9 TV compatible, Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS surround sound
Starring Jodie Foster, Forest Whitaker, Dwight Yoakam, Jared Leto, Kristen Stewart
Produced by Gavin Polone, Judy Hoflund, David Koepp, Cean Chaffin
Written by David Koepp, Directed by David Fincher

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