Very suspenseful and kept me into it throughout, rooting for the main character. never bored. pleasantly unpredictable for the most part. lots of dumb stuff but mostly forgivable if you're just looking for mindless entertainment. one funny thing was that she kept talking to herself. i think ppl too often make fun of a character talking to themselves, sometimes i talk to myself, aka thinking out loud. i think a lot of ppl do it. but this movie took it to another level. she was almost narrating at times. forgivable but funny. there were some negatively impacting talk-out-loud moments, but they were specifically ones that were used to explain what is happening to the audience, when the majority of the time it is so clear without any need for an explanation. like instead of saying "i'm out of ammo," just show the gun click. i was also pleased that there weren't any glaring questionable decisions (1 viewing)
SPOILERS
(continued) until the end where there were two really bad ones. i almost dropped it to 2.5, but i just had a good feeling about the movie when it was over. i was entertained.
the questionable decisions were: so halle's character seems pretty smart the whole movie, making some great decisions throughout (with some leeway for desperation). but at the end when she called the police and found her son in the barn. the lady came back, and she decides to make a ton of noise to break the pipe so her son can climb down. WHY!? the cops are on the way. tell the kids to stay quiet, and hide until the cops come. so simple, minimal risk, minimal danger. no, instead lets break this pipe, let the lady know we're here so she can bring her shotgun to try to kill me, all so i can hug my kid and may try to run into open fields. like wtf. it made me pretty mad since i thought they did well in this area to this point. i tried justifying it by saying she was so emotional that nothing would stop her from holding her kid, but i couldn't. she risked her life and the lives of the 3 kids when she had basically won already. shame on you movie. not the character, the writers.
then this was also really dumb, but kind of irrelevant, you could have taken it out and the movie would have been unchanged, probably better. the neighbor comes in with a shotgun all suspicious, he's in on it but pretends to be oblivious. then when he hears the kids, he puts down his shotgun and tries to bring them down. huh??? for what purpose. kill the lady.... like whaaaaaa? i'm so confused. he slips up showing he knows it's 2 girls and she hits him with a shovel. also why not pick up his shotgun instead of the shovel? lol. maybe it should be 2.5
SPOILERS
(continued) until the end where there were two really bad ones. i almost dropped it to 2.5, but i just had a good feeling about the movie when it was over. i was entertained.
the questionable decisions were: so halle's character seems pretty smart the whole movie, making some great decisions throughout (with some leeway for desperation). but at the end when she called the police and found her son in the barn. the lady came back, and she decides to make a ton of noise to break the pipe so her son can climb down. WHY!? the cops are on the way. tell the kids to stay quiet, and hide until the cops come. so simple, minimal risk, minimal danger. no, instead lets break this pipe, let the lady know we're here so she can bring her shotgun to try to kill me, all so i can hug my kid and may try to run into open fields. like wtf. it made me pretty mad since i thought they did well in this area to this point. i tried justifying it by saying she was so emotional that nothing would stop her from holding her kid, but i couldn't. she risked her life and the lives of the 3 kids when she had basically won already. shame on you movie. not the character, the writers.
then this was also really dumb, but kind of irrelevant, you could have taken it out and the movie would have been unchanged, probably better. the neighbor comes in with a shotgun all suspicious, he's in on it but pretends to be oblivious. then when he hears the kids, he puts down his shotgun and tries to bring them down. huh??? for what purpose. kill the lady.... like whaaaaaa? i'm so confused. he slips up showing he knows it's 2 girls and she hits him with a shovel. also why not pick up his shotgun instead of the shovel? lol. maybe it should be 2.5