You're a movie villain with what you believe is a perfectly laid plan but underestimate the regular folk. Before you know it everything is in tatters, you've lost some of your most accomplished henchmen and you're left with the sinking feeling that you could've gotten away with it if it wasn't for those pesky (fill in the blank). My point? In the words of Shirley Bassey, this is all a bit of history repeating. That is not necessarily a bad thing. The question today is whether Breaking In adds to or diminishes the home invasion movie genre.
After her estranged and wealthy father dies, Shaun (Gabrielle Union) travels with her two children (Ajiona Alexus and Seth Banee Carr) to her childhood home to tie up loose ends which includes selling the house. The house in question is a paranoid person's dream, tricked out with all types of high tech security. I'll pause to point out that ironically but probably for the best there is no literal panic room. What Shaun and her children do not realize is that the house has already been invaded by four men- Eddie (Billy Burke), Duncan (Richard Cabral), Sam (Levi Meaden) and Peter (Mark Furze)- seeking a big payday. In short order, Shaun is locked out of the house with her two kids at the mercy of the dangerous thugs.
Breaking In has all the pluses and minuses of this type of movie. There are little plot holes if you take the time to look too closely, The dialogue goes heavy on driving home the point that you don't mess with this fierce leading lady's children. Also, too many conversations between Shaun and main bad guy, Eddie, go something like this - "You don't know what I'm capable of!"..."Oh yeah, well you don't know what I'm capable of!!". I understand with the target audience why it is PG-13 but it's a bit flat when you have a character say "freaking" rather than drop the F bomb. If I were in this situation you should be advised there would be some creative cursing.
Overall though, this was a slightly silly but enjoyable way to spend some time in the theater. Speaking of time, one my favorite things about Breaking In is a runtime of 88 minutes. It's concise and compact. Why is Shaun estranged from her father? Don't know and in this case that is perfectly ok. My new rule is that unless there is some Thanos finger snapping action, I don't want to spend more than two hours in the theater seat. Sorry, but Avengers' references are still strong with me. I give Breaking In a solid B... actually no make that a B+. The plus is all about Gabrielle Union selling it big time in what I believe is her first all out action role.
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