Writer: Lester Gan Wai Lun

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Watch this if you liked: "Panic Room" & "I Spit On Your Grave"

Does this film fall into the category of Nicolas Cage's abyss of crappy films? Of course it does. Ever since the success of "Kick Ass", the actor seems to have lost his ability to pick which movies to stay away from. Director Joel Schumacher is considered a lucky man that he even got anyone to be a part of a film where the plot is predictable and a script written by what feels like a 12-year-old.

Kyle and Sarah Miller played by Nicolas Cage and Nicole Kidman, are a wealthy couple living with their teenage daughter, Avery (Liana Liberato) in a very modern house somewhere in the woods. However they're not a happy family, as while their daughter is a rebellious one, Kyle runs a dodgy business deals involving huge amounts of cash which requires his constant attention leading to his wife's sexual suppression and the need for attention. All these make them the perfect target for thieves. A masked gang disguised as guards from their security service burst in one night demanding that Kyle unlocks the safe they believe contains lots of diamonds.

And soon after, the Miller family starts fighting back. Not to anyone's surprise though, seeing how dumb the thieves actually were. In an ordinary thriller film, a gun to the head will be seen once or twice, but in this one, it happens so many times that the suspense is never there. Anyone would know that they're not going to take the shot, let alone the Miller family.

However, it's entertaining in the sense that the characters in this film reacts to a situation like no other human would. The acting was bad but the blame should not fall to the cast members but mainly to the writer who's not giving them much to work with. Nicole Kidman should've known better than to star in this film though.

Nicolas Cage should really pick his films wisely from now on, instead of cashing in easy cheques. All in all, this is proof that A-grade actors/actresses aren't enough to save a C-grade production.

Cinema Online, 19 October 2011