Movie Review - P2

Saw this one in the theater as well. Opening night. Had a few technical problems with the showing, so I ended up seeing it again. Both reviews are below.

Angela is working late on Christmas Eve and is the last to leave the building. She gets to her car which is parked in the underground parking garage and finds out that it will not start. Her cell phone has no service, so she finds the security guard and asks if he can let her back in the building so she can call a cab because she's already late getting to her sister's house for the holiday gathering. He offers to, instead, follow her to her car to help get it to start - bringing jumper cables with him. She is a little reluctant because she really just wants to call a cab so she can leave, but he seems nice, so she accepts his offer. After jumping her car, it still won't start, so he lets her in the building and she calls the cab but then when the cab arrives, she finds out that the building is locked from the inside and she cannot find the security guard to let her out so the cab drives away. She gets ready to make another phone call and is jumped from behind and wakes up with her leg shackled to a table where she sees that dinner is set for two. The security guard has her held prisoner because it turns out he has been watching her for a long time and decided that he wanted to spend some time with her because he likes her. So now she has to not only figure out how to get away from him, but also figure out how she is going to get help from the outside since her cell phone has no service and since she is locked inside the parking garage. She later finds out that one of her co-workers who made an unwelcomed advance on her has been kidnapped by this psycho security guard as he thinks he has done her this favor since she's not the only female in the building the guy has tried to attack.

The trailer was horrible, so I just knew this was going to be a bad movie but I wanted to see it, anyway. I was surprised. It actually had a very good plot concept. A few points hit home pretty hard (workaholic, no social life, hell...even the character's name) which definitely gave a creep factor to it. The security guard had a ferocious watchdog that also added to the heart racing scenes. But it was pretty unrealistic. Even though the revolving doors would have been locked for the holiday, there would have been SOME way for her to get out of the building. (Some exit only panic device on a door somewhere close by.) :] Fire and life/safety code states that.

Those of you I sent a text message to afterwards saying that it was pretty bad, I think maybe I initially judged it a little too harshly based on my viewing experience. Besides me, there was a woman with her 6 kids. Three of the kids decided to every 10 minutes or so run up and down the stairs, clomping as loudly as they could. And it was EXTREMELY distracting and the mom was doing absolutely nothing to keep them in their seats. ::getting on my soapbox:: If you go to the movies with your kids, either learn how to control them or leave the brats at home. And to make matters worse, about an hour into the movie, somehow the film had moved up so there was this line all the way across the screen and the top part of the movie was now at the bottom of the screen under this line....and this went on until the end of the movie. I know, I know, I should have complained, but all the dozens of times the kids were clomping around, I thought for sure that one of the times they left the theater, the mom had told them to tell the manager....once the end credits started rolling, I realized that wasn't the case. (Because of this experience, I am seriously considering getting one of those little pager things that notifies the manager as soon as my viewing experience becomes dissatisfying because of something like this again. I'm quickly becoming one of their best customers, so I expect that my viewing experience be the best possible.)

So the acting wasn't the best and they could have done a better job with the score, but otherwise it was a pretty decent movie. I think when it comes out on dvd, provided it has a commentary, I will buy it and find out that when I see it again (without the two annoying factors I had to deal with) that it is an enjoyable thriller. While there are a couple of gruesome scenes (a la Very Bad Things), it is only moderately scary, but it's the type of scary that could really happen. If you're expecting a good horror movie, you will be disappointed, but if you're wanting to see a thriller with an interesting ending, this might be for you.

Second Viewing of P2
I saw P2 for a second time. It was SO much better without the picture being all screwy. And it turns out that when I saw it the first time, I must have dozed off for about 10 minutes because I totally missed the dog attack scene. And now it makes sense why she was limping at the end of the movie. Here I was thinking they were just trying to overdramatize the situation by having her limp, but when a dog takes a huge chomp on your leg, it tends to make you have trouble walking like normal. (Trust me, I know.)

This one still cuts a little close to home for me. Single girl. Workaholic. No boyfriend. No life. Working late by herself. Thankfully we don't have a parking garage here. :]

Vixy :]