Brake Should Have Stopped When They had the Chance

            I came across the movie Brake after enjoying the movie Buried. I saw it in the movie store and after seeing Stephen Dorff in Carjacked and seeing Buried, which was the first movie to put an actor in a box and only have him on screen, I said, “What the heck I’ll see what this one is all about.” And I rented it. I must say that I don’t think it even comes close to how great Buried is but all in all it is a pretty good film and a small part of me really gets a kick out of the ending.

            Brake is the story of Special Agent Jeremy Reins, Stephen Dorff, who wakes up and finds himself in a box in the trunk of a car. The only light that he can see is coming from a red, digital clock that is counting down. Quickly, Jeremy learns that nothing good comes from the clock reaching zero and that it is no accident that he is in this box. But will Jeremy tell these people what they want to know just to save his life or will he keep his secret and with that keep the President safe?

            This movie was shot over the course of twelve days, eleven in the box and one outside. In that time director Gabe Torres felt it best to shoot the movie in chronological order. Basically, unlike with most movies, this movie was shot starting on page one of the script straight through to the very last page. Stephen Dorff said that this really helped him develop his character better and relay his anxieties and frustration of being in a box for so long to the screen. In an interview Gabe Torres said that there were times when Dorff just wanted to get out of the box but he would tell him that they were going to try it again and Dorff would kick and throw himself around inside the box, basically throwing a temper tantrum, and some of those moments were actually used in the finished product. It was a good concept really, this story line, but the fact that writer Timothy Mannion admits that he got it from listening to 911 calls from people trapped in the trunk of a car on YouTube sort of raises some questions. But that has nothing to do with the movie I guess. The movie gives a very realistic feel of a person bouncing around in a trunk; this was achieved by taking the back half of a Crown Vic with the box mounted inside and mounting it to supports that enabled it to teeter back and forth with the help of a ten man team you have a car recklessly driving down streets. With all the technical stuff aside let’s get to the rest of the good stuff. The dialogue, at times, in the film might seem silly and the reactions that Jeremy gives to his captors might seem over done on his part, but really who could say how a person would handle this situation. I mean like I said earlier Dorff threw tantrums from time to time when Torres told him he couldn’t get out of the box and he’s just an actor who wasn’t in any danger what so ever. However, there is one problem with this movie that pretty much the whole internet community is united on. There are just too many twists to it. I don’t want to give anything away by going into too much detail on this point, but let’s just say that if they stopped the movie after just one twist it still would have led to a good ending and the general public would have probably liked that ending more than the one in the movie. So with all that said, when it comes right down to it, this is a pretty good movie. There’s a good story, plenty of action(even though pretty much the whole movie is in a trunk), and it has a lead actor who could carry the movie from start to finish. However, it is an independent film and a bit different from your everyday Hollywood film, so basically what I’m trying to say is maybe you should rent it before you fully commit yourself to adding it to your collection.

Check out the full preview here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPofHkR5K9E
Also be on the look out for my next review. Here's a little taste of what's to come https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1XUk3Jdwvw

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