Highly Overrated But Still Good

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

The acting in this movie is really good.

I thought that, after the successful Captain America: The First Avenger, director Joe Johnston would exclusively dedicate himself to make high-profile films. But no; his following film ended up being a modest straight-to-DVD thriller... something which isn't bad. The problem comes from the fact that the film is mediocre. Not Safe for Work counted with the appropriate ingredients for a modern thriller: an intelligent main character with a fair motivation; sinister corporative villains willing to do anything to preserve their earnings; and the obligatory use of technology to solve (or create) problems and increment the tension. Unfortunately, Not Safe for Work feels insipid, with a fluid and accessible structure, but emotionally empty. While I was watching this movie, I was trying to find the missing element. The screenplay might not offer big displays of ingenuity or creativity, but it's efficient and concise, avoiding any filler and taking us from one event to the other without obfuscating us or relying on excessive coincidences. I think the guilty one is Johnston, an usually skillful and sure director who, in this case, didn't bring enough energy to make the movie come to life. And worsening the situation, the performances from Max Minghella, Christian Clemenson and Eloise Mumford are as apathetic and lacking of personality as the direction. In conclusion, Not Safe for Work is a mediocre, but moderately entertaining thriller which deserves a slight recommendation. But in the context of Johnston's career, it feels like an unexplainable anomaly, even if he was just trying to "cleanse the palate" of special effects and big budgets (for the case, he had already done something similar with the brilliant drama October Sky). I just hope that Johnston hasn't lost his ability to tell stories with much more enthusiasm and personality than in Not Safe for Work.

I've seen this film twice now and for a low budget film this was impressive and it held my attention. I enjoyed this film I found it entertaining and I thought it was well directed and I liked the story. A man gets trapped inside a building after work where a killer is on the loose. The man sees someone get murdered in the building that he works in and he tries to survive the evening and escape. The story was straight forward and to the point and sometimes straight forward is better. I thought the acting was good from everyone and I liked the main characters I thought they were likable and interesting. The main character who gets trapped inside his work building is a nice guy and liked him and I cared about what happened to him,I also liked his cool and calm attitude he was a character that was always in control and he never panicked when he found out there was a killer in the building and I liked that about him. Most people would have freaked out and panicked but he never did,instead he stayed calm and tried to find a way out of the building.he was a character that was smart and used his brain for most of the film. I actually liked the bad guy too I found him interesting and sometimes he was quite funny,he also had this cool and calm demeanour which I liked,he always seemed to be in control and he barely ever lost control he also spoke with a strange calmness which I found interesting and I thought he was a cool bad guy.The bad guy was smart and he always seemed to know what he was doing. When He finds out there is someone else in the building he hunts him down and tries to kill him and a game of cat and mouse ensues which I found interesting. The main character spends a lot of the film running around trying to hide from the killer but he was NOT a weak character,there were times were he was able to trick the killer and lock him in the hallway and he was also able to shut down all the elevators to stop the killer from leaving which kept him trapped in the building which I thought was smart. I also liked how the lead guy stood up to the killer and toyed with him just as much as the killer was toying with him,I liked how he gave the killer a taste of his own medicine I found it quite entertaining actually.There were also some well done suspenseful scenes that I liked.The lead guy and his girlfriend fight with the killer at the end of the film. There was also a good twist at the end of the film that I did not see coming but I have to admit the Ending did feel a bit rushed. Despite the rushed ending the film was still good and I liked the way it ended. This was a cool film and its worth a watch.

Another sad ending movie, entire movie is elevated very well until it turn in to an end. They keep the suspense material even after movie finishes. I am personally hate this kind of suspense or the movies not giving a proper finish.A very big law firm is going after a very large pharmaceutical company. Tom (JJ Feild) is a paralegal working on the case. He is secretly dating Ann (Eloise Mumford) so the story doesn't become too linear or boring. Tom gets fired and on his way out espies an odd suitcase exchange. He follows the man (Max Minghella) to the 34th floor only to secretly watch him engage in sabotage and then a murder. The film is then consumed with a cat and mouse game that takes place on one floor in an office building. If watching two grown men hiding under a cubicle desk makes your top ten list of entertainment, go for it. Tom forced himself into the situation and could have taken the stairs out at any time. I never felt the intensity. For me the office cat and mouse game was boring and "the twist" was nothing to write home about.

A trifle of an opinion for this trifle of a movie. Without realizing it, I was watching a 70-minute film. It ended before I knew it. I found it remarkable that the introduction was so short and it didn't take long before Tom Miller got stuck on a floor in a pharmaceutical company with a killer. A thriller (with really almost no thrills) without bells and whistles. Yet some respect for Joe Hohnston who in the past directed films like "Jumanji", "The Rocketeer", "Jurassic Park III" and "Captain America: The First Avenger", and then he finishes a simple low-budget straight-to-DVD movie. And also with a production company which released films like "Paranormal Activity", "Oculus", "Insidious" and "The Purge". A sticker on the DVD cover with these data on it and you have a guaranteed amount of film fans who expect a gem. I am convinced that a large part of them will be disillusioned. So Tom Miller is a novice clerk who works in the legal department of a large pharmaceutical company. He's trying to prove himself and writes on his own initiative a note about a mafia family. However, this is not appreciated by everybody and he is fired at the end of the day. (We are only 5 minutes far in the movie). When he arrives in the lobby with his personal belongings in a cardboard box, he witnesses a briefcase exchange between someone who leaves the building and a second person who looks like a businessman. Of course, he decides to follow the man and he eventually ends up on the same floor where he had just left and he realizes after a time he's stuck on this electronically sealed floor. What we get is a kind of "Die Hard" hostage in an office but without a lot of action, gunfights and comical and entertaining dialogs. It's a cat and mouse game where all the characters are mostly running and creeping around back and forth. Only JJ Feild, as the cold-blooded killer, made an impression in terms of acting. Until the last moment, he remains admirably calm and he gives the impression to have situation completely under control. The rest of the company just put on a mediocre acting show. Is it such a bad movie ? No not really. I found it fascinating to watch. As long as you don't expect some pronounced action, thoughtful dialogs and sophisticated put together storyline, it'll increase your appreciation level. I don't know if it is intentional, but there really are no explicit or gory murder scenes. The short playing time is another plus. That way you won't get the opportunity to get annoyed about certain things.Conclusion: A straightforward low-budget thriller with very few surprises or twists, but still enjoyable in a certain way.More reviews at : http://opinion-as-a-moviefreak.blogspot.be/