Buried

Have you ever seen Van Wilder: Party Liason?  My advice...  Don't!  My next film is made by people who obviously wanted to make sure Van Wilder never happened again, so they stuck Ryan Reynolds in a box and forgot about him.  Unfortunately it still managed to spawn two sequels but that's not the point.  Without further ado onto the film Buried.

Helpfully the makers of Buried summed up their entire plot in the title; see Commando, The Crazies, Titanic (going the extra mile to even reveal the ending!).  In my opinion Avatar should have been called Smurfs On Crack.

Ryan Reynolds plays an American truck driver, Paul, working in Iraq who awakes to find himself in a wooden coffin buried alive.  His captives have been helpful enough to leave him some supplies akin to what most attendees of a rave carry at the weekend; Zippo lighter, glow sticks, torch, knife, flask and a BlackBerry...  Although we aren't supposed to know it's a BlackBerry, no product placement here!  During the hour and twenty minutes this film runs he talks to a lot of people on the phone, proving he should quit truck driving and immediately be cast in a BT advert.

Of course the now clichéd line is uttered...  "We do not negotiate with terrorists", no of course you don't you just go a jolly and steal their oil, but that's far too political for this blog so back to the film.  From start to finish it's all in the coffin, there are no flashes to life on the outside and the only physically present companion Paul has is a 5 minute cameo from a snake who pops out of his pants (that's not a euphemism) and is just as unhappy about being buried.

The thing about this situation is that for all the blabbering Paul does on the phone he makes no decent attempt at actually getting out of the coffin himself.  From what we can establish he is buried about six feet down, the wood is weak and he apparently has such a good air supply he can use his magical Zippo for long periods of time burning oxygen and it never gets too hot to hold.

Of course as a viewer we can criticise all we want, the reaction of Paul is probably far more realistic then we'll ever know.  The script provides a Reynolds a chance to show his acting abilities, demonstrating a kaleidoscope of emotions which border on him needing a straight jacket and a one way ticket to the mental hospital.  There is no doubting he shines in this film, he's no longer the funny guy, he's a one man army.

Today was not the day to decide to quit smoking!

Given the restrictions placed on this film by the plot location it does a good job in building the suspense and holding the tension, it feels short in length when watching but this probably due to the smart use of camera angles.  They constantly move giving different shots around Reynolds to heighten the sense of claustrophobia, watch it with the lights off and maybe wedge yourself between two shelving units to get that complete experience.

This is one of those films you should watch, just to say you've watched it, it'll divide audiences into two camps.  It's either a cinematic masterpiece or a piece of over-hyped rubbish, make up your own mind it's definitely worth the time.