Movies-TV

Dark And Suffocating...

Imagine being buried alive w/ a flashlight and only a 24hr supply of air to breathe. That's what Harry (Adrien Brody) does to his victim in order to extort one million dollars from her wealthy husband. A tough cop w/ something to hide (Maura Tierney), is called upon to get Harry to confess before his captive expires. Like SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, OXYGEN's strength lies in it's dialogue between Tierney and Brody (think Starling and Lecter). These two build a bizarre relationship that threatens the investigation. Harry is evil, yet intriguing and insightful. He probes the cop's mind and zeros in on her most sensitive secret. Of course, this is all taking place while some poor woman suffocates underground! Great characters and some nice twists make OXYGEN an enjoyable thriller...

All is not well that doesn't end well.......

Adrian Brody gives a very creepy tone to "Oxygen", which is a good thing. Maura Tierney is credible as a tormented cop. The screenplay about an ego driven kidnapper who idolizes Harry Houdini is different and intriguing. His ability to manipulate and outsmart the police and F.B.I. keeps things interesting and for about the first 75 minutes almost everything seems believable. Towards the end and especially with the ending, logic is completely suspended, the plot becomes contrived, and the audience is left with a preposterous conclusion. It is a real shame that "Oxygen" ends so badly, because the movie is highly watchable up until the wheels come off. - MERK

So much potential

With a compelling cast and half decent screenplay this film had potential. The low budget didn't help. The cheezy cinematography didn't help. But it was the ending. The ending. Oh god, the ending. What a letdown. I give a lot of credit to Richard Shephard. He will make good films sometime soon. But what a crappy ending. As is the problem with most good thrillers, the villain is more likable than the hero. With everything so meticulously planned out, how could he not foresee the conclusion.Garbage.Again, I can only hope for better in the future from Mr. Shephard.Especially better endings.

Surprisingly Tense....

Roaming around Hollywood Video's New Releases, passing through theatre hits and theatre flops, and the the unending list of direct-to-video releases, I found this. The story seemed like a good one, and I was in a hurry for something, so I decided to give it a whirl.The story is interesting. A middle-aged woman, Frances, is walking her dog when she is approached by what seems like a mild-mannered man. Before she knows it, he flashes a gun, dazes her by hitting her on the temple with it, and smuggles her into a car with a friend. They drive out to the woods somewhere, where she is terrified at the realization that they plan to bury her alive, holding her hostage for her rich husband's money. They put her in the box, the man's accomplice mercifully slipping her the flashlight, and bury her, leaving her to scream in terror.Move to New York City, where a cop, Madeline, is made aware of the predicament. After witnessing a horrifying tape of Frances begging for help in the woods, the police must plot to catch the kidnappers and find the woman, all in twenty-four hours, or Frances will run out of oxygen and die.I won't elaborate any more on the plot, only that this movie was surprisingly good. When I noticed it was from A-Pix, I groaned and figured I was in for an hour and a half of trash. But then I saw the breathtaking first few minutes, and I was shocked. If anything, those first three to five minutes are terrifying. As Frances is being buried, she is screaming and begging, struggling to survive, lying in that wooden box as the cover is being slipped on, with only a flashlight to depend upon. And even though the cops-pursuing-the-antagonist plotline is overused, it was quite tense, especially when you realize that there are only twenty-four hours to solve the mystery of where Frances is, and the kidnapper is not interested in talking, while his accomplice is nowhere to be found. Yes, there are flaws. The script is quite bad, with some lines that I can't believe they wrote in. For some reason, I liked the FBI agent's monologue on the death penalty a la lethal injection, but a lot was pretty bad. Maura Tierney was somewhat convincing as the main cop, playing a B-movie's Clarice Starling. The actor who played Francis's husband was a bit campy. Adrian Brody, the kidnapper, was pretty good, if not a little tough to believe. The one who out-acted them all was Laila Robins, who played Francis. Her role is quite small, only because there's a lot of restrictions with laying in a box underground for the most of the movie. But she was so convincing. My favorite scene is when the flashlight is dying, and she is screaming and begging for it to live a little longer, because, as we learn early on, she is afraid of the dark. I swear, I felt like I was her, and I couldn't believe how empathetic I was of her. Her acting reminded me of Marylin Burn's stellar performance as Sally in "Texas Chainsaw Massacre." She conveyed the emotions of the situation very well. I think that's why I felt so bad for her.Overall, I recommend finding this. No, it's not the best thing ever made, but it is very good, and quite intense. Check it out!

Plot holes

The plot holes in this little number are distracting. Mayberry didn't have a police department this small, for one thing, and no department is going to have a detective working directly under her spouse, for another. Shooting someone usually gets you a day off with pay, for one last quibble. Maura Tierney, while very real as a police officer, is stuck with a terribly written part. The rest of the cast is good, but wasted. A good idea,poorly executed.

Asphixiating

There is some remarkably good acting in this factory-line "psychological thriller". I also quite enjoyed the on-location shooting in NY. Apart from these arguable caveats this is a film which, with the mad-hatter's tea party concept exposed half-way through the (undoubtedly excruciating) filming process, whoever was in charge of production lost heart and ran off the final cut thinking only of limiting the losses.Is the film the study of a schizophrenic thinking he's Houdini or an essay in dealing with self-destructing obsession? It doesn't know. Is it a The Silence of the Lambs bandwagonner? Of course, but looks more like a diluted TV spin-off. But the ideas are the good (well, OK) bit - there's a lot of potential in bringing characters' psychological issues into narrative parity with the more conventional thrust of the psych-thriller. Look at Jane Campion's In The Cut.No, the film is let down - dropped - by scrappy editing that undermines the acting (which is really very good indeed from both Tierney and Brodie under the circumstances), an excess of small, interpolated scenes designed to explain but which simply patronize and stun the pace - and then turn out to be cul-de-sacs anyway - and some of the worst continuity errors I've ever seen in a film. Ideal viewing for the cinematically mawkish 2/10

I liked it

I think this is a pretty good movie. Basically, Maura Tierney plays a detective who has some very big personal problems to deal with and gets sucked into a kidnapping case only to become the last hope the victim has.I especially like the way Maura is cast as the leading role. Refreshingly, she is a real woman with very real problems. Most people probably cannot relate with the specific issues she has to deal with, but the one thing I was left with when the movie was over was that she was 100% believable. She's not some kind of "super" human like every other star in a good-guy vs. bad-guy movie. She's just a smart detective who manages to stay alive.

Looks Good

Shepard does things Shepard's way, as usual . . . did you know this guy used to be in a punk band in NYC in the early 80's called Yeast Infection? I saw them once. They were pretty raw. I guess he's gotten his life together and now can make good lookin' pictures like this! I wouldn't call it a sellout.

Taut Crime Thriller

This made for TV psychological crime thriller exceeded my expectations. The story begins with the abduction of a rich wife for ransom. She is buried alive and her abductor sets about collecting the ransom for the location of her grave. However, this is really not the story but only the set up. The real story is about what happens after he is caught as the police and the FBI race against time to get him to reveal where she's buried.

Our sociopathic villain, known to us only as Harry (after his idol Harry Houdini) is well prepared for the psychological cat and mouse game that follows as he had planned what he would do if he were caught. The result is an effective (though often superficial) contest of psychological one upsmanship between Harry (Adrien Brody) and our heroine police detective, Madeline (Maura Tierney).

The story has some noticeable plot flaws for a film that is attempting to be a serious crime drama. Certain elements of Harry's escape attempts are implausible. Much of the dialogue between the police officers and FBI agents was inane drivel that made them look like idiots. There are other problems later in the story involving the buried wife that are also troubling. These are not enough, however, to mar an otherwise well crafted plot.

I was most impressed by the photography, not just the look of the film, but the way the images presented themselves. Director Richard Shepard used the camera very creatively, using objects in foreground and background to dramatize certain images. There was an excellent shot of Madeline's reflection seen in extreme close-up in Harry's eye. The handheld chase scenes made you feel like you were running behind the action. This is a level of directing that is not normally seen on TV. The whole film had a very raw, real look. Things were dirty and disorganized, just like in real life rather than being carefully and symmetrically placed.

The acting ranged from fair to excellent. The cops and the husband were generally pretty mediocre with moments of nausea. Maura Tierney was good but didn't have the range to play Madeline effectively. Madeline's character required a combination of tormented, pathetic self abuser and case hardened cop. Tierney was outstanding at the tormented side, but came across as tentative and flaccid as the cop (which was the greater part of the role).

The best performance comes from Adrian Brody as Harry. He was wry and unsophisticated while being just close enough to the edge to keep you guessing if he was cunning or just a psychopath. He played the part with sarcastic disdain, as if the character thought he was smarter than he really was, which indeed was the case.

Terry Kinney's character, Madeline's cop husband Tim, didn't give him much to work with. He was a wimpy whining loser. Kinney did an adequate job at this portrayal.

I rated this movie 7/10. For those who enjoy a psychological crime thriller, it won't disappoint.

Incredible Adrian Brody performance

This movie is worth watching if only for an incredible "evil guy" performance by Adrian Brody. He is oddly likeable, even if his character is chillingly bad. This is not a movie I would watch over and over again, but I really enjoyed it once.

good script, bad production

this movie had some excellent writing, the sort of thing david fincher would have made into a great movie i would probably add to my video collection, but it was given to a mediocre director who needs to work, hard, on atmosphere. even just a tint to the film may have been enough. the acting was all right, some good, some not-so-good, but the writing itself was fantastic. it doesn't have a specifically interesting ending, nothing that shocks you or makes you remember it, so that could have been worked on, but all-in-all, for lovers of movies such as se7en, it's definitely worth seeing.

What a misfire!

This movie begins with an interesting premise, a ticking clock situation with a woman buried alive and running short of air. The police and the FBI are on the case, and one of the kidnappers (Adrien Brody) is captured. He turns out to be a sadist, and -- what fun -- we already know that the detective played by Maura Tierney is a masochist. So there ought to be fireworks.Sadly, there aren't.The script never manages to find the evil at the heart of Brody's character.
Nor do they successfully illuminate Tierney's shame. You can feel the writers straining to get it right because the strain really shows.The other problem is that neither Brody nor Tierney are up to their roles.
Brody is shallow although he's never boring. But Tierney (as much as I like her elsewhere) really falls flat. These performances only briefly brush evil and shame.The only actor who breathes any real life into his role is Terry Kinney as Tierney's husband and commanding officer (and I believe that situation would never be allowed by the NYPD). But he isn't onscreen enough to help the movie.And the whole time, the movie hurts itself badly by referencing the seriously superior "The Interview" in which Hugo Weaving not only found the heart of evil but laid it bare. A movie this derivative shouldn't be pointing to its roots. There's no real suspense on hand, no real psychological insight and no credibility. It may be a movie milestone for upstate New Yorkers, though -- as far as I know it's the very first movie to make Poughkeepsie the scene of the crime.

Good, but not fabulous

I ordered this movie from amazon.com and wasn't disappointed. It isn't wonderful, but it's thoroughly entertaining, pretty scary, and Adrian Brody's character was fascinating. He and Maura Tierney both did excellent jobs in this film, although Maura Tierney's character was slightly less developed. The plot is well crafted and the movie is engaging. I recommend this movie.

This is a 'B' movie: better than average.

I expected so little from this small movie with its no-name cast that I gave it my usual 20-minute test. (If a movie doesn't grab me in 20 minutes, can it.)Was I surprised! Although a low-budget film, the acting was quite good & Richard Shepard (who wrote & directed) did an excellent job, grabbing interest quickly & sustaining it.The bad guy, Harry, at first seemed a simple-minded villain. However, although he was distinctly good at being an obnoxious sociopath (the terms do not always go in tandem, the seemingly affable Ted Bundy is a one example), he DID become far more interesting than I imagined -- much smarter than one would have suspected. We're talking gut smart, instinct smart, perhaps even intuitively keen. His ability to 'read' Madeline, to ferret out her true persona, to observe him honing in on her psychological dysfunction was fascinating.From the get-go, Madeline has your attention. Is she simply a cop driven to serve society & keep the ordinary citizen safe? Partially. Then we discover Madeline's secret side, a side her husband doesn't see but Harry latches onto almost immediately.I do remember stories of people being buried alive, especially since I'm old enough to have seen the original Vincent Price movies when first released & am familiar with the Poe fears and stories. As the victim, Frances (played very well by Laila Robins) is sealed in a wooden coffin covered with dirt somewhere apparently so isolated nobody near can hear her dog's insistent barking. Her fear is palpable & comes across with brutal reality. You hope she will survive -- but the outcome is questionable as time ticks agonizingly slow for her but too quickly for those trying to ensure her rescue. It's Einstein's relativity theory embodied in this very tense situation.On the debit side, more could have been done with her husband. His character was shunted aside too much for my taste: what kind of relationship did they have & why was he so unaware of her darker side? An alcoholic problem is addressed fleetingly, but as any member of a 12-step group would know, one has to reach a base understanding of motivation to move ahead. Maybe they hadn't attended enough meetings.Summing up, 'Oxygen' was a surprising treat. It pulls you in quickly, deals quite well with complex situations. Although I shun violence, found myself wanted to applaud a violent act which I personally consider not to be an exception in real life.

Great actors, great atmosphere

That's the kind of movie you watch without too high expectations and then it totally blows you away, and you can't turn it off, and at the end you wish you could know what's going to happen now. The story is not really Award-worthy - young, brilliant criminal buries the wife of a rich man to get some money, and then he gets interrogated by a female cop. But the actors are just great - Adrien Brody shows his evil face and you got really scared of him, and Maura Tierney... We know that she can play, we saw it a thousand times at ER, but the role of the depressive, drinking cop seems to fit her absolutely perfect. You just have to watch her throwing her life away, getting pulled in that turmoil of herself deeper with every minute. You want to save her, but you know, even if you had the possibility to get to know her in real life, you couldn't, because in a sick way it fascinates you to just watch. And the chemistry between her and Brody is amazing - after the first meeting of both you are not able to turn this movie out. I loved it, it's my favorite movie, and whoever appreciates the talent of Maura Tierney, you will love it too...

TAKE A DEEP BREATH

OXYGEN is a subtly breathtaking thriller that derives its cinematic tension from the performances and the very idea of the horrible act the psychotic perpetrates, with no remorse or conscience.
Adrien Brody (pre PIANIST) gives a dynamic, controlled and skin-crawling performance as "Harry Houdini" who has kidnapped the wife of a wealthy businessman, buried her alive, and asking for a million dollars to tell where he's buried her.
Maura Giveney is superb as the alcoholic detective, who is married to her boss (Terry Kinney). Whether this kind of nepotism is realistic is not important, as their relationship is very human and very real.
Tierney makes the mistake of facing Brody in the interrogation room, where he manages to take the upper hand in picking away at her weaknesses.
Laila Robins as the burial victim offers a strong, gutwrenching performance as a woman pleading for her life, yet remaining as strong as the situation allows.
There's measured suspense in wondering if Brody will ever tell anyone where Robins is; he's a master of smart-talk, cool control and out and out disgusting. An Oscar nomination would have been appropriate, had the movie had a better release.
A tense, disturbing little thriller with an unusual ending.

Suspenseful and Amazing

I thought this movie was absolutely brilliant. OK, so there are a minor few details that can be touched upon, but the plot is riveting and keeps you on your toes. I thought Brody's performance was extraordinary. I have never seen a murderer portrayed in such a manner, it was very unique. The connection that developed between Brody and Madeline( forgot her real name) was intense, and if you can't see how their deepest desires are somewhat the same then you won't understand the movie. Basically, a good film with good actors, maybe if it was produced by someone else it could have been made into an Oscar winning film.

Tierney and Brody are Great, The Movie is Just Okay!!

It's been a long time since I've seriously blind bought a DVD or video. I normally go the rental way. But as I was passing through ... I stumbled upon this interesting film. It was called OXYGEN. I later discovered it was made for Showtime Television, as an original movie. I can see why, it's a potentially taught thriller, that's half realized.

Maura Tierney (Scotland PA) stars as Madeline Foster, a New York City Cop with a few humiliating secrets. Adrien Brody, (The Pianist) is Harry, a psychopath who has buried a women (Laila Robins, True Crime) alive in an elaborate extortion plot. When Harry refuses to talk to anyone but Foster, these two lives are caught in a dangerous cat and mouse game, and a women's life is at stake.

For what it's worth this is a well thought out thriller here. The elements are there to create a taught and fairly compelling cat and mouse game. But as the pieces fall into place, you realize its foundation is a house of cards and in the end everything is a little forced.

I think the biggest problem is that Brody's character knows too much. He puts two and two together far faster than even the audience does. For instance, he notices cigarette burns on Foster's arm. Instantly he jumps to a conclusion, that while true, takes a leap far to big for it's own good.

Tierney's character doesn't fare much better. The screenplay by Writer/Director Richard Shepard (The Linguini Incident) is too vague about her. Creating tension that goes nowhere. She's fighting demons of course, but does she do it for Alcohol? To give into some crazy fetish? Since the movie only makes a feeble attempt to sort out her problems, it falls flat. Every explanation comes from Harry's mouth a man she's never met before and I don't think he's that bright.

But on a positive note, Tierney and Brody are excellent in their roles. Even if I didn't buy the premise, those two actors are just so damn watchable. Tierney is like the girl next door with edge, the camera loves her, and she's so good at everything I've ever seen her do. I like how her performance transcends the material. She brings it all up a notch, something that a lesser actress would struggle with. Her performance reveals a woman who is struggling, even if the struggles are a little trite and silly.

Furthermore, Brody makes a great psycho. I liked everything about his character. I love how there is never a moment that he feels cornered. He runs the show at every minute. Like Harry Houdini (in which the story makes frequent reference too), Brody's character is an escape artist, with a sarcastic edge. In a better film this kind of character could win him an Oscar. Hmm.... I wonder if they ever did Hannibal Lecter: The Early Years, if they would consider hiring Brody? He's that good here.

OXYGEN is a half realized but watchable film. It wears its flaws on its sleeve. But it also has two really great performances in it. So do I recommend you see it? If you're nit-picky like me, than you probably won't like it. If you can give a movie its due despite it's many flaws, than yes.

*** out of 5

Gripping

Witty, dark, twisted, thrilling. Maura Tierny (Primary Colors, Forces of Nature, News Radio) is great, and quite unlike you have ever seen her before, and Adrien Brody (Thin Red Line, Summer of Sam) is wonderful as the remorseless, calculating and manipulative psychopath.

regardless of the comments...

... I enjoyed "oxygen" to an extent. Alright, it's not perfect. Fine. The script is underdeveloped. Okay. But, mind you, the performances by both Maura Tierney and Adrien Brody are worthwhile. Their unusual chemistry intensifies the scenes their in together. Other than the script, the scene with the agent should have been cut.