I was reading bad reviews and it lead me to check this films rating as... a huge film fan (over 1000dvds in my collection), I love all sorts, but this was a piss poor excuse of a film!So.. the whole concept of keeping the guy isolated to make the audience feel it and pulled in, yes, good idea.. for a bit, then it just got rather dull, so much so I started to get frustrated.. How much do Films cost and make on box office? I started working out how much it would take me to recreate the movie.. the most expensive thing in the film was the guys blackberry.. Don't listen to any review that says it's good or artistic as it was a complete bag of drivel! I would rather watch ANY film than this again!! Any!

Gave it 2 stars bacause I somehow went against my instinct to turn it off after 2 minutes and then it held me. It had some hope of becoming good so I kept watching. There never was a positive turn. All bad all the time and mostly unrealistic. I kept saying "that would never happen" or "they wouldn't have said or done that". There has to be SOME reality- not a figment of some twisted imagination right to the end. Total waste of time - wish I trusted my instinct. Movies are to be entertained, not disturbed. And it's not 'art'. It's just amateurish crap.

Now now, I know what you are thinking. "How can a film set entirely in a small box be exciting?". To which I would've agreed with you, yet somehow director Rodrigo Cortés electrified me with his solid directing style. To have a camera freely moving with a person inside such a compact space is an achievement in itself. The story is about truck driver Paul Conroy who wakes up gagged, buried and running out of oxygen. He is forced to figure out how he got there where his survival skills are put to the ultimate test. What I admired was the balance of fear, thrills and dark comedy. In a situational film where character development is pushed aside, it is imperative that our lead character is likeable so that it is worth investing the time. They could be running through fire, swimming in shark infested waters or even drifting endlessly in space, if we can't relate to the character on an emotional level then there is no point. At all. After a slight rushed start, I can say this film worked. All thanks to Ryan Reynolds with one of his best performances by far. Multiple layers to his character that were well expressed. Laughing in times of crisis, angry in times of frustration and emotional in times of solace. He made Paul Conroy human. I sympathised with him and the situation he was in. Forget about the solitude of being in a tiny dark coffin, this film teaches you not how to survive in circumstances like this...no no. It teaches you how absolutely infuriating being put on hold is. My word it is the worst! So yes, I felt Conroy's rage and would've reacted the same way. There were times where the story dragged but it was bound to happen. Creating a 95 minute story in one small location is an achievement. Cortés' direction was so tight! He impressively captures the feeling of claustrophobia using low lighting and consistent shots of the walls, highlighting the sense of being trapped. The musical score didn't work for me, would've preferred silence. But a damn decent thriller with an outstanding performance.

*I will warn you of spoiler alerts before you read them*Paul Conway, a civilian truck driving contractor working in Iraq, wakes up to find himself in a wooden coffin with only a zippo lighter and a working cell phone.When I first read the synopsis, I thought...surely they can't sustain this for 90 minutes. I was wrong. Never once was a bored watching this movie. I thought Ryan Reynolds did a great job, although his actions at times were quite stupid, but having said that, how would I behave in the same situation?*MINOR SPOILER WARNING*At one point, a snake gets into the coffin with Paul. It looks venomous. What would you do in this situation? If it got in, it can get out. Would you just stay still (as you should be anyway) and wait for it to move on, or would you break the glow stick thingy you found, splash some of the flammable liquid on the snake, then light it ON FIRE. Already he has very little oxygen. It was frustratingly stupid. I just had to vent on that.*END SPOILER*This is very low budget by Hollywood standards. It relies on good writing, good pacing, and good suspense. Very well done movie.