The Story:

Ryan Reynolds stars as Paul Conroy a truck driver contracted to work in Iraq. After his convoy is ambushed by terrorists Paul awakens and realizes he’s been captured, and buried in a crate sized coffin with only a cell phone to contact the outside world.We spend the entirety of the movie with Reynolds as he tries desperately to reach somebody who cares. The audience does get to know Ryan Reynolds on a personal level after going through this ordeal with him, because the viewer is right there with him, trapped in this box for the entire film.

I never found myself particularly concerned with the character, because in my opinion, Ryan Reynolds has such an infectious charisma he can only play one character, and that’s Ryan Reynolds. While Paul gets frustrated, anxious, and terrified Reynolds’ trade mark smirk never leaves his face. The idea behind the movie feels a little wasted, while it is enjoyable I wanted to see a man who would forever be wounded by the ordeal, and this barely felt like a life changing experience. The movie throughout had me thinking if Reynolds’ were to escape with seconds left, he would be able to continue his life without another thought. Again it’s a hard call, as far as survival is concerned it’s probably good to stay as calm as humanly possible, and maybe that thought process is hard to transfer to film.

Effects/Gore:

The effect is the idea of how it would feel to be buried alive. After the first 20 minutes I found the claustrophobic tension begin to wane. I think different camera angles could have been used, to further emphasis the confinement and expand on the terror one would probably experience in a similar situation.

Final Headcount:

I’m on the fence with this one, I really enjoyed ‘Buried’ but found it to be forgettable once I left the theatre. I began thinking about how a film like this could have been more effective. I’m not sure if the reason this film didn’t make a larger impact with me is because I’ve been desensitized by all of the horror films I’ve seen, or if it’s just a concept where the thought of being buried alive is actually scarier than witnessing it through the camera lens.