Buried Movie Review 160

 Buried is a Spanish thriller starring Ryan Reynolds. It is directed by Rodrigo Cortes.

Paul Conroy(Reynolds) is a truck driver who is working in Iraq. He wakes up to find himself in a wooden box, buried underground. He has a lighter and he lights it up and sees where he is. He shouts and begins to panic at first when he realises what  has happened. He tries to open the box, but fails.Suddenly, a phone rings. There is a cell phone in the box with him. He calls the cops and other people, but they don't seem able to help him. In fact, they seem to be asking him stupid questions and it seems very unrealistic to me. I thought that the FBI or other agencies would take everything seriously, but in this movie, they don't seem too bothered. We find out that Paul was driving in a convoy when he was attacked. Some of his friends were killed and he just remembers being knocked out and waking up in the box. Paul rings his job but there is just an answering machine. He finds the number that called him in the beginning and it is the kidnapper. He wants money by 9 PM or Paul is dead.

He calls the State Department but they are useless too. They know his name and what is happening. They give him a number to ring. He gets through to a guy called Dan Brenner and he helps in hostage situations. He tries to calm him down. The kidnapper calls Paul and tells him to make a video. He wants money too. Paul finds a glow stick, a torch and a knife in the box. He calls Dan and tells him what the kidnapper said. Dan tells him not to make the video but when Paul receives a video of some woman they have held hostage, he makes it. Then there is snake in the box with him at one stage and he has to chase it away. He calls his wife and they chat. His time is running out and he keeps in contact with Dan who tells him that they are getting closer all the time. Will they reach him in time????

This movie was interesting, but I thought that it was a little far fetched. Firstly, Paul had a phone with reception, he could get through to the US from Iraq with no interference or anything. He had a torch, a glow stick, a knife etc. I know that the kidnappers did that for a reason, but I just thought that the story was a little unrealistic. When Paul calls the different agencies, they ask him stupid questions and sound inept, which irritated me. In reality, I would think that they would just shoot Paul or behead him and video it themselves. That is just my opinion. I liked the movie, though and Reynolds did a very good job of acting with nothing but himself and a wooden box.  I did not like the ending at all, but that's my opinion....If you have seen this movie, let me know what you thought of the ending and the points I made above....This gets a 7/10.