Purely Joyful Movie!

Powerful

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

PANIC BUTTON is another low budget 'single location' thriller about a group of people trapped in one place and forced to confront some unpalatable truths about themselves. Although much is made of the plane setting, the lack of a special effects budget means that this might as well be set anywhere: a train carriage, a cellar, you name it.The film has much in common with your usual thriller in this mould and indeed one of the cast, Jack Gordon, would go on to be in the almost identical TRUTH OR DARE (which was much better, by the way). The usual problems unfold, namely poor scripting which takes the form of unlikeable cast members you either don't care about or actively wish bad stuff to happen to.The low budget nature of the production precludes the presence of any name actors and the best they can come up with for a lead is a former EASTENDERS actress, Scarlett Alice Johnson. None of the actors are particularly bad, but they're not great either when saddled with such underwhelming characters. I appreciate that the emphasis is on the psychological here rather than unnecessary torture porn but the running time does drag and there's not much to get excited about when all is said and done.

With most of the action taking place on the plane I did find this one a little claustrophobic, but then again I guess that might have been intentional. A small budget can't have helped too much either. Decent performances all round, although nobody really stood out, so honourable mentions go to; Scarlett Alice Johnson as Jo, Jack Gordon as Max, Michael Jibson as Dave, Elen Rhys as Gwen and Joshua Richards as Alligator.Although I did find it quite compelling I felt quite detached from the characters. I guess I didn't care about them enough for the film to have any great impact. It's quite well made, given the constraints of the budget; I just felt it didn't quite have enough to make me rave about it. It does flag a little about half way through and I found the ending slightly predictable. Still, it's worth a look if you have a spare 90 minutes or so.SteelMonster's verdict: RECOMMENDED.My Score 6.3/10IMDb Score: 5.1/10 (based on 2,504 votes at the time of going to press).MetaScore: No Data: (Based on 0 critic reviews provided by Metacritic.com at the time of going to press).Rotten Tomatoes 'Tomatometer' Score: No Score Yet… (based on 1 reviews counted at the time of going to press).Rotten Tomatoes 'Audience' Score: 28/100 'Liked It' (based on 219 user ratings counted at the time of going to press).You can find an expanded version of this review on my blog: Thoughts of a SteelMonster.

This movie is in the tradition of the SAW sequences but a lot less attractive/interesting, less bloody OK but I rather watch a SAW movie than this one. Especially the very unsatisfying end. After watching the end you get the bad feeling like "I watched this movie for nothing", a regret to take time to watch it. The movie starts OK, interesting, in the beginning you think this movie exposes the threats of social media but along the way it gets too ugly and unrealistic. Forget about this movie, it's worthless. The thing I really oppose is the threaten of a child by the "bad guy", should be forbidden in movies like this. Really awful.

"Interesting" as another reviewer put it. But kind of worn out too. You wish they'd actually care about the characters they write or portray. It feels very unnatural and very cliché (especially towards the ending) and does not really get you involved. And it started out so good. You have no idea who those guys and the tension gets almost unbearable at the beginning.But all that doesn't matter in the end. Because the movie throws any logic out the window (no pun intended) and tries to stick with a known formula. It doesn't work out that good for the movie. While not the worst movie, you have to be a fan of the genre to take the time to watch this.