NOT SAFE FOR WORK DVD (2014)

SYNOPSIS: From the director of Captain America: The First Avenger and The Wolfman comes a psychological thriller about an unsuspecting office worker, Tom Miller (Max Minghella, The Social Network), who becomes trapped in his office building with a demented killer (J.J. Field, Captain America: The First Avenger). As Tom rushes to protect those employees working late, he soon discovers that his legal firm has been hiding sinister secrets that could put thousands of lives at risk. From the producer of Paranormal Activity and Insidious, comes a terrifying, psychological thriller where an ordinary office becomes a twisted killing ground.

MOVIE REVIEW:

It doesn’t bode well for a production liked Not Safe For Work to be sitting in Universal vault for the longest time without a VOD and theatrical release date especially it is directed by Joe Johnston whose last movie was called Captain American: The First Avenger. 

Grossly underdeveloped and proceeds as a tired cat-and-mouse thriller, Not Safe For Work stars Max Minghella (The Social Network, The Darkest Hour) as a paralegal who is trapped in an office building with a killer out to destroy company secrets and anyone in sight. There’s like 5 minutes of context if you must know, something that involved a pharmaceutical cover-up and the mafia before all hell breaks loose.

Produced by Jason Blum whose microbudget production house has churned out hits such as Paranormal Activity, The Purge, Sinister and many other announced but unreleased horror thriller titles, Not Safe For Work is purely another rock-bottom, no frills production of his. Things can’t get any cheaper when you only have two guys chasing after each other in and out of rooms and cubicles for an appalling brief 74 minutes of running time. There’s an obligatory damsel in distress scene at the last minute with of course a dead security guard and janitor thrown in for good measure.

Johnston (The Rocketeer, Jurassic Park III) who has his fair share of hits and misses over the years has not much of an idea delivering a taut tense thriller. Every single scene looks predictable and cliché even the so-called twist isn’t that difficult to foresee. Minghella on the other hand is not that bad of an actor though he deserved better material and that include his co-star JJ Field as the ruthless killer.

This thriller should remain locked up at Universal until the world ends while the intriguing question of why Johnston signed on for this crap lingers on. You should be glad that we took the bullet for you.  

SPECIAL FEATURES:

NIL

AUDIO/VISUAL:

Visual on the whole is serviceable and the Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track delivers loud music cues and occasional gunshots.

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee