BURIED:  OPEN THIS ONE FIRST!

Dan Brenner:

that your ransom video already has 47,000 hits on YouTube.

 I always thought hell was being stuck on a phone tree or waiting in line at the supermarket while somebody has to do a price check, but it's not... hell is waking up in a plain wood box having been buried alive after having been taken captive in Iraq. Paul Conroy (Ryan Reynolds) is an American truck driver working in Iraq in 2006. He's taken and buried in a shallow grave with a cell phone, lighter, a flask of booze, flashlight and little else. He soon finds out the specifics of how and why he is there and has to come up with a million "money" to pay his random. Along the lines of 127 hours, this is a one man show and Reynolds does a fantastic job with it. This time, however, Conroy is able to use his cell phone and reaches out to many different people, bringing both humor and more terror to the situation. What makes this more scary than a slasher flick to me is that it could really happen. Needless to say, claustrophobics need not apply! The most suspenseful are the last 10 minutes, which I will not elaborate in order to keep some surprises secret. I almost didn't watch this one, but I'm glad I did. It was well done.