An example of what happens when a new filmmaker comes along with a fresh perspective and manages to squeeze some life back into a by-now formula plot.
Comment
01/01/00
Breakdown (1997)
78
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:46
Fresh:36
Rotten:10
Average Rating:7/10
Consensus: A brainy and suspenseful -- if somewhat uneven -- thriller.
Runtime: 1 hr 35 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: After their new Jeep conks out on a desolate stretch of Arizona highway, a well-heeled Massachusetts couple accepts the help of a polite and seemingly honest trucker (J.T. Walsh), who drives the... [More]
Starring: Kurt Russell, J.T. Walsh, Kathleen Quinlan, M.C. Gainey
Director: Jonathan Mostow
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Reviews for Breakdown
A long, drawn-out bore where the fate of each character is all-but-inscribed on his or her forehead.
01/01/00
Top CriticBreakdown manages a constant, paranoid suspense by never revealing more about what's really happened to the wife on than the hero himself knows.
01/01/00
The movie will make you feel sick, but in the nicest, most entertaining kind of way.
01/01/00
Nifty morality play about the invidious vices of envy and showing off.
08/26/02
An engrossing, exciting nailbiter that makes the most of every single one of its efficient 95 minutes.
10/03/05
Taut, skillful and surgically effective.
01/01/00
Top CriticA terrifying movie that presses the right buttons early on and then capitalizes on your vulnerability.
01/01/00
If Alfred Hitchcock were alive today and working with a '90s sensibility, he'd be proud to claim it as his own.
01/01/00
Pretty good.
01/01/00
Top CriticPure free-fall fun.
05/07/03
[Kurt Russell's] lack of energy afflicts the film as much as its director's lack of ideas.
05/07/03
Top CriticBreakdown is mostly a testosterone fest, but it's a good one.
01/01/00
Some movies have such good set-ups, that they are virtually assured to be something of a let-down when it comes time for the follow-through. Jonathan Mostow's Breakdown is such a movie.
02/27/01
From the beginning, the movie grabs your attention and doesn't let go.
01/01/00
Are we really supposed to empathize with the empathy-proof Kurt Russell? I was actually hoping that his character's wife had run away with the trucker ...
01/07/05
Mostow knows his Hitchcock as well as his Spielberg.
01/01/00
Top CriticAn incredibly tense, gripping, white-knuckle treat.
01/01/00
A spare, solid, sharply paced tale of terror that does what a thriller is supposed to do -- scare the bejesus out of you.
10/15/02
Latest News for Breakdown
May 21, 2007:
Four Directors Up for the Next "Bond" Flick?
Curious to know who'll be directing the next James Bond flick? Join the club. One source has a short list of potential helmers, all of whom would be pretty ... distinctive. More...
June 15, 2005:
"T3" Director Hired to Remake "Swiss Family Robinson"
Jonathan Mostow, director of "Breakdown," "U-571," and "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines," will step behind the camera for Disney's new remake of... More...
March 09, 2005:
Paramount Looks Forward to Getting "Snow Blind"
More...
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