P2 feels like a vehicle lost in an after-hours parking facility, constantly backing up, shifting gears and generally speeding around in circles in a vain attempt to get somewhere.
P2 (2007)
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work ![]()
Reviews Counted:14
Fresh:4
Rotten:10
Average Rating:4.1/10
Consensus: P2 is full of gore, but low on suspense, featuring a cat-and-mouse plot has been done many times before.
Rated: R [See Full Rating] for strong violence/gore, terror and language.
Runtime: 1 hr 38 mins
Genre: Horror/Suspense
Theatrical Release:Nov 9, 2007 Wide
Box Office: $3,950,874
Synopsis: Most people who have been alone in a parking garage have probably felt vulnerable to an attacker amidst the silence of the cold concrete walls, but what would you do if your assailant were the... Most people who have been alone in a parking garage have probably felt vulnerable to an attacker amidst the silence of the cold concrete walls, but what would you do if your assailant were the attendant? That's the question posed by P2, which fits into that sub-genre of thrillers that unfold in one primary location (think Mario Bava's KIDNAPPED, PHONE BOOTH, or WIND CHILL). The script, co-written by Alexandre Aja (THE HILLS HAVE EYES, HIGH TENSION), Franck Khalfoun, and Gregory Levasseur, offers a basic cat-and-mouse tale with a couple of jolts of bone-rattling gore. It's Christmas Eve, and young New York executive Angela (Rachel Nichols) is the last to leave her office before heading to New Jersey for a holiday with the family. Already late, she is dismayed to find that her car won't start. The handsome, seemingly helpful garage attendant, Thomas (Wes Bentley), checks out the car for her, but to no avail. The next thing she knows, Angela wakes up in the garage office in a dress, chained to a chair, with a Christmas dinner laid out before her. Thomas has been watching her for a long time, and with everyone else gone for Christmas, he finally has her alone. Angela will have to fight with everything she has to make it through to Christmas morning. Under the first-time direction of co-screenwriter Khalfoun, P2 is a solid thriller that delivers ample action, despite being an amped-up two-person stage play. Nichols is an appealing heroine in a physically demanding role, while Bentley's wacko Thomas never veers into cartoonishness. This isn't one for the SAW crowd, though the two brief moments of splatter are certainly of that gross-out caliber. Vintage Christmas songs are also used to strong effect. [More]
Starring: Wes Bentley, Rachel Nichols
Starring: Wes Bentley, Rachel Nichols
Director: Franck Khalfoun
Director: Franck Khalfoun
Screenwriter: Franck Khalfoun, Alexandre Aja, Gregory Levasseur
Story: Alexandre Aja, Gregory Levasseur
Producer: Alexandre Aja, Gregory Levasseur, Patrick Wachsberger, Erik Feig
Composer: Tomandandy
Studio: Summit Entertainment
Get This Movie
Reviews for P2
There's some ghoulish humor in P2, and a couple of scares, but it's little more than the umpteenth variation of the woman-locked-in-a-house plot.
This is one of those thrillers where the person on-screen is often the only person in the theater who can't guess what'll happen next.
A slickly efficient neo-grindhouse shocker, a gory palate cleanser for this season of high-toned Oscar magnets and high-minded political dramas.
Even by the low standards of the horror subgenre playfully nicknamed "torture porn," P2 is scraping the bottom of the movie barrel.
Amid the dumbness and disgust for paying customers, the movie does manage to cough up something I didn't expect: a performance so terrible you can't quite believe it's happening: Bentley's.
Swift and stealthy P2 is a canny exploitation of one of the urban woman's greatest fears: the after-hours parking garage.
A serviceable gore-minded thriller --- a competent execution of a premise that ultimately becomes hampered by its inherent constraints.
The majority of [director Khalfoun's] chase and fight scenes are so artlessly staged that they render suspense moot.
It sounds like a formula slasher film, but it's actually done well.
P2 struggles to maintain its momentum because there's simply not enough to do in a parking garage to fill out a feature film.
The same old grim game of cat and mouse. Sure, we hope the mouse gets away. But mostly we just want the whole thing to end.
Cheerfully manipulative, P2 is the kind of movie that invites audiences to yell back at the screen and cheer.
Latest News for P2
December 25, 2008:
Further Reading: Seasonal Slaying - The 12 Horrors of Christmas
Thanks to Charles Dickens and A Christmas Carol, the Yuletide season has long been associated with ghost stories -- often with hard-won uplift at the end, like Scrooge being... More...
October 10, 2008:
Exclusive: Alexandre Aja talks Mirrors and Piranha 3D
We caught up with Aja for his only UK interview to learn more about the movie as well as his latest project, a 3D remake of Joe Dante's classic Piranha. More...
April 07, 2008:
RT on DVD: There Will Be Blood Drinks Lions for Lambs, Dewey Cox's Milkshakes
P. T. Anderson's Oscar-winning oil opus There Will Be Blood hits shelves this week, so if you missed Daniel Day-Lewis' astounding turn as the prospector with a heart as black as... More...
December 19, 2007:
G.I. Joe's Storm Shadow and Scarlett Chosen?
We already know Ray Park and Sienna Miller are part of Stephen Sommers' G.I. Joe cast. How about a little old-fashioned rumormongering about a pair of potential additions? More...
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 44% 44% | Night at the Museum: B… |
| 32% 32% | Terminator Salvation |
| 36% 36% | Angels & Demons |
| 95% 95% | Star Trek |
| 25% 25% | Four Christmases |
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 88% 88% | Inglourious Basterds |
| 78% 78% | The Hangover |
| 49% 49% | Taking Woodstock |
| 26% 26% | The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard |
| 47% 47% | The Girl From Monaco |
RT On Current TV
DIRECTV 358 | Comcast 107 | DISH Network 196 | More...
What’s Hot On RT
Other News
CloseSponsored Links
Fresh Links
Featured

Techland lists the best Sci-Fi films of this decade.

Moviefone takes a look back at the biggest stinkers of the past 10 years.

The Me and Orson Welles star answers reader questions on TIME.com.

Hollywood.com's C. Robert Cargill offers his thoughts on what the best decade for film was.

In the AV Club's "Scenic Routes," Mike D'Angelo reminisces about the Tim Burton film.
Promos

Get the latest Tomatometer updates on upcoming movies!



Top Critic


