Parents' Guide to

Breaking In

By Jeffrey Anderson, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 14+

Violent home invasion thriller is mostly boring clichés.

Movie PG-13 2018 88 minutes
Breaking In Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

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age 14+

Based on 8 parent reviews

MMomOfTwo
MMomOfTwo Adult
August 19, 2020
age 14+

Good movie, lots of violence

Movie contained a lot more violence than I was anticipating after reading the reviews and ratings - otherwise it was a good movie. Definitely wouldn’t recommend for under 14.

This title has:

Too much violence
leila S.
leila S. Adult
June 15, 2018
age 11+

what u believe

if your child's mature it's fine

This title has:

Too much swearing
See all 8 parent reviews

What's the Story?

In BREAKING IN, Shaun Russell (Gabrielle Union) heads back to her childhood home after the untimely death of her estranged father. She has her children, Jasmine (Ajiona Alexus) and Glover (Seth Carr), in tow, to help get the house -- a sprawling, high-tech mansion -- ready to sell. But it's not long before things start to go awry. Soon, four intruders -- led by the unruffled, reasoning Eddie (Billy Burke), but including the psychopathic Duncan (Richard Cabral) -- have taken the children hostage and locked Shaun outside. She catches one of the group and then uses her knowledge of the house to gain the upper hand. But the men have Shaun outnumbered, and she won't be able to deter them from their goal.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (8):
Kids say (8):

Union is appealing, and Burke's calm simmer is fun, but otherwise this violent home invasion thriller is a dull pack of clichés; not one idea hasn't been used before in 100 other movies. Directed by James McTeigue, Breaking In runs only 88 minutes, and it could have been a quick, snappily paced nail-biter. But instead it feels like the screenplay was once meatier and that some character development was chopped out, leaving just bare-bones traces of deeper characters.

Minimalist characters can be fascinating, of course, but here they are just empty shells. Plus, the screenplay sets up a few sturdy ideas that could have been turned into something if anyone had paid attention to them, such as a 90-minute time limit before the police come to investigate the disrupted alarm, or automatic lights or a drone camera, as established in early scenes of the house. But instead these things are used in a cursory way, with no payoff. Mostly, characters just wander around the giant house, simply appearing in exactly the right (or wrong) place at exactly the right (or wrong) time, with no suspense whatsoever.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about Breaking In's violence. Is it meant to be exciting or shocking? How can you tell? How does the fact that much of it is directed toward women affect its impact?

  • Do you consider Shaun a role model? Why or why not?

  • What's the appeal of the home invasion genre? How does this movie compare to others in the genre?

  • A mother tells her daughter that "it's my job to worry about you; it's not your job to worry about me." Later, an older sibling says the same thing to a younger sibling. Is this true? Why or why not?

Movie Details

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