Locked Down Review: 6 Ups & 4 Downs

Downs...

4. The Bloated Runtime

Locked Down Anne Hathaway Chiwetel Ejiofor
HBO Max

Despite being hastily filmed in September of last year, it's surprising that Locked Down runs just shy of two hours, because after all, would it have shocked anyone if this thing barely clocked in at feature length?

Yet the film is ultimately a bit of an overstuffed genre mish-mash, colliding a lockdown-set rom-com with a lockdown-set heist film with all of the indulgences that you'd expect.

Even with twice Oscar-nominated editor Saar Klein cutting the movie, there's a real lack of discipline to how it's assembled, with numerous scenes - especially those conducted over Zoom - having the suspicious whiff of improv run amok.

The film's concept alone is enough to raise eyebrows among many potential viewers, so it probably would've been better off kept to a tight 90 minutes rather than needlessly distended out to almost a full two hours.

By that point, you couldn't be blamed for finding it more melodramatic asides a tad exhausting.

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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.