30
Rodrigo Cortes keeps the action bound to the box, limiting his lighting to naturalistic approximations, so that much of Reynolds's performance consists of him grunting and heaving in the dark.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
70
Boxoffice Magazine by Amy Nicholson
The best parts of Sparling's script play like an absurdist snuff film.
50
Chicago Reader by Andrea Gronvall
As a cautionary tale about the perils of nation building, this is both creepy and provocative, but director Rodrigo Cortés blows it in the last few minutes with a rushed ending that feels like a cheat after all the escalating tension.
80
The movie's real asset is Reynolds himself, utilizing his comedy chops for unexpected levity.
67
Entertainment Weekly by Lisa Schwarzbaum
The political angle is gratuitous, even foolish, and certainly a distraction from the movie's visual strengths.
88
Chicago Tribune by Michael Phillips
This exercise in racked nerves makes most of the year's thrillers look like flailing maniacs by comparison.
75
Buried is as much about dropped calls, getting sent to voicemail, and being openly lied to by our institutions as it about being buried alive by terrorists.
75
The effect is genuinely creepy, but do not even think of seeing Buried if you suffer from claustrophobia.
80
In purely cinematic terms, Buried, set in late 2006, is an ingenious exercise in sustained tension that would make Alfred Hitchcock turn over in his grave.
88
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
The use of 2:35 wide screen paradoxically increases the effect of claustrophobia. I would not like to be buried alive.