Oxygen (1999)

Director: Richard Shepard

Writer: Richard Shepard

Composer: Rolfe Kent

Starring: Maura Tierney, Adrien Brody, James Naughton, Laila Robins, Terry Kinney, Paul Calderon, Dylan Baker, Olek Krupa, Frankie Faison

More info: IMDb

Tagline: A killer.  A cop.  Someone's buried alive.

Plot: A masochistic cop, who hides her predilection from her cop husband, gets involved in pursuing a kidnapper nicknamed Harry for Harry Houdini, who has kidnapped a rich woman and has buried her somewhere in Manhattan while demanding a ransom from her tycoon husband. Failure to pay the ransom within 24 hours will lead the kidnapper to abandoning the woman. Dylan Baker also appears as the fed that is assigned to the case.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again? Maybe.

Here's you some Adrien Brody before he became famous and he's pretty good as a serial killer who fancies himself as an escapist in the vein of Harry Houdini.  This picture is also a little different when it comes to serial killer flicks that have become rather tiresome in the past thirty years (although it's one of my favorite genres and I watch a lot of them).  Maura Tierney does an excellent job as the detective Harry toys with.  I really liked the way they worked together.  The rest of the cast does a fine job but it's these two who run the film.  The story is interesting and intriguing enough to hold your interest although some might find the final act just a tad too much to believe.  It's going to take a second viewing for me to know for sure how good it is as it might fall apart if you look too closely at it.  Even still, it's a good flick and very quickly paced.  When it was over I was shocked at how fast it all flew by.  Seriously.  The Ardustry Special Edition DVD has a nice anamorphic widescreen print with extras including the film's theatrical trailer (fullscreen - not that it matters as it's almost entirely pitch black with audio) and video trailer (fullscreen - this one gives you a better idea what the film is about), trailers for other films (all fullscreen) including RAZOR BLADE SMILE (1998), SIX WAYS TO SUNDAY (1997) (an interesting looking flick with Norman Reedus, Deborah Harry and Adrien Brody, (Argento's) PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1998) and DANCE WITH THE DEVIL (1997) (another one I need to see and like now), the car chase scene broken down with the storyboards and commentary and finally a commentary track with writer/director Shepard and stars Tierney and Brody.  I may have to give that a listen someday.  Check this one out.