Payback is a Mother.
| Cast |
Gabrielle Union, Billy Burke, Richard Cabral, Ajiona Alexus, Levi Meaden, Seth Carr |
| Director |
James McTeigue |
| Screenplay | Ryan Engle |
| Music | Johnny Klimek |
| Cinematography | Toby Oliver |
| Editing | Joseph Jett Sally |
| Made in | 2018 |
| Produced by | Breaking In Pictures, Will Packer Productions |
Official Site | IMDB page | FPB Report | ScreenIt Report | CommonSenseMedia Report
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| Genre | Thriller |
| Language | Frequent strong impact crude language, including demeaning and derogarotary terms based on gender. |
| Nudity | None |
| Sex | None |
| Violence | Frequent strong impact violence accompanied by bloodletting |
| Prejudice | Low impact language, containing a derogatory term for a woman. |
| Blasphemy | None |
| Drug abuse | None |
| Comments | The thriller crime action drama Breaking In explores themes of death, suspense, fear, desperation, survival, crime, family, cohesion and unity, betrayal, power relations, greed, negotiation and trade-offs, home invasion, courage, motherly love, and crime, which are of a strong impact. Themes are complex and mature and may confuse younger viewers, and/or prematurely expose them to adult experiences. Additionally, themes dealing with home invasion, fear and desperation, are presented with a sense of threat and menace, as embodied by the home invaders, which may disturb and upset emotionally and cognitively immature viewers and threaten their sense of security, even potentially resulting in psychological harm, particularly in the South African context where home invasions occur regularly. The sense of threat and menace is underscored by cinematic effects such a low frequency sound and dark (and red) lighting, and a suspenseful soundtrack. |
| These details are supplied by the FPB. If you have a problem with any of the above, please take it up directly with the FPB. Read the Classification Guidelines. | |
| PG-13: Parents Strongly Cautioned | Rated PG-13 for violence, menace, bloody images, sexual references, and brief strong language |
| Runtime | 88 |
| USA version is usually but not always the same as South African release. Versions released on streaming or DVD, Blu-ray or Video may also differ. | |
Sex / Nudity |
Violence |
Blood / Gore / Gross |
| Guns / Weapons |
Profanity |
Alcohol / Drugs |
Smoking |
Disrespectful / Bad Attitude |
Imitative Behaviour |
| Frightening / Tense Scenes |
Jump Scenes |
Tense Family Scenes |
| Music (Scary/Tense) |
Music (Inappropriate) |
Topics to talk about |
| Suggested age limit 14 + |
Positive messages |
Positive role models |
| Violence |
Sex |
Language |
Consumerism |
Drinking, drugs, smoking |
| Scale (Max) | 20 |  |
What the Critics say | ||
| Cape Argus / The Star Jamal-Dean Grootboom  'Breaking In' is a criminal career choice. | 5 |  |
| 24.com Lindsey Bahr Despite all odds and everything going on around her, Union sells it. Maybe we did underestimate her after all. | 10 |  |
| ScreenIt T. Durgin It's one of those flicks I kept rooting for to work and be better. It never really rose above mediocrity. But it's a cut above Lifetime Network Movie of the Week status ... but only barely and only because of Union. | 9 | |
| Metacritic.com 24 critics | 8 | |
| Rottentomatoes critics 75 critics | 8 | |
| Rottentomatoes tomatometer Tomatometer Breaking In is proof that Gabrielle Union deserves more leading roles -- particularly in films that offer more than this rote, disposable action thriller. | 5 | |
| Movie Review Query Engine MRQE critics   | 9 | |
| CommonSenseMedia Jeffrey M. Anderson Violent home invasion thriller is mostly boring clichés. | 5 | |
What the People say | ||
| Metacritic.com users 15 users | 7 | |
| Rottentomatoes users 546 users | 8 | |
| IMDB 2058 Netizens | 10 | |
| The Movie DB Community | 12 |  |
Average .. 40% | 8 | |