User reviews

I think it deserves more than it's current rating of 5. This is a very tight, well directed & acted one-location thriller that can hold it's own against thrillers that had a much larger budget. The actors in this were all fantastic especially the two leads - "Tom" and the exceptionally creepy "hitman". I do love a well acted bad guy!! :) There isn't a lot to say about this flick. It has a fairly simple plot that isn't tremendously original but it's done so darn well it doesn't matter. Could have used a bit more action and maybe more character development but it's nevertheless well worth watching. Delightful! Far better than the eerily similar recent release "Free Fall"

A solid little thriller which I'm sure I will watch more than once

It would have gotten a higher rating if I didn't feel like the ending lacked some punch and there were some dumb moments in the movie

But the acting is stellar and the characters are pretty interesting

It's very short, after 72 minutes the credits starts, but that just means that it never gets any time to get boring so that's a plus this time

Plot is above average, and the budget seems to be on the smaller scale but they really made the best of what they had to deal with

I can't really say too much without spoiling it but it's a place-bound thriller in the likes of Phone Booth and similar movies, I wouldn't be surprised if it got it's cult-following either

Here we have a much used premise of killer in building chasing innocent but very inventive office worker.Done may times before but even with the relatively short running time of just over an hour,this movie packs a lot of punches.Good story,tension.bang up to date technically and a joy to watch.And of course well acted throughout.Check it out if you like fast paced,well made jumpy thrillers. Similar in a lot of ways to a previously unknown thriller called RUN with a young Patrick Dempsey being chased by hit men,but always one step ahead by quick thinking and improvisation.You don.t need gratuitous violence,a bucket full of profanities and OTT action to create a quality thriller.Not Safe to Work is a perfect example of this!

I like Johnston very much. He doesn't direct many films, but I like most of them. This one also showed promise and was built up nicely, but I couldn't reach halfway because this kid Minghella killed my mood. A colleague (which was nice to him and probably a friend) was murdered in front of him, and that's his reaction? Then he found his actual friend dead, and that's the best face he could come up with? And those are only two examples out of tons of others. The guy can't act if his life is depending on it and he's cast as the lead, whatever Johnston was on at that time, I want it. Or, more likely, the producers were too cheap. I mean, really, there is zero recognizable name among the cast. You could at least put some money on the leading male and female actors, for marketing purposes at the very least. But nooo, it has to be the cheapest possible. Well, this is what you get.

There are so many tasteless crap big budget movies that not only do not entertain me but I can't even stomach watching them! Unbelievably they not only make into theaters but make money too!

With that in mind I give this film high marks for doing the job of entertaining me. It was not made up of a bunch of over the top special effects which in my opinion typically make a movie insultingly unbelievable to the point taking away from the entertainment value (with the exception of sci-fi when it actually be called for and needed)

This one was filled with suspense and had a reasonable level of action to go with the plot. It screams for a sequel but it sounds to me like it did not impress a lot of people so I am thinking it will be one more disappointment in that department joining a long list of other movies that were half told stories obviously written with the ideal that there should be MORE to come!

I am so disappointed with the crappy comedies and gore films that audiences seem to eat up (I am hoping these audiences are mainly adolescent/teens that just don't know any better yet?) ...because it so seems like the more moronic or over the top ridiculous something is, the more likely it is to financially succeed and spawn a parade of sequels that are even worse! trash franchise for the lowlife and teen audiences?

Well... I can not "beat em" but I certainly am not about to "join em" !

I'll be brief, but I could go on and on if I wanted to waste too much of my time on this flop.

A paralegal getting only $12 an hour in 2014. Where does this guy work, Mississippi? Getting bossed around by secretaries? Really? If there would be any inequity existing between the two positions, it would be the paralegal who has seniority. Settling a wrongful death case for 10K funeral expenses. The attorney would be sued for malpractice... unless they're in Mississippi, maybe. Like I said, I could go on, but why? This first 15 minutes wherein these scenes occur are enough to disqualify this flick's credibility. I know it's just a movie, but NO.

The plot: On the day that he is fired, an idealistic paralegal witnesses a professional killer murder one of his former coworkers at a legal firm.

I guess the setup isn't too original, but that's fine with me. I'm always up for a thriller in which a witness is hunted down by a hit-man. The plot is vaguely topical, and it should appeal to those who rail against "big pharma". The setting is law firm engaged in legal action against a giant pharmaceutical company, and there is occasional commentary about corruption in the pharmaceutical industry.

There are a number of minor problems with the film, but I don't think any of them make it unwatchable. If you're more interested in entertainment value than originality, and you're forgiving of plot holes, I think you could do worse than this. The ending has received a bit of criticism here, but I thought it was perfectly fine. However, if you're the kind of person who wants every single plot element fully resolved, I can see how that would annoy you.

There isn't any gore, nudity, or excessively harsh language, and the violence is fairly restrained. There isn't really all that much atmosphere, but Mindhella and Feild do a decent job. For a direct-to-video thriller, I'd say it's about what you might be expecting: flawed but watchable, unoriginal but entertaining.

"An office worker is trapped inside the building where a killer is on the loose." This is the summary for Not Safe for Work that is on IMDb. Nothing more is given about the plot and I assumed this film was sort of like a Halloween or Friday 13th movie with some maniac chasing a poor guy about the building trying to kill him. Fortunately, this is NOT what this film turned out to be and the plot is MUCH more complex and satisfying than just some maniac murdering folks. Instead, it's a pretty good little film—one that is not all about gratuitous violence. In fact, several times the film did have people killed but the director, Joe Johnston, chose not to show the violence in all its nastiness— something I really appreciated. Instead, this film is also about WHY all this was occurring instead of just about the killing—a smart decision in my opinion.

The film is told from the viewpoint of Tom (Max Minghella)—a lowly paralegal at a HUGE law firm. Because Tom is ambitious, however, he's gotten on the bad side of his bosses. They just want him to shut up and do his job. His desire to rise above the masses of paralegals gets him fired early on in the film. However, as he's leaving the RBE law firm for, supposedly, the last time, he notices something strange—a hand off between two folks in the lobby. In other words, as one guy is leaving the building, another brings him an attaché case and 'accidentally' leaves it behind and the guy entering picks it up and proceeds up the elevators to the firm. That's certainly odd and Tom follows to see what's happening. Once there, he's shocked to see it's MUCH more serious than he thought, as he sees this man with the briefcase shoot one of the office workers in cold blood. Fortunately, the place is just about empty and the body count is low…and perhaps that is why the man is there at that time. Regardless, Tom is scared to death but cannot leave as well because the killer somehow has managed to disable most of the electronics in the building. The killer's very systematic and he clearly is NOT some random maniac—some sort of conspiracy is clearly afoot. So how is poor Tom to survive—especially when the killer realizes that there is someone else in the office?

Not Safe for Work turns out to be a very taut and well executed thriller that is much more like Die Hard than Friday the 13th! The direction is very nice and the acting quite believable and I do recommend you see it. I especially appreciate the rather dark conspiratorial angle about the film and the ending that is a bit reminiscent of the old Warren Beatty film The Parallax View.

My only complaint, and you may not notice or care (since I am an obsessive detail person when it comes to film plots), but at one point in the film another woman is shot and killed by the killer. However, she tried to fight back and tried to shoot the guy a gun hidden in her purse. The killer did not know that Tom was hiding in the room. So after the killer left the room, why didn't Tom bother to get the gun from the dead woman?!?! This is the sort of thing that doesn't ruin the film but makes me wonder how they missed this. Unfortunately, this sort of thing happens a lot in films and it's a cliché I really dislike.

Despite my small rant, see the film. It's worth your time and is awfully good and just goes to show you that you don't need mega-stars and mega-budgets to make a good film.

Visibly low budget & minus wham-bam special effects, Not Safe For Work relies instead on acting and story. This is a very effective film.

Have you noticed how there is a new generation of worry, fear, threat concerning the power of corporations and big business in our collective lives? Most effectively, in Margin Call (10+), but elsewhere across a broad spectrum of movies US & otherwise. Not Safe For Work is a significant contribution to this contemporary genre: Don't Trust Business.

The two key male leads in this story are specially strong, most significantly the villain -- aka "The Killer" -- played by J. J. Feild, who exhibits a powerfully creepy calmness in voice and body language. His evil -- the banality of evil -- signifies the rot at work in the world of business itself. Max Minghella, playing the key office worker, has a true Jack Lemmon charm as the wily office schmo who's not such a looser after all.

This story happens to be about US business. But corporations & capitalism being what they are nowadays in our global, post-Cold War world; this business tale could be about China, Brazil, Germany, or Whathaveyou. Like a fine police procedural by Ed McBain, this plot is easily transferable to most other modern cultures.

Finally the fact that the heroes escape and yet do not (if you haven't seen it, I don't want to spoil the plot for you) shows how serious is its moral and political intent. Not Safe For Work is an intriguing incrimination. How can one escape from where business life is now? The answer is left deliciously hanging in Not Safe For Work. Yes, folks, we are unsafe. Try to find a way out. Just try.

The ambitious legal assistant Tom Miller (JJ Feild) works at the Rosen, Byres and Emmerich Attorneys at Law and secretly dates the gorgeous clerk Anna (Eloise Mumford). His company has presently two major cases: Hartcourt vs. Denning Pharmaceutical, against a powerful corporation, and Gambizzi Case, against a mafia family. On the eve of the judgment of the Hartcourt case, Alan Emmerich (Christian Clemenson) releases all the employees early in the afternoon and he also fires Tom for snooping around the Gambizzi case. When Tom is leaving the building with Anna, he sees a man leaving a suitcase on the floor and another man wearing a suit taking the suitcase and going to the 34th floor of the building. Tom decides to follow him and soon he discovers that he man is actually a hit-man. Soon Tom is trapped on the floor with the killer since his access card is deactivated. Who hired the hit-man?

"Not Safe for Work" is a low-budget thriller that works reasonably well. The beginning is too rushed, with little explanation about the cases that the company is working. The mouse and cat game between Tom and the killer has few moments of tension, and a total lack of humor. Unfortunately the conclusion is predictable. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Negócios Mortais" ("Mortal Businesses")

Not Safe for Work (2014)

A straight up office building thriller. Yeah, like that's a genre already—well, it feels like it. Isn't that what "Die Hard" was? This one tones it down and it becomes practically believable. Almost too believable, so that it's a bit routine after awhile, even if you're still on the edge of your seat.

So imagine you're the last one to leave the office—almost last—and the elevators stop. And then you see someone with a gun, and the computers go nuts, and the lights flicker. So you have a nightmare, trapped, no way to contact help. Even your cellphone ends up, of course, in the hands of the bad guy.

And what a bad guy he is, a seemingly cool customer with no qualms killing anyone for any reason. What's a little blood when a pharmaceutical company has a lawsuit on the fritz? And so it goes, running through offices and hiding behind desks.

Can this last for a couple hours? Almost! It works on some level. It doesn't work on a lot of other levels, for sure, like caring very much about anyone. (This is where both Bruce Willis and the script of "Die Hard" have something special going on, whatever you think of that Hollywood blockbuster.) Here, you more or less know what's going to happen, and then by the end you are sure. But getting there isn't half bad. Half, at least.

I found this to be a really suspenseful film and thoroughly enjoyed it. I wasn't too disappointed how the plot was laid out. The character of Thomas Miller, played excellently by Max Minghella, is the movie's protagonist and keeps you guessing every step of the way. The music matches the emotional feeling of the plot. The whole movie ties it all together to the end. Actor JJ Feild is one of those actors who can pull out an antagonist role in terminator (he looks stiff like a robot) or Bond like movies (his nice suit). Every scene has its own sub sequence that shows a good story-writing. Sadly, Eloise Mumford's Anna doesn't have a large part in this, but she's carried through by Minghella's acting. Actor Christian Clemenson and Molly Hagen are supporting actors.

First of all, I do love a good thriller! I don't know what I was expecting, but this was almost as boring as watching paint dry. No wonder it was only 1 hour 14 minutes long, they were probably at a reach getting that much material as it was. If you enjoy watching a man rolling around on the floor and ducking and diving behind walls and doors for over an hour, then this will be right up your alley! That's basically what it was. Bad man goes into an office building at night, 2 innocent men are still in the building, he's there to "do a job" kills a few people, and Max Minghella rolls around on the floor hiding from him, then trying to play the hero, whilst still rolling around and ducking and diving. Poor Minghella, who's a talented actor, did his best with the poor material he was given to work with.

A great thriller/suspense film that I found randomly and I never regretted for watching it. The plot is very unique, and I really liked the fact that they were trapped in the office. The protagonist was very clever. Personally I found no holes. The villain was clever too, I liked his acting skills. I also liked the plot twist. It was very cool. At some parts I was afraid of the fact that the killer could catch the protagonist. Which means that it was in a good level suspenseful. The ending could be better, so my rating for such a film is pretty much high. Higher than big-budget productions, that are full of holes and they have nothing smart to give you. Many of them are box office bombs too and are too mainstream, thing which I hate.

P. S. I really liked the American accent of Max Minghella (although I do prefer listening to him while he speaks in his native, English accent).

Fantastic...go and see it... the plot revolves around an intern working in a law firm where he notices unusual turn of events at the time of his dismissal from work. He further investigates to know why and how.. This is a movie which will keep you at the edge of your seat. This movie is indeed an intelligent movie made with good script and direction. Its filled with twist and turn and with no spoilers..no blood shed of a sort.. quick canny and worth watching.. The script indeed knows the targeted audience and I would recommend every one who is a fan of thriller to see it ... this movie will be in my records...Go and watch it..

Not Safe for Work is a nice little thriller from Joe Johnston with aspirations of being just that. The only problem is, there are a couple scenes in this film that are pretty damn good which leads us to believe that with a little more time to develop the screenplay, this film could have actually been a great film. The story is simplistic, a man on the run from a hit-man throughout an office building sounds like it can be either Collateral-good or Straight to Video-bad. The answer does lean a bit more towards straight to video but shows the potential to be as good and as suspenseful as Collateral. The only issue here that really holds this film up from being great are the performances and the script. Max Minghella is decent enough in the film but he really isn't anything special. There's no flair to him, nothing that sets him apart from just another douche bag looking guy on screen. The one performance that could have been and SHOULD have been better was the hit-man. He wasn't quirky enough to work and wasn't ruthless enough to work. It was merely a sleep walking performance through a role that could have been really memorable. Instead, Not Safe for Work relies on cheap plot devices and booby traps to help progress it's standard screenplay. Every beat the film hits, you see it coming a mile away and it doesn't leave any room for any imagination of any sort. Joe Johnston has delivered decent movies in the past and Not Safe for Work is clearly nowhere near his best but it is far from his worst.

It was pretty great crime thriller. The story was interesting but dont expect it too much. Well done to Tom!