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Trapped

Trapped

List Price: $14.94
Your Price: $13.45
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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Nothing special...
Review: Charlize Theron gets the 2 stars :)

It begins interestingly and full of promise, but it drags and ends in a silly climax that hardly leaves you satisfied. The acting throughout is not going to win oscars and the plot and cinematographic direction is less than original. Overall, not a BAD film, but just another thriller lacking much substance.
Yawn.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent Movie-Great Thriller!!
Review: Go buy this movie.It is one of the best movies i have seen in a long time.
Full of suspense.....and it keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole time.Never a dull moment.
I can't understand why it didn't do good at the box office.It was such a good movie.
Kevin Bacon was a good pick for the part of the bad guy.He plays it good.I do recommend everyone to go out and get this movie.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Kidnaps and Holds Your attention....
Review: Didn't read the book, so I am unable to compare; but the film is a first-rate edgy supsense flick.

Kavin Bacon was surprisingly good cast as the main villan; off-center, unpredictable, and with a cruel but precise plan. Pruitt Taylor Vince (in a role that could could have been written for Billy Bob Thornton) and Courtney Love as the accomplices each carried their respective roles well. Charlize Theron was extremely effective as the mother of kidnapped daugher (Dakota Fanning). Dakota was, as in Son Of Sam, so perfect you are just amazed. If there was a weak link in the main cast is would have to be Stuart Townsend. In general he just didn't seem to fit in with the other cast members' style. Also, Colleen Camp, (Joan) as the neighbor appeared a little loopy, the actress not the role.

The DVD with its alternate endings, deleted scenes, and featurette was full of entertainment in addition to the film. Individual commentaries by the writer and director offered a wealth of inside information from different perspectives. Director Luis Mandoki (White Palace, Message in A Bottle, Angel Eyes, etc. etc) is an excellent director. Not enough can be said about the phenomenal camera work and the matching of the styles with the content of the scene. The film itself may have a few weaknesses in plot here and there, but between Mandoki's direction and the intensity of the cast, you were so drawn into the action that those little holes were really nothing more than a small nuisance.

This film was apparently bedeviled by personal crises (deaths, illnesses, accidents, etc.) during the filming, but to their credit the cast and crew didn't seem to lose direction or focus.

All in all this is a smart and taunt thriller with the feel of 'real' people being involved in very suspenseful situations and has a very intimate, nearly claustrophobic feel to the locations. You are there, 'trapped in the moment' and its a chilling, but entertaining. place to be.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Trapped-An Acceptable Thriller
Review: Recently, I bought Trapped on DVD and enjoyed it. The film featured some strong performances and intensity, but as some of you know did horribly in the box-office. I was really eager to see this film because I almost had a chance of seeing it in theatres, but you know there was a huge difficulty with that.
Anyway, Trapped is based on the novel: 24 Hours, by Greg Iles. To be honest, I didn't read the book so I can't give you a great comparison but from seeing the movie, which was good I can bet the book would be even better.
The plot of the film is excellent, with a well conceived/concocted plan, devised by Kevin Bacon and Courtney Love, who are the villans so to speak in the film. Charlize Theron and Stuart Townsend are a happily married couple and have a daughter. Soon, Kevin Bacon's plan goes into action and he kidnaps her daughter but there's much more to the kidnapping than you think, for it's a kidnapping for ransom. Over a 24 hour
period the couple's money is being extorted into Bacon's and Love's hands. After that period is over the child will be relinquished back into the family's hands. So, the film had a great plot, just perhaps there needs to be a few more developments.
The press didn't screen the movie for reviews, and the film duration in theatres was only for about two weeks, which is sorry
to say very pitiful, but all in all I liked this film and reading
the book would be something I'd like to try. Trapped is rated R for Violence, Language and Sexual Content. There is a thrilling action sequence at the end of the film, which I personally enjoyed. There is actually some excessive profanity, not throughout the film but at some certain parts, as for the sexuality it's fairly brief and not explicit. There isn't any nudity.
Trapped, an interesting thriller, with a plot but just didn't do well enough to be a great film in the eyes of many. Own it today on Video and DVD.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Psychological thriller - DVD special features worthwhile
Review: Trapped is a good psychological thriller. Kevin Bacon is a great bad guy and Charlize Theron does a fabulous job as the mother whose child has been kidnapped. I read the book (24) about a year ago, and while I didn't like the film as much as the book, it was certainly worth watching. I didn't think the tension was as high, nor did I find the film as scary as the book was.

The DVD has a writer's commentary, as well as a director's commentary. Greg Iles wrote both the book and the screenplay and it was very interesting listening to his comments on the film. Highly recommended if you are interested in writing or filmmaking.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wow! What a movie
Review: I almost didn't watch this movie as a result of some of the negative reviews I've come across. Thankfully, I ignored them and went with my gut feel. A riveting movie from beginning to end. Interesting plot and good attention to detail. Highly recommended to all but especially to parents of young children.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: ok plot, but a little far fetched
Review: if you saw kevin bacon in the river wild, reality would set in. kevin and his assailance would kidnap meryl streeps son out in no mans land river fronts and would get away with it. that to me is reality. However, trapped kidnapping way out of its league; cmon, do you think these kidnappers would really show their appearance to the family. the fbi would have a most wanted list. Also, the kidnapping happened way too quick; they come in the house out of the blue and kidnapp the daughter. besides bacon, the acting was so ans so. overall, could of been better.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Camera work puts you in the action, but = sick feeling.
Review: The story takes place in three different locations. In the family home of Charlize Theron and Stuart Townsend's characters where Theron is held captive by Kevin Bacon. The second is a in a hotel room where Townsend is being held by Courtney Love, and the third is a cabin in the woods where the daughter is held by a slightly slow man. All are separated for 24 Hours. (Which was the shooting title of the film and the title of the book by Greg Iles.)

One of the weeker points in the film is how imformation travels between Theron and Townsends characters. How Townsend ends up with some information is not explained to the fullest unless you already know the story from reading the book.

The other is the experamentle if not highly erratic camera movements. In the scene where Theron's daughter is taken and she is confronted by Bacon in her house. The camera is everywhere and you are left with a feeling of motion sickness. This is done I beleive to put you right in Theron's shoes and it works you feel at the end just as paniced and confussed as she does. This camerawork continues throughout the film with out the same results and after a while it becomes very annoying.

What Trapped does have going for it though is the acting of Theron, Bacon, and Townsend(who does his best to hold up his end of the film while Love pulls it under). It also has a relatively good script which was penned by the books author Greg Iles. It has some good action sequences and Dakota Fanning proves herself again as one of one of the top child actors. (Fanning was previously scene in I Am Sam.) Thankfully the movie doesn't stray far from the novel, which is a common problem in Hollywood. However I do not beleive it was wise of the director to leave out the part of Bacon killing the neighbour and to change the motive for his actions, they made his character to soft by doing this and the film would have been served better if it had been not tampered with at all.

All in all the movie is okay. But the of course the book is much better. When will hollywood learn to stop meadling?

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Well acted thriller marred by sordid subplots
Review: "Trapped" is a thriller which loses much of its potential because it takes what could have been a fascinating situation and turns it into a series of sordid encounters. It winds up reminding me of a line from a movie I saw years ago: "If it weren't for bad taste, you wouldn't have any."

A couple [played by Kevin Bacon and Courtney Love] has successfully pulled off four kidnappings. Each time the child has been returned unharmed. Because of the way the crimes are structured, the parents pay the ransoms but never called the police. When the pair takes Will and Karen Jennings' [Stuart Townsend and Charlize Theron] little girl, everything goes wrong. The child suffers from acute asthma, and the Jennings turn out to be difficult and quite aggressive. What should have been another smooth caper turns into a deadly cat and mouse game.

I can't say much more without spoiling the plot. I can say that the kidnappers turn out to be operating out of what they see as justifiable revenge, but each is so sadistic and mean-spirited that any empathy we might have for them quickly evaporates.

There are some strong performances, especially by Bacon and Love. The movie moves at a brisk pace and ends in a spectacular chase scene. If its writers hadn't chosen such a sordid route [again, I can't say more without revealing too much], "Trapped" would have been one of the year's better thrillers. Instead, it makes the audience squirm for all the wrong reasons.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: The audience is trapped for this one!
Review: "Trapped" is a film about a gang of kidnappers who specialise in kidnapping the children of wealthy families. Will and Karen Jennings (Stuart Townsend and Charlize Theron) are Dr and Mrs Jennings--doting parents of a sole asthmatic child. The child is kidnapped, and then the entire denouement of the film becomes the 24 hour period between the kidnapping and the delivery of the ransom.

The plot contrivances are simply ludicrous, and while they do build tension, they really don't make any sense whatsoever. A plot is supposed to develop the story and move things along--in this film, the plot is just a series of contrivances (and these usually take the form of silly actions on the part of the parents).

Also, in many scenes, the straps of the tops worn by the female stars (Theron and Courtney Love) mysteriously slip down. At one point, Courtney Love is pushed down the ground, and her ENTIRE dress comes open, so she is sprawled on the ground in just her black undies. Are her outfits made with velcro?

Manipulative, sensationalistic, moronic--these are just some of the adjectives that spring to mind for this film. There are many, many aspects open to criticism for this awful film, but that would involve spoilers.

No complaints about the acting. The four main characters were all good--and I can't leave Courtney Love out of this. She was believable as part of the nasty kidnapping ring, but entirely non-believable as the abused wifey. The scene with the nosy neighbour was great fun. Also, Kevin Bacon was excellent. I've been a Kevin Bacon fan ever since Tremors. I suspect that he doesn't get the roles he deserves simply because he looks a little rough around the edges--something the neighbour found rather exciting.


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