Customer Reviews

Trapped

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Meet Joe Hickley, an intense, professional kidnapper played expertly by Kevin Bacon. His plan? Kidnap a child from wealthy parents, hold him or her for ransom, intimidate and control the wife while the husband is away, then force the husband to come up with the ransom money. Joe's plan has been flawless. Until he takes the wrong child. From the wrong parents.

Charlize Theron plays mother to Dakota Fanning in the first film that made me sit up and take notice of this sensational child actress. Dakota's role as an asthmatic child is played to perfection, although her natural pallor I'm sure helped with her role. Charlize plays a mother who is first horrified to find her child missing, terrified of the strange intruder (Bacon) in her house, but then she comes through and begins to fight as we hope most mother's would. You can't help but cheer her on.

Stuart Townsend plays the handsome, floatplane-jetting doctor who is stalked by Bacon's partner in crime, Courtney Love. And while he's fending off Courtney, Bacon's other partner has Dakota stashed away in a cabin in the middle of nowhere. This fragile looking sweetie shows her own smarts and strengths, and holds her own among her peers.

It is the immediate non-stop action of this film that hooked me into watching it three times. And Dakota's stunning performance. That girl has acting in her blood! From the second the movie starts to the chase scene at the end, the tension doesn't let up. Charlize is believable in her mother role and the energy between her and Bacon sizzles just enough to make your skin crawl. Bacon is scarily in his element in this type of role.

All in all, the performances were very good, the plot raced by and rarely slowed, the emotions were well acted and the ending, satisfying. For an action-packed thriller and a smorgasbord of delectable actors, check out Trapped. This is one of my all-time favorites.

~ Cheryl Kaye Tardif, [...]

After reading "The quiet game" and "24 hours", Greg Iles' books became constant on my "List of books to buy". Iles, to me, is like the earlier John Grisham , the good Grisham, who could write thrillers like "A time to kill" and "The firm".

"Trapped" is a movie based on Iles' "24 hours". It deals with a group of kidnappers who have devised the "perfect kidnapping plan", as Joey, the head of the gang, puts it: by separating the father, the mother, and the child, and by placing phone calls every thirty minutes, the kidnappers have total control of the situation. But this time it's not going to be that easy.

The book is gripping, thrilling and very well written in the sense that all characters' reactions are true to real life. When I knew that there was a movie based on "24 hours", featuring the beautiful Charlize Theron, the competent Kevin Bacon and with a screenplay written by the same author, I wanted to watch it right away. Unfortunately, the result is not the one I expected.

"Trapped" is one of those examples where the transition from print to screen is kind of traumatic. While the text makes the reader turn the pages faster, the movie scenes are rushed and make the viewers role their eyes. While the plot on text is believable, the plot on screen lacks elements so that the viewer fully understands what's going on. While reading the book, I could picture anyone I wanted as Joey, but watching the movie I had to put up with Bacon's worst acting in years. Once again, Charlize Theron is competent, and Pruett Taylor Vince is another good surprise.

Even so, with all these problems, "Trapped" is mildly entertaining and fast-paced, even if somewhat predictable. Greg Iles is an above average author, but needs polishment as a screenplay writer.

Grade 6.5/10

Based upon a novel by Greg Iles, this movie absolutely Rocks!

Joe (Kevin Bacon) is a child kidnapper. He's done it before and he does it again. This time he choses Karen Jenning's family and in broad daylight he forces himself into her house and gets hold of Abigail, Karen's daughter.
But this time it is different. Abigail is asthmatic and she could die in kidnapper hands!

What'll happen next???
You better watch it yourself! :)

From the time Abigail gets kidnapped until the end of the movie you'll feel that you're sitting on thorns or you'll bite all your nails until "there's none".

Highly Recommended

The perfect kidnapping scheme is put into action by Joe Hickey (Kevin Bacon) for the fifth time as he and his companions kidnap Abby from the Jennings family. The plan consists of kidnapping Abby from the Jennings as Joe's brother, Marvin (Pruitt Taylor Vince), watches Abby for 24 hours. During this time Joe dictates to the mother what she should be doing to get the safe return of her daughter. While all of this is going on,, the father is self-contained as he is on a business trip. However, this time something goes wrong as Abby suffers from asthma. The cast performs well in this suspenseful action film, but it does not save the film as there is not much suspense in this predictable kidnapping drama. Trapped fails to convey a message as it jumps from scene to scene which ends up hurting the overall cinematic experience.

I am usually disappointed with the movie after reading the book, and that is why in several cases I do not even bother to go through the exercise of watching it. I read "24 Hours", the book by Greg Iles on which the movie is based, a couple of years ago and was satisfied with the experience. When the movie came out I did not even give it a second glance, but when Charlize Theron won the Oscar for best actress for her performance in "Monster", I decided that maybe I should give other of her performances a try.

The script, written by Iles, is faithful to the book. A team of kidnappers has found a "perfect" modus operandi; they grab a rich kid and at the same time one of the members of the team stays with the mother and another with the father to keep them in check. In this way everything runs smoothly...or maybe not. Now they have chosen the wrong family to mess with, since they will not go down without a fight.

Kevin Bacon plays Joe, the leader of the kidnappers' team, who is in charge of staying with the mother of the victim (Charlize Theron). The movie goes back and forth between this pair and the one formed by Stuart Townsend, who plays the role of the father, and Courtney Love, the female member of the gang. This separation makes the difference in the quality of the acting strikingly obvious, with Bacon and Theron shinning compared to Townsend and Love.

The movie, as the book, presents a thriller with a non-stop pace, which keeps the audience on edge. The sexual tension between the kidnappers and the victims present in the book is well achieved in the movie too. The main weakness of the movie is the ending, which is rushed compared to the novel. Therefore, it does not achieve such a high climax and disappoints those who read the book a little bit towards the end. To sum up, this is a good movie based on a very good book.

Charlize Theron looks beautiful and plays the perfect role. Courtney Love is okay but maybe could've used more drama or seduciveness. Stuart Townsend has a nice accent and is dramatic. Kevin Bacon does a great job at being hated (can be hard to do, but he pulls it off well). Pruitt Vince did a very good job; not sure what else to say about him. :) Dakota Fanning is a wonderful actress (can cry and scream belivably) and is so lovable. Overall, great cast and a pretty good plot... although, as somebody else mentioned, the ending was a bit too dramatic and overloaded with special effects (looks as if 90% of the budget went toward the finale).

Is there any perfect kidnapping plan? Greg Iles's bestselling thriller starts with this intiriguing (and very unnerving) premise. Our chief villain Joe Hickey (Kevin Bacon, again a bad guy, huh?) thinks so, and has succeeded four times so far, with his "team" including Pruitt Taylor Vince and Courtney Love.

But when Joe kidnapped lovely little girl Abby Jennings (incredibly talented Dakota Fanning, "I Am Sam"), he forgot to check one thing, which leads him and Abby's mother (Charlize Theron) into the complications. The would-be perfect crime (which effectively uses cell phones) spins out of control, and bring out more and more suspence.

The story about kidnapping always worries people because it has a ring of truth. What if that happens to my family? The film starts with such kind of intense moments, so it will make some of you certainly uncomfortable.

But soon you realize that the script (done by the original author himself) needs more polishing. I don't know anything about the book, but the film has too many coincidences and situations too good to be true, How many fathers in USA does happen to own an airplane? Or how many of them happen to have a friend in phone company? Somebody, guess it.

The actors are not to be blamed, considering the sometimes corny dialogues and unbelievable finale. Kevin Bacon, adding another film to his CV to make the game of 'six steps' easier than before, again throws away his shirt on bed (is this compulsory or something?). Charlize Theron is credible as tormented mother ... at least so before she does THAT to Kevin Bacon's character, and Stuwart Townsend is passable as her husband, but they all pale away before Dakota Fanning. Actually, in Japan, "Trapped" is advertized as the film starring Dakota Fanning. The fact is a little different, but certainly the film distributor's decision can be justified.

Better than the same director Luis Mandoki's "Angel Eyes," "Trapped" still appears meandering at some points. Ignore the plot holes and many contrived situations, and you might find it pretty thrilling ... at least, the opening 30 minutes.

This suspense thriller is really great. It is better than most in its genre, a) because of the great performances by Charlize Theron, Kevin Bacon, Stuart Townsend, Dakota Fanning, and quite surprisingly, Courtney Love b) also, the predictability level isn't large. The story takes many plot twists! Anyone who enjoys a good suspenseful movie should definetely see "Trapped"!

Okay, If you are confused by all these reviews, I'll tell you this: you can find this movie absolutely fantastic or just have a good time with it. For me, it was the second option. It is a well-aimed Friday night thriller which manages to keep you on your seat until the end. However, It's very predictable, but the performances are very effective, mainly Theron's and Love's..
Courtney Love succeded with her role but Kevin Bacon was kind of annoying at times.
Overall I'd say it was a very entertaining movie, not something I would watch twice, but it deserves some more attention, as it is far better than many of those extremely commercial thrillers out there.

this is a ultra suspenseful and entertaining movie. i rented it over at my grandmas and even my grandma loved it. i've seen it twice since and it still never gets old.