Kidnap sees a single mother’s world turned upside down when her only son is abducted from an amusement park. She must keep her wits about her and remain strong in the face of her worst nightmare if she is to stand a chance of saving her boy from unspeakable peril.
As the title of the review suggests, Kidnap is nothing if not generic. Even the moniker is uninspired. Taken was already…er…taken. And Kidnapped and Stolen were also used recently. So, Kidnap it is.
It was a little surprising to see Halle Berry take this role on. It wasn’t all that long ago that she played a 9-1-1 operator aiding in the recovery of a kidnapped teenager in the WWE film The Call. So, it seemed strange she would choose a role so similar to one she’d played less than five years ago. And while she portrays the mother of the victim in Kidnapped, rather than a 9-1-1 operator, the similarities are still plenty noticeable.
One quip I had with the film is Knate Lee’s lazy screenwriting. The screenplay is rife with cliches. The most obnoxious of which is the 9-1-1 operator telling Karla they will need to triangulate her location when she’s calling from a landline. It’s a fairly well known fact that emergency services operators get that information on their screen immediately when someone calls from a home phone. And it would have been almost as easy to use another plot device to build tension during the denouement.
I was also put off by the utter predictability of several sequences. One that really stood out was the halfhearted attempt at a twist at the end. It was quite transparent and will likely be obvious to anyone who has ever seen a movie.
Also grating is the fact that Luis Prieto seemingly goes out of his way to make the first fifteen minutes nauseatingly precious. So much attention is paid to painting Karla (Halle Berry) to be the doting mother that it starts to feel like we’re being beaten over the head with it. Her bond with her son could have been adequately established with less than half as much cheese.
Although, after the proverbial shit hits the fan, the saccharine nature of the opening sequence is replaced with a mounting sense of dread and a series of mostly intense action scenes.
With all that said, if you can get past the lack of originality and suspend your disbelief for a while, Kidnap has some harrowing action sequences that did keep me entertained. It’s far from a perfect flick but there are certainly worse ways to pass 82-minutes. At times, the film finds ways to make a well-worn concept palatable. Most of what we see isn’t new or original but there are some pulse-pounding action sequences that make that easy enough to forget for a spell.
The Blu-Ray includes a digital download code and a behind-the-scenes featurette. You can grab a copy of the film on DVD and Blu beginning October 31st.
WICKED RATING: 5/10
Director(s): Luis Prieto
Writer(s): Knate Lee
Stars: Halle Berry, Sage Correa, Chris McGinn, and Lew Temple
Release: October 31 (DVD and Blu)
Studio/ Production Co:
Budget: $21 Million (Estimated)
Language: English
Length: 82-Minutes
Sub-Genre: Suspense, Thriller
