Mujer en llamas

The taglines for the movie 'Kidnap' are "Vengeance is a mother" and "They messed with the wrong mother". I really wish they would change or adapt these because they imply a different type of film to what this actually is. To me those scream of a film like 'The Brave One', 'Taken' or 'Deathwish' where revenge is the motivating factor. That couldn't be further from the case. This is actually quite a grounded story about a desperate mother who will do whatever it takes to get her child back. Misleading taglines aside, it is quite a good film.

It's the pacing that really makes this film tick along. It really does grab you by the proverbials early and then never lets you go. You are in for the ride along with the mother and you genuinely care about the outcome for these characters. There are a few pieces of ill-advised writing, where character's decisions are questionable at best, however it has to be said it is very hard to avoid any of those at all in a film like this and still have 94 minutes of action.

Halle Berry is good in the lead role. Something I've noticed about her is that she is a much better actress when her character is under duress. When she is just being a regular person and asked to act normally she comes across quite clunky and you remember why she won a Razzie. Give her character some drama to work with though and you quickly remember why she also won an Oscar.

'Kidnap' is a good little thriller with excellent pacing, decent acting and more than enough going on to justify an hour and a half of your time. Give it a look.

The movie was interesting,nice acting. Mothers can sacrifice their lives for their children,so the main actress deserves a better ending. The film is quite intense, making me immerse myself in the mother's chase, enhancing my recognition of women who can fight for what they love most.

Well... I will first give credit where credit is due. I will admit that despite the many flaws to be found, I was never bored once during my viewing experience. And I will also admit that Halle Berry gives it her all, and certainly deserves an "A" for her great effort. Unfortunately, Berry is often required to spout dialogue (when no one else is around) that feels quite contrived and makes you think that the filmmakers thought the audience would be too stupid to figure out what her character was thinking and feeling if she was silent. A bigger problem is that there many moments where her character does some really stupid things that just extend the situation instead of finishing things much sooner had her character had some basic smartness. For that matter, the bad guys (and also some other characters) do their part to act stupid enough so that they stretch out the narrative as well. Had the movie's characters been of reasonable intelligence, we might possibly have had something here. But as it is, the movie is not that much better than silently watching a blank wall for 95 minutes.

I love action movies without aliens and superheroes so I was exited to see this movie where Halle Berry goes all out in her attempts to safe her kid.

The base of the story isn't that bad but oh how I hate it when writers can't come up with logical behavior even in high pressure situations.

With a little bit more creativity this actually could have been a very decent movie, but they took the easy way and at times it just was annoying how the story developed.

So a big disappointment.

I was optimistic about this being good since Halle berry was starting. She did a great job playing a panicked mother but the storyline after the actual kidnapping event was extremely unrealistic. High speed police chases and tools being thrown at vehicles on the highway and nobody calls the cops? No traffic cams picked up on any of this? Highly unlikely. Save your money and don't go see this movie. There weren't enough good parts to make this a good movie to pay for and I no longer want to watch Halle berry movies in the future.