Reféns da Noite

I'll start off by saying that I did actually enjoy this movie, I feel it had a great story-line and had enough going on that I never lost interest. The premise is not a secret, the "screw up" brother wants the "smart" brother to enjoy his birthday; they are wealthy. The "smart" brother works too much. Roy Huang plays Willian Chang the "screw up" brother, and Sam Song Li plays Robert, the overworked brother. William decides to have his brother kidnaped and force him to loosen up, so he hires some guy he doesn't know to take Robert after he leaves work.

The rest of the story is filled with questions and decent story that shows who, what, where, why and how for both the antagonist and the protagonist.

My big problem with this movie is that I feel Seth McTigue overacts in every scene. His character is Chad; he's the bad guy, and I get it that Chad is conflicted, but c'mon man. I feel his overacting was so severe, it made me question the other actors in the movie even though they did fine. I've always believed that you don't need a-list actors to pull off a great movie, but you do need actors that do a decent job playing a role. You can't take yourself TOO seriously, or you come off too stoic and overact your role. Brenna Keel Cook had a significant role and did a great job as did the other two bad guys. Matter of a fact, all of the remaining actors pulled off their roles equally well, but I honestly think Seth McTigue hurt this movie more that he helped it by casting himself as the antagonist.

The cinematography was actually pretty well done, I love the angles, the lighting, the feel. Some of the long-held poses became distracting, but not too over the top. I get it, a good looking guy like Roy Huang giving us a silhouette in the perfect lighting. But lets not hold that pose too long, else you over-do a moment.

Overall the movie was enjoyable, but I gotta be honest and say that this movie would have been 10 time better had there been an actor cast as Chad that didn't overdo the role.

It was well done characterization the storyline. The timing was really good too. The connection between the similarities of the two families was important to the movie. I just thought there would be more to the ending.

Set up for a good action thriller, but fails heavily at the key moments of the plot, but the little twist in the end are able to mend a little bit. So if you ever should like to prank kidnap your own family, check out well on beforehand who to use.

The production goes from brilliant to mediocre and back multipel times, and the acting keeps the same bait, the story was good but the complexity of making a good peformance just isnt perfect. Therefore just a weak 6 from the grumpy old man.

Take the Night is a thrilling movie from beginning to end with a prank kidnapping, unexpected plot twists and strong acting from the entire cast. Great cinematography, lighting and music. Impressive first feature film by the director.

Ignore the clearly blatant and bogus high reviews, as well as the tools who gave this film one's and two's, as this film deserves neither. What this is, is a great first full length feature film as writer, director (only a handful of prior short films), producer and first-time actor co/star for Seth McTigue.

His directing was surprisingly spot-on, and the cinematography near perfect, with an impressive tension-filled score that was fitting and captivating - especially for a B film.

Casting and performances were on point, and the production values quite impressive. The story was great conceptually and executed cohesively, although some tweaking by a seasoned writer would've complimented the screenplay greatly. There were some character developments that lacked clarity and needed more depth, that otherwise felt like filler; e.g. Why/what's the deal with the Bonsai tree?

There were some plot issues, and although I get the last act, it could've been better played out. The film also needed more substance and dramatics, and less convoluted and unnecessary filler that made it lack the depth and scope one would expect in this genre.

The pacing was a little slow, but the comfortable 82 min runtime with constant suspenseful twists and the excellent score, will keep you engaged throughout.

Nevertheless, I applaud this newb filmmaker/actor, because he still created a little gem, rookie mistakes and all. It's a solid 7-8/10, but only gets a 6 from me for the blatant high reviews of which I can't stand.