Hoping to foil his own gold-digging wife's plan, a loathsome businessman arranges his own kidnapping, only to realize that there are plenty of other people interested in his wealth as well.Hoping to foil his own gold-digging wife's plan, a loathsome businessman arranges his own kidnapping, only to realize that there are plenty of other people interested in his wealth as well.Hoping to foil his own gold-digging wife's plan, a loathsome businessman arranges his own kidnapping, only to realize that there are plenty of other people interested in his wealth as well.
- Awards
- 1 nomination total
- Angela Drake
- (as Nicole Parker)
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Any screenplay writer knows that you are suppose to set-up what's going on in the movie in the first 10 minutes. How about 20 minutes later I still didn't have a clue, then all of my friends and I walked out of a $10.00 movie!
I'm not even going to waste my time writing a plot review for this movie, because I didn't see the whole thing. Two words: IT SUCKS!
Save your money don't rent the DVD, wait for it to come on HBO or better yet wait 3 years until it comes on TBS and they will show it every day if they can edit the harsh language.
King's Ransom takes a harmless premise and turns it into a torturous experience. It is one of the worst attempts at comedy and it may be the first comedy ever that has failed to make the audience laugh at least once. It was like they weren't even trying to entertain the audience. I have to ask, what was the point? There was some potential in the premise and the cast wasn't terrible. However, the script fails the film at every turn and it was probably written by a five year old. It's just too bad this film wasn't meant for kids since they would have gotten more entertainment out of it. I would also be more forgiving if this was a kid's film.
The semi decent cast is wasted in this mess and nobody gives a good performance. Anthony Anderson gives a really bad performance as Malcolm King. He overacts like crazy and just ends up being really annoying. Regina Hall over did the airhead role and it got tired fast. Sadly, she probably gave the best performance out of everyone. Jay Mohr tried way too hard to be funny and it didn't work. Donald Faison and Kellita Smith should be ashamed for agreeing to appear in this piece of crap.
I believe the blame shouldn't only go to the screenwriter but to the director as well. Jeff Byrd does a really poor job at directing and he seems to be trying too hard. He sets up all these situations of different people trying to kidnap Malcolm on the same night. There was like four different attempts and none of them were funny. Also, all the subplots are weak and none of them are good enough to save the movie. I will cut Jeff some slack since this is his first real film. However, this isn't the way you should start off. Also, he has to work with a very weak script and an obnoxious lead. I really wish I was joking here but there is not one funny moment. It's really just 95 minutes of pure boredom and there is no point in wasting your time to watch this movie. In the end, this light comedy may end up being the worst movie of 2005. Rating 1/10
Unfortunately 2 more sets of people get the same idea of kidnapping him, at the same time what are the odds on that? You have the disgruntled employee who was passed up for a vice president position and you have a lovable looser who is stepped on by Malcolm king.
Kings Ransom does have some funny moments and interesting turns. But allot of things fall flat. Were supposed to believe that a man who built a company would make his bimbo girlfriend vice president? So many coincidences? The feds don't get involved when a millionaire gets kidnapped? My experience with the film was bipolar. At the begging i was hating it, then i started liking it, hated it, loved it, and in the end disappointed. Its as if the script self destructed being pulled in so many directions at once it just gave out. The ending was tagged on, character disappeared, had no purpose or just got lost in the shuffle.
Quite frankly if this was rewritten I think it actually could have been up there with kidnapping classics like "Ruthless People" but instead its just one more movie for the bargain bin.
Here's the plot.: King's Ransom is about an arrogant rich king named Malcolm King. His wife is angry with him, and wants him to pay her alimony or somethin. I don't know what it's for, but I think alimony. When she wants him to pay, he plans his own kidnapping so he doesn't have to pay her. At the same time, other people are planing to kidnap him, too! When one of the kidnappers DOES kidnap Malcolm, he thinks the kidnapper is following his ridiculous plan, but he's not! I'm not saying anymore for the plot.
The deleted scenes were better than the movie, which was crap. Take my word for it. I'd rather get punched repeatedly in the face than watch this again. Ugh! A ONE out of ten for King's Ransom. I would have gone with zero, but you can only go a minimum of one. Please never watch this!
Starring: Anthony Anderson, Charlie Murphy, Regina Hall, Nicole Ari Parker, Kellita Smith, Jay Mohr, Brooke D'Orsay, Donald Faison and Loretta Devine
Rated PG-13 for Crude and Sexual Humor and Language
Genre: Comedy/Crime
Star Rating: ***1/2 out of 5
This is the first movie with Anthony Anderson playing the leading role and before that he was pretty much the sidekick role in these buddy comedy movies. Anthony Anderson plays Malcolm King, who is a big time rich businessman who has an ex-wife, Renee King (Kellita Smith) who is wanting half of the money Malcolm is making in his company in the divorce settlement. Malcolm decides to plan his own kidnapping so that way he doesn't have to pay his ex-wife half the money with the help of his dim-witted mistress, Peaches Clarke (Regina Hall) and her ex-con brother, Herb Clarke (Charlie Murphy). But Malcolm's employees have had enough of Malcolm's attitude and are wanting to hold him for ransom and another guy named Corey (Jay Mohr) is kidnapping Malcolm to try to get the money for his sister. This movie was outrageously hilarious! Plus I think this is also the first time I have seen Charlie Murphy do a movie because he is mainly known for being one of the co-stars off "Chappelle's Show"!
BOTTOM LINE: OUTRAGEOUS!
Did you know
- TriviaJay Mohr had actual ketchup splattered all over his face
- GoofsWhen Malcolm finally learns that Corey has really kidnapped him, he tries to escape. Corey shoots a few nails at him and hits the wall. In the next shot, there are no nails in the wall.
- Quotes
Corey: [Corey is talking on the phone with Malcolm's ex-wife] I demand a ransom of $10,000 dollars.
Malcolm King: [Malcolm grabs the phone from Corey] What $10,000 dollars? I'm not worth $10,000 dollars! You kidnapped Malcolm King not Bobby Brown!
- ConnectionsFeatures Let's Make a Deal (1971)
- SoundtracksLiving Like a King
Written by Calvin Richardson and Luce Gordon
Performed by Calvin Richardson and Luce Gordon
Courtesy of Luce Gordon & Tony Hustle
Calvin Richardson appears courtesy of Hollywood Records
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Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official site
- Language
- Also known as
- Untitled Anthony Anderson Project
- Filming locations
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- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $15,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $4,008,527
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $2,300,000
- Apr 24, 2005
- Gross worldwide
- $4,143,652
- Runtime
- 1h 35m(95 min)
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1