Stolen

The revenge plot has been done to death. Kidnapping the protagonist's daughter has been done to death. Everything about this movie has been done before, and done much, much better. This is just another extortion movie where the former friend of a former bank robber wants his share of the heist, and kidnaps the hero's (Nicolas Cage) daughter as ransom. The thing is, Cage burned the money. So how is he going to pay this lunatic? Well, he's gotta commit one more heist for it to be all over. Sound predictable? That's because it is.

Every beat of this movie is predictable. It wouldn't be so bad if they added some depth to the characters but everything is so one-dimensional. Will (Nicolas Cage) loves his daughter and used to rob banks - that's all we get as far as character development. Vincent (played by Josh Lucas) wants money. They both were involved with a robbery gone wrong at the start of the film and Will burned the money before being arrested and jailed for eight years, but Vincent still wants his share. He waited eight years to exact his revenge. Eight. And the diabolical plan he came up with during that time is to kidnap Will's daughter and threaten to kill her if he doesn't get paid. It's like the writers weren't even trying.

What the writers do is explain EVERYTHING that's happening to the audience. They spoon-feed everything with the subtlety of a sledgehammer, and this constitutes about 90% of the dialogue: Explaining what you are seeing on screen. The other 10% is forced relationships and throwaway police banter. It's really stupid. Watching the movie on mute is probably much more entertaining.

Let's talk about the villain for a minute because he's really quite a character, or caricature rather. He has no personality whatsoever so they give him all of these weird traits to mask the fact that he's boring as all f*ck. A metal stick for a leg, long messy hair, a rugged shady look, a twisted sense of morals, and he's a cab driver. It's like baby's first psychopath. Now I don't blame Josh Lucas for this at all, in fact he makes the character watchable, but not even good acting can save the villain from being a walking, talking cliché.

The police are just stupid in this. Stupider than usual in fact. They're not even worth talking about. All you need to know is that you know what you're getting into with this movie before it even starts and it gives you absolutely no surprises or suspense. It's a by-the-numbers action thriller with Nicolas Cage. It has a few funny moments sure, most are unintentional, but if you're hoping that this would at least be a fun, over-the-top Nicolas Cage action movie, then I'm afraid you'll be sorely disappointed. Stolen is overwhelmingly and sometimes painfully average.

Great movie? Nah...

Fun to watch just the same? yea!

Here's what it comes down to.. do you like Nick Cage? If you do, watch the movie, you'll enjoy it. Beats an a couple hours of work. Don't like Nick Cage, than I'd pass.

I actually found a few of the scenes, especially in the beginning, very engaging and exciting. The dialog could use some serious help, but if you can overlook this, it's not a horrible way to spend an 1.5hrs.

I've seen a lot worse with much higher ratings here on IMDb.COM.

If you're looking for a fun to watch action film with one of Hollywood's A-listers, look no further.

Nicolas Cage is one of those A-list classified actors that somehow manage to churn movies out left and right no matter the quality or subject matter. His over the top persona is most likely the biggest reason delivering some memorable characters whether you like him or not. The trailer for his latest Stolen comes off more like a rehash of Taken, but with Cage's added unique character delivery and Expendables 2 director Simon West in the mix could it give something a bit more or will it be another in a long line of low end releases to Cage's career?

Stolen follows a former thief frantically searching for his missing daughter, who has been kidnapped and locked in the trunk of a taxi, while trying to avoid FBI agents convinced he is lying and looking to find the money he stole 8 years prior. While the story seems like Taken it really isn't. Yeah there are similarities, but really no more than there is in tons of other action thrillers in this genre. The story here is more straight-forward and on a smaller scale, but still works fairly well. Cage delivers a bit more of a relaxed performance, but still manages to execute some of his over the top performance in there from time to time. Luckily it's usually when it is needed so doesn't distract too much from the overall film. The supporting cast is pretty good featuring Malin Ackerman, Mark Valley, Danny Huston, and Josh Lucas who seemed to take over with the over the top delivery here. While a bit silly at times, Lucas character still works decently. What really make this film work at all are the decent action and the clever robbery scenarios. It has become pretty rare to deliver something all that interesting in film bank jobs, but here they did some pretty creative stuff.

This is a pretty average action thriller, but works well enough to have some fun. Most likely this only got theatrical release thanks to West's success on Expendables 2 and Cage's name, because on some levels it really feels more like a straight to video release. Either way, fans of Cage will have a good time and most likely everyone else will have mixed opinions.

http://www.examiner.com/movie-in-dallas/bobby-blakey

this movie is action-packed and of course, there are mucho take-for-granted flaws throughout the whole movie that usually a quick tempo thriller could never avoid. but there's one thing we should admit, nicholas cage did every of his movie 110% with his 110% over-the-top acting or shall we say, commitment. his endeavor in this movie is no exception: he never stopped running from the very beginning to the end; and it's not easy at his age to play such action role, even all the scenes in his movies could be edited. the investors of his movies should consider their money never wasted on this actually quite superb actor. again, i'd like to reiterate, even this is not a great movie, it's still quite watchable, and you can't treat it as a B movie.

Not really, especially if you think about what he did last year (Mechanic, Jason Statham) and more recently with Expandables 2. So Stolen is kind of the odd one out of that trio of movies. While it does have some fine acting talent involved, it never really takes off. It's not a complete letdown either, so you get a movie by the numbers.

There's quite a few things that you can see coming (rather predictable then) and the story does have some neat coincidences happening, that could only happen in a movie like this. One of my pet peeves gets checked too (unfortunately). It's when a character explains what is obvious. It's selling the viewer short (most of them anyway) and it's something I don't like at all.

Acting-wise it's OK and the "tension" is there almost until the end.