Kidnapped

This is a riveting watch with some of the most excruciating violence and savagery; Hollywood could never make anything even close resembling this as it is so close to the brutal truth of the violence that is so prevalent in the world today, it will leave the viewer with morbid thoughts well after the film has finished; days after even. As one reviewer has already said, i would never let my girlfriend watch this, its definitely not a film for women, the rape scene in particular is excruciating to watch and the acting is top notch making it so realistic it made me feel a bit queasy and that is not an easy thing for me!

The problem I have however , is that there is not enough characterization and the story is your basic run of the mill home invasion; although made with a brutal reality rarely seen these days and that is what I love about Spanish/Italian/French movie making scene, they do not sanitize anything and give us something that hollywood cannot!

The closest the UK comes to this kind of movie is something like Eden Lake in its depiction of real violence on the streets and what is really going on in the world today and having been a police officer myself it is very close to the truth and mirrors what I have seen personally. Too many of us now live in leafy suburbs miles away from the violence and trouble that is destroying the world and it is a good thing to watch a movie like this to bring home the truth of things sometimes, so its an above average 6/10 from me for its pure brutal authentic style but sadly without anything else I could not justify giving it any more than that!

Jaime (Fernando Cayo), his wife Marta (Ana Wagener) and their teenage daughter Isa (Manuela Vellés) move to a dream house in Madrid and they plan a family dinner to celebrate. Out of the blue, three violent hooded thieves break in their house and hold the Marta and Isa hostage while their leader goes to the bank with Jaime to withdraw money from the family bank accounts in a tragic night of terror.

"Secuestrados" is a brutal and bleak film that combines the storyline of the 1955 "The Desperate Hours" with the disturbing violence of the 1997 "Funny Games". This film is recommended only to very specific audiences, defense lawyers and judges, since sensitive persons or someone who has experienced similar home invasion will certainly feel very bad with the graphic violence of "Secuestrados". Unfortunately we see many similar cases in the news on television every day. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Horas de Medo" ("Freightening Hours")

Three hooded Eastern-European criminals burst into a home in a Madrid gated community, holding the family hostage in its own home, and forcing the father to empty his credit cards.

The opening scene is creepy and disturbing, with visuals somehow reminiscent of "Timecrimes". While the two films are worlds apart, this just sets the tone for how disturbing everything will be. And "disturbing" is the operative word, as home invasion is the most disturbing horror subgenre because of its realism.

A successful home invasion film feels real, feels like something that could really happen to any of us at any time. It is not a killer in the woods or an alien, but real criminals that can beat, kill or rape us on a whim. Such situations are rare (thankfully), but all too possible. This is, by the way, a successful one, right up there with the best (such as "Funny Games").

The biggest complaint is that there is some poor dubbing at times, especially on the daughter. But if the film is watched in Spanish with subtitles, such a nuisance can be avoided.

I wasn't sure what I was expecting when I saw this movie, but this movie was shocking, terrifying, Sus penful and it kept you in your toes. I like it is similar to the Nicholas Cage movie "Trespass" it's worth watching. The movie grabs you from start all the way until the end of the movie, Is so well done and it really delivers, all actors due a well job in delivering their roles, like I have said in other reviews before about foreign films, they are not scared of delivering a really disturbing or anything to a motion picture, and this movie is one good example of it, a really good movie, I liked it a lot. I give " Kidnapped " a 7 out of 10 Stars.

Just when you thought that this types of movies (that Kidnapped is a part of), might have run dry, fresh blood comes and makes things interesting again (no pun intended). I'm not the biggest fan of those movies since an Austrian took the "Funny" (Games) out of it. But this Spanish effort has a lot going for it.

I liked the actors, I liked the fact that it "went places", that made it different. And while I didn't think it was perfect, the tension it builds (with simple premises) and the fact, that it stays as real as possible (but is still very violent) all build up to an exciting climax. Though I guess that might also be called one of its weakest points, by those who didn't like the movie