The Entitled

Entitled takes your basic movie kidnapping ransom plot and freshens it up through good acting, plot twists and accessibility.

Excellent casting. Each actor felt natural in their part and with some restraint to avoid overacting they gel nicely. The first character death is almost welcome due to the annoyance of his behavior.

Here's the best part of the movie: As the plot moves along and the viewer watches with anticipation of the stereotypical progression, we are happily dealt nice little twists. No twist is over the top or pushing the limits of belief. A subtle film noir feel is mixed with an everyman identification.

I'd like to see another movie like this one...

"I played by the rules. I wanted to play by the rules, but that's the big lie. It's not enough anymore so maybe, just once, you gotta break them...right?" After Paul (Zegers) gets turned down for a job and his sick mom gets a foreclosure notice on the house he becomes desperate. His plan is to kidnap three kids of rich families and hold them for a million each. When the plan goes wrong he must find a way to stay clean and get the money. This is a very surprising movie. This is the type of movie where you put it because of the cast and end up really enjoying it. I'm not saying this is an Oscar type movie, but it is very entertaining and fun to watch. This movie also had an ending that fit the movie and is one that is hard to totally figure out before the reveal, which makes it that much better. A realistic look at what a kid on the edge can do if he is pushed. Very much worth watching. Overall, a very entertaining thriller that leaves you wondering who to pull for. I liked it a lot. I give it a B+.

Would I watch again? - I think I would, to catch clues about the ending.

*Also try - Endure & Hostage

That was a pretty decent movie. What makes it decent is a combination of usual Hollywood film that brings you the amusement by the amount of shock applied and good old drama school. The shocking atmosphere is mostly preserved by certain amount of brutality and twist. As for drama, I really loved the way the director used the theater stage in the house were fathers were gathered to imply tension and very involving plot development. Balanced and interacted with the core plot in the movie, it made a very watchable feature film. Also, the movie does not bring the usual American picture of good and bad guys, but leaving you think about that yourself. It might be just my impression, but I think that the senior actors were better than junior. I do not say that the young actors were bad, just acting of the fathers was more superb!

A group of under-privileged kids starving for money and attention; a group of over-privileged kids starving for action and attention; a group of over-privileged adults trying to be content with their current state of life. That's "The Entitled." One group wants what the others have and the others just plain want. If you want an intelligent, thought-out thriller, you've got it.

The film starts out a little pedestrian and juvenile with pointless scenes and then a few scenes continuously pointing out that our main hero was poor. But as it turns out, those scenes weren't pointless or over-done, you just had to wait until the end to figure it out. Everything contributes to the final result.

Our main hero is Paul Dynan (Kevin Zegers) — broke, jobless, defeated, and almost option-less. A last ditch effort to save his mother and their house, he abducts three local rich kids, uses two misfit friends to torture them, and tries to get money out of their fathers.

The brilliant aspects of this film which they did so well were the different relationship dynamics. The group of rich, entitled kids consisted of two males and one female. One couple but all three were friends. The group of poor, angry kids was exactly the same (just minus the money). The three fathers had the same relationships that their kids had, just a taller, older version.

Continuing in the vein of brilliant relationship dynamics, the plot of the kidnapping was propelled forward by how everybody acted within their own group. Apparently the key to a successful crime (or not successful) is knowing how all the individuals will act. The key to a successful crime thriller is making sure that your characters act in interesting ways.

The lead acting was very impressive, just as I was frequently in awe of how impressively smart the turns were in this thriller, I was amazed by how natural and creepy Zegers could be. Ray Liotta and the two other actors playing the fathers were equally as arresting.

The minor actors couldn't overcome the sometimes awkward and painful dialogue. Now don't get me wrong, the screenplay by William Morrisey is actually pretty good story-wise, he just doesn't give a good voice to the over-privileged, entitled rich kids. But then again, who does? I still think the opening sequences could have been tightened up to help me realize how important they actually are to the story. But above all else, "The Entitled" made me think and I like watching films about some characters who do think and some characters who don't think. And I'll let you figure out which groups they belong to.

I watched this film with the fear that I was going to encounter yet another budget movie thrown together with a loose plot and mediocre acting. Well, needless to say, I was proved wrong on all counts. The background story was built up nicely and the plot laid out for you to see clearly, but then it twists and makes you think, then twists again making you doubt your theories of what is really going on. Liotta, Garber and McHattie were brilliant and worked perfectly together. I wouldn't mind seeing this trio working together in the future. Dustin Milligan was a surprisingly competent and believable actor which was a breath of fresh air as I don't recall ever seeing him in film before now. All in all a very good thriller/suspense that kept me entertained. Give it a watch is all I can say, hope this helps!