King's Ransom

Anthony Anderson is Malcolm King, a rich and cocky businessman who tries to get out of being robbed blind by his ex-wife in a divorce settlement by planning his own kidnapping. But someone else already has gotten the same idea, and now King is caught up in a game of "who has the millionaire?"

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

I had heard some pretty horrible things about this movie but i love Anthony Anderson so i decided to give it a shot. Kings Rasom is a comedy about a rich man named Malcom King (Anthony Anderson) who decides to get a divorce to avoid giving his wife a divorce settlement. I never knew how being kidnapped would help achieve this but were just led to believe that somehow this will work. He enlists his girlfriends (Regina Hall) aid to help him who has the IQ of a raising and calls her creepy convict of a brother to help her (played by the brilliant Charlie Murphy).

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.

King's Ransom

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!

A movie is about Malcom King, a spoiled tycoon, who treats people like dirt and acts funny. I think the character was quite good for the comedy genre, so bad the writers of the story weren't bit more creative. The core of the comedy is, that at certain situation, three different groups or individuals mastermind and want to execute the kidnapping (including Mr. King himself). This situation brings a lot of confusion and fun, but I was very disappointed at the laughable material in this comedy. It definitely isn't the type of comedy where you have problems to catch on breathing. Quite reversely, you'll hardly laugh at this flick. It's a kind of light movie you can stare at, and smile for the most part. I expected much more, but it didn't hurt.

Okay, I am obviously alone here.

I thought this movie was funny but too short.

Peaches rocked.

The gold-digger wife was (is) hot.

Loretta Devine as the secretary...flawless.

The acting-VP with the college degrees...or...no degrees, going berserk...could it be any funnier?

The sandwich getting body slammed on the roadside? funny shtick.

And the fifty-cent music...perfect!

I thought this movie had a lot to offer. It was just too short. The credits were rolling but I was wanting more.

Remember, it is not true to life. It seems that "black" films are required to either represent true life or contain a "do-good message" for the youth.

I'd prefer to go to a movie to laugh and be entertained.

I thought this film was entertaining.

King's Ransom was funny but too short.

I've seen it twice just to make sure.