Blunt

**Movie Review: *Held Hostage in My House* (2024)**

In my 53 years of watching movies, *Held Hostage in My House* is, without question, the worst I have ever seen. Directed by Anna Elizabeth James, this film is a complete letdown on almost every level. I went in with the hope of being engaged in a thrilling story but was instead met with a tedious, poorly written plot that felt both incoherent and pointless.

The pacing is painfully slow, with long, drawn-out scenes that fail to build tension or intrigue. The characters are shallow and uninspiring, with dialogue that often made me cringe. The lead performances lacked any real emotion, and there wasn't a single moment where I felt invested in the protagonist's journey or the supposed "danger" that should have driven the film forward.

The movie's attempt at suspense comes off as lazy, It feels like no effort was made to deliver a fresh or compelling story, and the ending was so anticlimactic that I couldn't help but feel completely robbed of my time.

Having experienced *Held Hostage in My House*, I can confidently say I will never watch another film by Anna Elizabeth James. This movie left such a bad impression that it has ruined any interest I might have had in her future work. Save yourself the frustration and skip this one entirely-it's not worth the effort.

So the kid in this movie was a better actor than the adults.

I wish I would learn to read these reviews before I start watching them. I made it to "the next morning " when she is flashing back to her blind date in this pepto bismol tea room. I decided I'd had enough. Then I read the one and two star ratings. At least I was in good company! Now I don't feel badly for not finishing !

Terrible, dumb story. Awful acting. AWFUL ACTING. Like, every character acts completely different from how a real person would act. I think there's like one good actor in the entire thing -- everyone else is like watching bad community theater. Overacting simple lines and then underacting when the character would be having a meltdown. Example: a guy gets shot in the foot and yells at the guy who shot him as though he had cut in front of him in line at the supermarket, lol.

I watched this because I hadn't seen Amy Smart in anything in a long while, and now I'm thinking the only reason she ever got roles in the 90s was that she was hot. I hate to say that, but her acting is abysmal. She's still a very attractive woman, but in this movie they try to make us buy her as the mom of a young boy, which technically she COULD be, but only if she had a child pretty late in life. They definitely try to pass her off as a woman in her 30s or maybe early 40s, though -- her style of dress, etc. -- but she's not. And I'm speaking as a woman in my mid-50s. It's just kind of cringe.

I suspect this was written by AI, too -- I mean... what is this story?? What was the point? It's really reaching to try and make a movie about a woman who has an airbnb and wonders if one of her multiple guests have taken her hostage. There's no logical reason why she would be running through a mental list of all the people who could have done this to her -- who would do that???? If you were taken hostage, this is not where your mind would go. It's ridiculous.

The music is so dumb throughout and not at all appropriate to the scenes. The f bombs that are edited out are giving "If Lifetime tried to be cool." The ants are disgusting. What even was the point of them? All of the extreme close-ups of everything, including characters' faces and body parts, are gross and weird. Did I mention how bad the acting is??? OMG so bad. And what is with some of the side plots? Particularly the secretly gay guy and all the random weirdness happening in the scenes with him. What the actual...? There's just too much ridiculousness going on.

The final reveal is also just so silly. I had a strong feeling I knew who the culprit was, and of course it turns out to be that person. But the "reason" is so dumb. Like, the dumbest!

And then they try to throw in some weird extra twist at the very end, and cap everything off with a pre-credits art show set to more dumb music. Lol.

I can't believe I watched this in its entirety. That's on me, but you can escape a similar fate. I just may have to rate this as the absolute worst movie I have ever seen. Avoid at all costs!

This movie deserves a big ol' ZERO, but IMDB won't allow a 0 rating. This was absolutely one of the dumbest movies I have ever seen. Maybe they were trying to be arty or take a Paige from "The Flight Attendant," but it wasn't working.

I would have given up after the first 20 minutes or so but I wanted to see if the movie could get even dumber and, in that regard, it didn't disappoint. The ending got really dumb and there weren't enough clues (none for that matter) that would allow a viewer to even guess what was going on.

The lead wore so many extremely low cut V neck tops that I wondered if she was trying to advertise something. If so, she wasn't pulling it off.

The one highlight of the movie was something I have never seen on an LMN movie in the closed captioning. "Upbeat harpsichord music!"

This was a truly terrible movie. The rentsl scenarios were completely unbelievable. And when she's knocked out and first comes to, she's too calm given that she's tied to a bed. And her panic, when it comes, is so fake. The whole saga of playing out in her mind the possible culprits was overkill and honestly just became boring...and of course the culmination of the revealing the culprit was just so pathetically cliche and ridiculous. This might have been one of the worst lifetime movies I've ever watched. Just truly bad from beginning to end. Hopefully whoever wrote this doesn't have another one...lol.