O Resgate

In New Orleans, the notorious bank thief and family man Will Montgomery (Nicolas Cage) steals ten million-dollar with his partners Vincent (Josh Lucas), Riley Jeffers (Malin Akerman) and Hoyt (M.C. Gainey). However, he has an argument with Vincent in the runaway and Hoyt leaves Will behind. He tries to flee but the FBI agent Tim Harlend (Danny Huston) organizes a manhunt and Will is captured, but he burns the stolen money to get rid of the evidences against him.

Eight years later, Will leaves the prison and he goes to the house of his teenage daughter Alison Loeb (Sami Gayle), who has issues against him. Alison leaves Will alone in a coffee shop and takes a cab to go to a session with her shrink. However, a couple of minutes later, Will receives a phone call from Vincent, who is presumed dead, telling that he has abducted Alison and will kill her unless he receives the ten million-dollars of the last robbery. Now Will has twelve hours to find a way to rescue his daughter from the hands of the psychopath Vincent.

"Stolen" is a predictable, flawed, full of clichés but also entertaining action movie with Nicolas Cage in the lead role. This is the type of movie where the viewer can guess what is going to happen on the next scene but nevertheless is not as bad as I expected. I really did not understand how the cellular with GPS that was left in the train to Tallahassee was back again with Will Montgomery and how the handcuff on his left hand has vanished. Further, how many golden bars have been easily melted, hardened and carried in a bag? At least, seeing the gorgeous Swedish actress Malin Akerman makes this forgettable movie worth. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "O Resgate" ("The Ransom")

Zero fanfare, barely-there 141 theaters count in the U.S. (a surprise, considering it's a movie starring Nicolas Cage and directed by Simon West of CON AIR and THE EXPENDABLES 2 fame), and scathing reviews -- everything about STOLEN spells rotten. Many have even lambasted this as among the worst Nicolas Cage movie he's ever acted. Personally, I don't blame them for being so harsh since Nicolas Cage's movies nowadays are mostly rubbish. But surprisingly, STOLEN isn't as bad as I thought. It isn't good either, but rather a fairly worthwhile action thriller.

The movie follows Will Montgomery (Nicolas Cage), a master thief who has been sent to prison for 8 years after being double-crossed by one of his partners (M.C. Gainey) in a $10 million robbery gone awry. Upon his release, he plans to leave his criminal past behind and attempts to rekindle his shaky relationship with his estranged daughter, Alison (Sami Gayle). However, FBI agents Tim Harlend (Danny Huston) and Fletcher (Mark Valley) are both convinced that Montgomery must have stashed the $10 million somewhere before he was arrested. But Montgomery insists he's already burned all the money before he surrendered himself, so his prison sentence will be significantly reduced. Soon, it doesn't take long before Montgomery's past comes back to haunt him when his former partner, Vincent (Josh Lucas), who is long thought to be dead, works as a taxi driver and kidnaps Alison. Vincent has been waiting for 8 years to exact revenge against Montgomery, who shots his leg during that fateful robbery, and now he wants the missing $10 million as ransom. Montgomery is given 12 hours to retrieve the money at all cost, or Vincent will kill Alison. As time running out, Montgomery has no choice but to go back his old self again and re-teams with his another partner, the beautiful Riley Jeffers (Malin Akerman) to pull off a bank heist.

STOLEN plays strictly by-the-numbers, and it's terribly clichéd all over the place. David Guggenheim's screenplay is full of implausibilities, and the characters are all caricatures at best. But the movie's ludicrous tone has somehow plays out fairly good to its advantage. Thanks to Simon West's energetic direction, the movie zips along fast enough. Frankly, watching STOLEN is akin to watching a mindless '90s action movie -- enjoyable as long as you put your logic aside. The action are quite entertaining , especially given its $35 million low-budget cost (the opening heist scene and the car chase scene inside the parking lot comes to mind), even though they tend to get a bit distracted by its fast editing. Mark Isham's score is catchy and entertaining enough, but its snappy tone that favors over its caper genre does sounds awkward during its more dramatic moments.

Acting-wise, Nicolas Cage plays the same old character we have seen too many times before -- twitchy, that is. But at least, it's not as worst as critics might lead you to believe here. Josh Lucas certainly has a field day playing an over-the-top, crazy psychopath while both Danny Huston and Mark Valley make quite a worthwhile comic-relief pair as two buffoonery FBI agents. Malin Akerman puts up a thankless role here, which is nothing more than showcasing her beauty and little else.

While STOLEN won't top anyone's list as one of the must-see action movies of the year, at least it delivers adequate supply of guilty-pleasure entertainment.

The plot is rather simple and not original, but chases during and within Mardi Gras festivities in New Orleans are interesting to watch (here, adding the carnival does make sense, in most other movies it is just meant to confuse viewers and chasers). However, the "final end" could have been different, more sophisticated.

Nicholas Cage is good as usual, but the real star (and best villain) of the movie is John Lucas - vicious inside and outside. Female characters tend to be sketchy, although actresses do their best.

An OK movie for killing time, but it is neither Heat nor Snatch or similar. A typical Cage-related action.

If you are wondering, "Why is Nicolas Cage starring in a movie that only got a token theatrical release before being dumped on DVD?", well, from what I've heard, Cage's overspending combined with a massive tax debt has made him take less prestigious projects in order to raise money. Actually, I had high hopes for this movie, because it was a production from Millennium Films, a company that often makes high quality action movies. However, this movie is one of their rare misses. Technically, the movie is above average for a movie aimed primarily at the DVD market. However, the basic story has been told so many times before that there are few surprises this time around. Most likely you'll be impatient long before the end because at times the movie seems to be stretching things out. Also, Cage's character never really becomes sympathetic - you'll never get involved in his plight and be rooting for him. And this is yet another movie where filmmakers don't know how heavy gold bars are in real life! Let's hope Cage managed to pay off his debts with this movie so he can be free to pick more quality projects.

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.