Stolen Reviews

"Stolen needs to be added to all the bad films Nicolas Cage has made lately. It's not his acting. The man is a good actor. He is, and will always be, a favorite of mine. But the material this man has been doing lately is garbage. I don't understand why he continues to pick these films. But it also had Josh Lucas and Danny Huston in it as well who are good actors too. I guess everyone just wanted an easy paycheck. The action is mediocre and the acting is OK, but over the top by a couple. The only one I really liked in this was Malin Akerman. The movie is poorly directed and scripted. They managed to pull off a good cast, but even they couldn't save this."

A sharp and fast-paced action-thriller. Director, Simon West and Star, Nicolas Cage re-team for the first time since Con Air to deliver another fast and furious thrill-ride. It`s a cool and surprisingly good film. A smart, thrilling, and wickedly entertaining movie, It starts off as a heist film then turns into a exciting cat and mouse game that delivers some solid twist and thrilling action scenes. A pulse-pounding thrill-a-minute action-packed ride. An explosive good-time to watch. A great all-star cast. Nicolas Cage is terrific, he gives a solid and great performance, he has been showing much better promise as of lately with this, Seeking Justice and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, looks like Cage is actually enjoying his job again. Danny Huston is fantastic as usual. Josh Lucas is electrifying, he dose not fail to play at playing a great villain.

12 Hours. $10 Million. 1 Kidnapped Daughter.

Good movie! A decent movie by Nicholas Cage. The plot is predictable, the premise has nothing new to show, and nothing really stand out from the movie. A few funny moments here and there in the movie was refreshing. Nevertheless, a decent movie and a decent performance by Cage. Don't set a high expectation, ignore the logic of the storyline, and you will enjoy the movie.

A former thief frantically searches for his missing daughter, who has been kidnapped and locked in the trunk of a taxi.

Simon West and Nicolas Cage team up for the intense action thriller Stolen. The story follows an ex-bank robber whose daughter is kidnapped by his former partner and held for ransom. The cast is quite good, and includes Nicolas Cage, Josh Lucas, and Malin Akerman. However West's directing is a bit uneven, particularly in how he tries to incorporate Mardi Gras into the setting. Still, the action is shot well and gives the film a lot of energy. Stolen is pretty formulaic and has its share of problems, but it's a solid action film (all things considered).

Another day, another awful movie starring everyone's favorite one-time actor, Crazy Nic Cage. This time he's teamed up with his old mate, director West, the man responsible for the ridiculous but fun "Con Air". That was back in '97 though and since then the careers of both men have sunk to levels usually only mined by former child stars. A glance at Cage's recent filmography makes you wonder how exactly he can still get work. If an athlete was on such a poor run of form they'd have retired from the game long ago. It seems things are so bad Cage is being asked to provide his own clothes, I'm sure he's being wearing that leather jacket since "Gone in 60 Seconds".
You wouldn't think it possible that an actor could out-crazy Cage but somehow Lucas does. His villain is genuinely bizarre, his Dr John N'Awlins speak and artificial leg making him seem like a cajun Long John Silver. I'm hoping his bewildering dialogue is improvised as I'd hate to think it was ever put down on paper by a writer. Cage is actually quite calm throughout which is no fun at all. We only watch a Cage movie for one reason now and that's to see him lose it. Huston is a terrific actor and tries his best to be dignified but in a Nic Cage movie nobody's reputation gets out in one piece. Gayle, who was so good in "Detachment", spends most of her time in a taxi trunk, probably the best place for an actor to be in a movie as bad as this.

West is one of those directors whose idea of telling a story is to "shoot the shit out of it and fix it in the editing". His staging of action is bewildering, displaying an uncanny knack of placing his camera in the worst place possible while cutting in a way that at times makes it seem as though cars are chasing themselves. On top of this we get a horrifically inappropriate score by the usually reliable Mark Isham. It sounds like he was commisioned to write the theme tune for a bad eighties "MacGuyver" rip-off and knocked it up in a day with a cheap synth. Add the poor quality digital photography and the film takes on the feel of an episode of "Street Hawk".
"There must be some reason to watch this turkey", you may think. Well, if you've always wanted to hear Cage speak Swedish your wish has been granted.

Whenever I see Nicolas Cage's name on a movie poster, I know that no matter the film, I'm going to see a great performance. While Cage has done every conceivable genre, he is of course best know for his action films. In Stolen, Cage once again teams with his Director from Con Air, Simon West, to give us another exciting thriller. Cage plays Will Montgomery, a career criminal who has just spent eight years in prison. Montgomery comes out wanting to start a new life, but that's put on hold when he learns that a former enemy has kidnapped his daughter and is holding her for ransom. I guess no one has ever told Nicolas Cage that you're supposed to slow down with age, because he is just as good in this movie as he is in all his other films. Cage, notorious for performing his own stunts, does some amazing things in this film and is of course pure intensity. In this film he's paired with Josh Lucas who was in a film by the same title in 2009, not to be confused with that movie, Lucas plays Montgomery's partner in crime and throughout this film you can see him and Cage feed off of one another, too me, that was the best part. Lets be honest here, rarely do action films have a decent story to distinguish themselves from one another. Stolen is no different, a daughter in peril, held by a weird foul mouthed bad guy, who is being chased by a want to be hero with a less than stellar reputation, you've seen this dozens of times. What makes Stolen stand out from those other films is the cast, it's as simple as that. The cast really keeps you interested, even when the movie gets to be predictable and even when the stunts are impossible, the cast keep bringing you back to the edge of your seat, with their great performances and extreme intensity. For that reason, even though this is a familiar and predictable film, Stolen stood out from all the other action films I've seen lately.

So many people want to hate on this movie yet it was pretty decent for a dollar rental at Red Box. It does it's job: cheap entertainment. Yeah, there were a few cringe worthy moments and my husband lost interest and walked out of the room to do other things but I stayed and had it playing in the background while I sewed. I never like doing mundane things like sewing holes or eating by myself without something to amuse me whilst I do it and this movie filled that gap. The ending was quite cute. I couldn't get over how much the daughter in the movie (played by Sami Gayle) looked exactly like what Justin Beiber would look like if he had been born female. P.S. Josh Lucas is a fave romantic lead for me so seeing him as a crazed psycho kidnapping killer was quite strange for me... he's a fabulous actor.

I was really considering not writing this review - knowing how much everyone loves to hate Nicolas Cage recently, especially in action films like Stolen! At the end, I thought, it is fair to express my opinion regardless how many people disagree - everyone has their own, anyway. The story of a former master-thief, Will Montgomery (Nicolas Cage), who is released from prison for a bank robbery of $10 million, was written by David Guggenheim, and there is nothing new in it! It wasn't a bad story but was not original at all. When we follow him to visit his estranged daughter, Alison, whom he hasn't seen in eight years, an old partner (Josh Lucas), who many believed to have died, kidnaps Alison and locks her in the trunk of his medallion taxi cab, and demands ransom: the $10 million he believes Will still has. Since he doesn't, Will has to rob another bank as the detective that put him away (Danny Huston) tracks him down again... everything seen I already saw in other films before - but the movie itself is a watchable, especially on DVD. I wouldn't waste money on cinema, though!

Director Simon West did what the producers wanted him to do, and Nicolas Cage and Danny Huston acted the way you should act in action movies without cheerful atmosphere - simple and effectively. Don't expect too much and you could enjoy it!

Bottom: hit. What is a good idea to basically rip-off of Taken is turned into a new low for Nicolas Cage. I'll even give that the story could have been good if it were dialed down a bit. But with a director in Simon West, who started with Con-Air and has worsened with every movie until this, Stolen is a costly lesson that maybe he's not going to get any better.

Will Montgomery, Nicolas Cage, is a criminal who steals a bunch of money, causes a big "this is it" heist to go bad, and serves 8-years for his part. When he gets out, one of his partners, who has some obvious and HUGE psychological problems, wants his share of the $10 million dollars he's owed, but was never found. The FBI thinks Montgomery is crying wolf as a ploy to get them off his back long enough to get his money out of hiding and the bad guy has his daughter and will kill her in 24 hours if Will doesn't come up with the cash. Aaaaaand ACTION!

Kinda. The story is so crazy and poorly put together that it's not even worth trying to follow. The villain needs lots of therapy. There is nothing rational about what he's doing or why and it's as if he's popping in and out of this movie and another one and confusing the scripts. There is no suspense, because anything that may be a cool twist is made so blatantly obvious that you know everything coming.

Nicolas Cage's fans have trickled out the door, and unless he gets back to making good films soon, they're not coming back. This $37-million movie didn't even make $500 thousand. His acting reflects how bad he knew Stolen was going to be. Danny Huston was on auto-pilot and didn't contribute anything to Stolen, and Josh Lucas was all over the place as the baddie. I have no clue what happened to Malin Akerman that she had to take this role. Two years ago she was in $100 million movies and now this? She either pissed a lot of people off or owed someone a big favor. How did she do? It really doesn't matter in a movie like this.

Obviously I'm not going to recommend this movie to anyone. I just don't know if I'm saddened or upset by Cage's career path. COME BACK TO ME NICK!

To say this movie is disappointing is to say "I haven't seen a Nicolas Cage movie that has came out in the last 5 or so years." If you've been following Nicolas Cage's career is in an odd place as of late. The movies are mediocre at best but yet he is still drawing some pretty good directors and co-stars. And for the most part they still look like they have decent production value. But still are getting limited theater releases, zero marketing, and for the most part you don't hear of them until they are sitting on the shelve at the rental place. This time around Cage re-teams up with action director hack Simon West that started with the explosive crazy Con Air and now feels like somebody who is important nephew that they give work to to appease the boss. People are saying this is a rip-off of Taken. Which it really isn't. Because that would be saying Taken ripped off Ransom. It's just a father trying to rescue his daughter from a kidnapping. The story here is more straight-forward and on a smaller scale, but still works fairly well. Cage delivers a bit more of a relaxed performance, but still manages to execute some of his over the top performance in there from time to time. Luckily it's usually when it is needed so doesn't distract too much from the overall film. The supporting cast is pretty good featuring Malin Ackerman, Danny Huston, and Josh Lucas who seemed to take over with the over the top delivery here. What really make this film work at all are the decent action, a pretty cool car crash, and the clever robbery scenarios. It has become pretty rare to deliver something all that interesting in film bank jobs, but here they did some pretty creative stuff. It isn't a bad way to spend a dollar at Redbox when you can't find anything else out there.

Ya, it's a "ripoff" of other films...who cares! 99% of movies are "ripoffs" in one way or another. Action, suspense, a couple booms and even a whoosh or two. I like Nic Cage and I liked this movie. Extra half star and a middle finger to the critics, just for fun.

The plot was a bit ridiculous and very unoriginal, but it is worth a viewing to watch Lucas play the role of Vincent. He is definitely one of the creepiest and most realistic bad guys that I have seen in a straight action movie in a long time.

(3 1/2 Stars) Stolen is one of those silly action thrillers that thankfully knows it's silly. It's not particularly original, but it's fun. The best way I can describe it is one of those corny action movies made by WWE Studios, but with way better actors and a less bland screenplay. The action scenes are pretty good (not surprising coming from the director of Con Air and The Expendables 2) and there are a few funny parts, both intentional and unintentional (Josh Lucas's burned-out stoner look). If you like Nicolas Cage, you'll like him here. If you don't like him because you're so brilliant, you won't like him here.

There could have been a twist that is so painfully obvious, but I'm glad they didn't go through with it. I'm not sure if they shot it so they were purposely misleading the audience, but if they did, then major props to them. I know a ton of people are going to dismiss Stolen only because it looks very familiar, but I like it.

A classic Nicholas Cage flick where he, once again, plays the same character as any other movie. In this rip off of Taken, Cage plays another lifeless character who every now and then attempts at emotion, but then seems to give up. The story didn't seem unique and it wasn't engaging. Lots of cheesy moments packed into this one, more so than the usual Cage movie. In the end it was cheap entertainment, however it was entertaining in the wrong ways.

Starts out good in the beginning but then slows down and gets good again. Some parts of the story could use some improvements. Otherwise, Nicolas Cage did well as usual.

Pretty lame and forgettable. Nicolas Cage could've probably made this slightly entertaining if he had tried, but no dice there. The only reason I'm giving this 1 star is because part of it was filmed at the abandoned Six Flags New Orleans, which I've UrbExed before. Never seen that in a movie before, so that was pretty cool. Other than that, there's really no reason to watch this.

I was actually pretty okay with this movie, until the last half hour decided to just go way to over the top, predictable and just boring. Feel lucky that you saw Taken and not this one lol. Only reason it gets 2 stars is due to Nicolas Cage and an actually very cool soundtrack.

The film shines when Cage is onscreen and the action scenes are over-the-top fun, but the main antagonist's ham sandwich of a performance (along with said character's equally terrible dialogue) brings the whole affair down quite a few notches.

This is a very special flashback review for one of the most excruciating movies I ever had to sit through. Its badness has seeped so far into my brain that even now, at least six months after being exposed to this "gem", I can write this review with no trouble at all.

This movie tells the story of a guy named Will Montgomery. He is an experienced thief that was set-up in a heist and went to prison for the better part of a decade. We get to meet him as he is released and he is determined to turn his life around. First, he wants to build a relationship with his teenage daughter Allison, whom he hasn't seen in years. But that won't be easy. Several people, including his old partner Vincent, believe that Will has hidden the loot from his last heist. His ex-partner then kidnaps Will's daughter and demands 10 million dollars ransom.

Will now has a problem: he doesn't have the money. If he can't stage another heist within 24 hours, he will lose his daughter. And what a heist it is. It involves breaking into a bank through the sewers. But not to get money, no. In one of the better late-career Cage acting moments, he uses a blowtorch to melt gold in the banks vaults, straight through the floor.

Vincent, who somehow lost a leg and operates like a crackpot junkie cabdriver, almost out-Cages Nicholas in terms of sheer madness and overacting. The most hilarious scene of the whole movie, apart from the gold-melting nonsense, is the end scene in which Will/Cage crashes a burning taxi cab into the water after he runs Vincent over with it. Unharmed, Will/Cage emerges from the vehicle in the water and attempts to free his daughter who is locked up inside the trunk of the car. Vincent, shown in true terminator style with his artificial right leg, creeps up behind Cage, burnt, run over and crippled. But still he manages to challenge Cage's Will to a fight. The taxi keeps burning and floating until the girl is rescued, but it sinks within seconds of Will/Cage shoving Vincent in the trunk after stabbing him with a pole. This movie is a ridiculous as it is bad.

Oh, looking at the production credits on IMDB just now, I realized there were three main producers and 10 (!) executive producers on this movie. Since all of them are responsible for this utter piece of crap, they should go find something else to do.

The only thing stolen with this movie is the time of my life that I have spent watching it.

Verdict: Avoid like the plague!

Every bit as good as you expect a Nicolas Cage movie to be. Seemed very 80s. Prolly would have would have been more entertaining (though just as bad) if he'd played the mentally unhinged villain role.