Stolen Reviews
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
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.
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
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.
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
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!
Super Reviewer
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!
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.
