Trapped

John Chard

Clap Trap. Trapped is directed by Luis Mandoki and written by Greg Iles. It stars Charlize Theron, Kevin Bacon, Courtney Love, Stuart Townsend, Pruitt Taylor Vince and Dakota Fanning. Music is by John Ottman and cinematography is by Frederick Elmes. Based on Iles’ book 24 Hours, Trapped aspires to be a potent kidnap thriller, an attempt to use the kidnapping of a young girl as some sort of edge of the seat entertainment, sadly it’s poorly constructed and quite frankly ill advised. A fine cast has assembled for the picture, but nobody distinguishes themselves as they try to make the generic and idiotic material work. On the atmosphere side of the fence things aren’t half bad, there’s a grim and grubby feel to proceedings, but Mandoki consistently ruins each passage of promise with cack-handed convolutions, which when the core plot device is a dumb drug set-up, only makes the feeble efforts of making a twisty thriller even more laughable. The crowning glory of the latter being the finale, which is ludicrous. 2/10 with young Fanning the only one coming out of it with any credit.

Dr Nostromo

59/100 A wealthy couple's daughter is kidnapped in an elaborate plot that may not be as it seems. Joe (Kevin Bacon) terrorizing the mother (Charlize Theron) for most of the film makes your skin crawl and was becoming a bit too uncomfortable for a bit too long. But then things started to subtly change and twist leading to a climax that was absolute total chaos. Excellent performances by everyone, especially Charlize, Kevin and Courtney Love. Good stuff. -- DrNostromo.com