Paul is a dis-likable young man with a plan. His mother can't afford her medication (doesn't Canada have nationalized heath care?) and they're repossessing her house. He needs money right away. He hatches a complex kidnapping plan which is supposed to be brilliant, but which is, in fact, fairly stupid. Only the intervention of the script writers allows this plan to succeed in the end.
*SPOILERS*
Paul recruits two psychopathic morons to assist him in his crime. Together they kidnap three adult children of some rather shady rich guys and demand a million from each parent be transferred to an offshore account. The old rich guys are obviously corrupt, though what business they're in isn't clear. These old miscreants are played by some well-known and accomplished actors, but the actors playing the young kidnappers are not so good. Anyway, as criminals they continue to make stupid mistakes, leaving fingerprints, making calls and just doing stupid things. Other reviews here have listed some of the blunders these idiots make which in the real world would land them in prison in a New York minute. Our protagonist doesn't intend for his accomplices to come out of it alive and he kills one of them personally. The girl accomplice gets kicked to death by the boy accomplice for no reason except he's a homicidal maniac. Among other contradictions is the improbability that two escaped hostages would be able to hike several miles through dense woods at night or that the ill-fated sidekicks would be able to track them.
Then we come to a hole in the plot big enough to drive a minor asteroid through: after money has been transferred to the offshore account Paul calls up the fathers and tells them their children are free (actually one is already dead and two have escaped) and just not to make any phone calls or answer the phone for the next hour or so. So the dim-witted dads just sit there and don't answer the phone for the next hour as the surviving children desperately attempt to call. And of course they don't phone the police. What? These guys are supposed to be smart, though crooked, businessmen. Doesn't it occur to them that there's no possible way the kidnapper could know if they're using the phone? They don't even look at caller ID to see who's calling them!
This is almost a credible thriller, if you park your brain at the door, but the ending is abysmal. Paul, the mastermind of the kidnapping, is supposed to be the entitled one, you see. He deserves the money because rich guys are always corrupt and he needs it more than they do. So in the end he gets away with 2 million and he's supposed to be the hero because he had such a smart plan. He only committed enough felonies to get life in prison. He murdered his friend and engineered a kidnapping, but he's supposed to be the hero, despite the fact that's he's an extremely unlikable pratt. Somebody in these review pages suggested that this was a right-wing scenario. Nothing could be further from the truth. This is pure leftist, entitled generation, narcissistic nonsense. "Occupiers" will love it because it sticks it to the rich guys, I mean, Paul represents the 99%, one of the liberals' beloved victims who isn't doing it out of greed but to obtain justice for his ailing mom and see that the rich bastards pay their fair share. Isn't 'social justice' what it's all about?
*SPOILERS*
Paul recruits two psychopathic morons to assist him in his crime. Together they kidnap three adult children of some rather shady rich guys and demand a million from each parent be transferred to an offshore account. The old rich guys are obviously corrupt, though what business they're in isn't clear. These old miscreants are played by some well-known and accomplished actors, but the actors playing the young kidnappers are not so good. Anyway, as criminals they continue to make stupid mistakes, leaving fingerprints, making calls and just doing stupid things. Other reviews here have listed some of the blunders these idiots make which in the real world would land them in prison in a New York minute. Our protagonist doesn't intend for his accomplices to come out of it alive and he kills one of them personally. The girl accomplice gets kicked to death by the boy accomplice for no reason except he's a homicidal maniac. Among other contradictions is the improbability that two escaped hostages would be able to hike several miles through dense woods at night or that the ill-fated sidekicks would be able to track them.
Then we come to a hole in the plot big enough to drive a minor asteroid through: after money has been transferred to the offshore account Paul calls up the fathers and tells them their children are free (actually one is already dead and two have escaped) and just not to make any phone calls or answer the phone for the next hour or so. So the dim-witted dads just sit there and don't answer the phone for the next hour as the surviving children desperately attempt to call. And of course they don't phone the police. What? These guys are supposed to be smart, though crooked, businessmen. Doesn't it occur to them that there's no possible way the kidnapper could know if they're using the phone? They don't even look at caller ID to see who's calling them!
This is almost a credible thriller, if you park your brain at the door, but the ending is abysmal. Paul, the mastermind of the kidnapping, is supposed to be the entitled one, you see. He deserves the money because rich guys are always corrupt and he needs it more than they do. So in the end he gets away with 2 million and he's supposed to be the hero because he had such a smart plan. He only committed enough felonies to get life in prison. He murdered his friend and engineered a kidnapping, but he's supposed to be the hero, despite the fact that's he's an extremely unlikable pratt. Somebody in these review pages suggested that this was a right-wing scenario. Nothing could be further from the truth. This is pure leftist, entitled generation, narcissistic nonsense. "Occupiers" will love it because it sticks it to the rich guys, I mean, Paul represents the 99%, one of the liberals' beloved victims who isn't doing it out of greed but to obtain justice for his ailing mom and see that the rich bastards pay their fair share. Isn't 'social justice' what it's all about?