I saw the previews and trailers long ago for this and said to myself, this will either be good or be very bad. It needs to be mentioned this is made by the same person who only makes this type of movies. Why is this important? Well it is not, but worth mentioning anyway.
Anyhow, did it bomb or was it good? Neither. It actually fell in that gray area, surprising even to me. I could not like it, nor could i hate it. It is very watchable but it essentially a lifetime made for TV movie that wants to be something more. Just could not pull it off.
It tries too hard to create misdirection, and i have to admit, it got me. Did not see some of those things coming, yet it does it by throwing in the kitchen sink of cliches especially near the end. There are better ways to achieve that than throwing random stuff for the sake of "twists". Too forced, too cliched, too rushed. Anyhow. Generic.
It tries to be somewhat realistic however which i will give credit to. There is no stupid hacker friend to randomly hack GooooGlle MaINFrAmE type nonsense; they tried to show things realistic like somebody would actually do them, and it came out fine. I have no issue with any of that, there is plenty of detail spent on that and it acts as additional plot tension; will she manage to get into xyzx email address.. The computer bits/social media/internet came out fine, no complaints.
Characters... Very forgettable, very i don't care about any of them vibe to them. FBI people just about seal the fate on that. The only one that stands out is the columbian errand runner. I will remember him. He steals the show in my view. So at least i have somebody to take away here.
Everything else.. it tries, it just cannot. Too much lifetime made for TV in it. I am not sure how else to put it, but this is literally the best description i can assign it. It feels like it, acts like it, runs like it, talks like it.. it just is. I was hoping it was going to be a gritty movie about columbian kidnapping gangs, a bit like TAKEN, because that is what the previews made it appear as. Well disappointment is the spice of a lifetime special movie. And that's what we have here.
Watchable, yes. Forgettable? Very. I watched it last night and it is already out of my head so i am writing this before i completely forget about it.
Anyhow, did it bomb or was it good? Neither. It actually fell in that gray area, surprising even to me. I could not like it, nor could i hate it. It is very watchable but it essentially a lifetime made for TV movie that wants to be something more. Just could not pull it off.
It tries too hard to create misdirection, and i have to admit, it got me. Did not see some of those things coming, yet it does it by throwing in the kitchen sink of cliches especially near the end. There are better ways to achieve that than throwing random stuff for the sake of "twists". Too forced, too cliched, too rushed. Anyhow. Generic.
It tries to be somewhat realistic however which i will give credit to. There is no stupid hacker friend to randomly hack GooooGlle MaINFrAmE type nonsense; they tried to show things realistic like somebody would actually do them, and it came out fine. I have no issue with any of that, there is plenty of detail spent on that and it acts as additional plot tension; will she manage to get into xyzx email address.. The computer bits/social media/internet came out fine, no complaints.
Characters... Very forgettable, very i don't care about any of them vibe to them. FBI people just about seal the fate on that. The only one that stands out is the columbian errand runner. I will remember him. He steals the show in my view. So at least i have somebody to take away here.
Everything else.. it tries, it just cannot. Too much lifetime made for TV in it. I am not sure how else to put it, but this is literally the best description i can assign it. It feels like it, acts like it, runs like it, talks like it.. it just is. I was hoping it was going to be a gritty movie about columbian kidnapping gangs, a bit like TAKEN, because that is what the previews made it appear as. Well disappointment is the spice of a lifetime special movie. And that's what we have here.
Watchable, yes. Forgettable? Very. I watched it last night and it is already out of my head so i am writing this before i completely forget about it.