Redwarmin This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

LouHomey From my favorite movies..

Cooktopi The acting in this movie is really good.

Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

Bryan Kluger This film is based on such a bizarre crime, that it almost seems unreal. 'Kidnapping Mr. Heineken' or 'Kidnapping Freddy Heineken' as it's known in some foreign markets is the true life story of a group of friends who decide to kidnap the owner of Heineken Beer and force a ransom for millions of dollars. This crime actually happened back in the early 80s in the Netherlands.It's a decent enough story, however director Daniel Alfredson never brings any of the characters to life, nor does the story have any real intent other than just showing what happened, before abruptly ending after the last person was arrested. Alfredson is a great director too. His resume includes a couple of the original versions of 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo' series where his younger brother Thomas directed the original 'Let The Right One In' film as well as 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'.So off the bat, Daniel nor his brother Thomas are exactly lightweights. But with 'Kidnapping Mr. Heineken', Alfredson really only wanted to show the actual events with no depth whatsoever. The cast is solid as well with Sir Anthony Hopkins being chained and confined to a cell through most of the film as he plays Mr. Heineken. His kidnappers are played by Jim Sturgess ('Across the Universe'), Sam Worthington ('Avatar'), Ryan Kwanten ('True Blood'), amongst a couple others.This group of friends seem to be paid be some unknown person to evict and literally throw out squatters living in condemned housing. But these guys want more money and decide to kidnap the wealthiest person for a big ransom. That lucky person is Freddy Heineken of the beer company of the same name. They want to come across as professionals, which they are anything but, so they rob a bank to secure financing to build a sound proof room to make it look like an organized crime outfit executed this job.I'm sure you already know the outcome or can read it about it in a number of books, but was it worth making a film about? While the answer may be "yes", there needs to be some sort of depth to the characters other than that one of their girlfriend's is pregnant. Beyond that aspect, each kidnapper might as well be the same exact person. There just isn't much to work with, which is a shame. Sir Anthony Hopkins turns in a great performance, but is on screen for only a few minutes, and doesn't give us time to connect or sympathize with him whatsoever. At the very end of the film, which ends abruptly, there are title cards for each character of what eventually happened with them. The two lead kidnappers went to prison for a decade, but upon being released became the leaders of the biggest and most vicious mafias in the Netherlands.This would have made for such a better movie to see their rise to power with this kidnapping starting the entire reign of terror. Why they didn't make that, I'll never know. But as this film goes, 'Kidnapping Mr. Heineken' doesn't amount to much other than watching a few people kidnap a wealthy person and struggle with whether or not to release him or wait for the ransom money.

leonblackwood Review: I really wasn't a big fan of this film because it's really slow and the storyline isn't that great. Its about 4 childhood friends who are in some financial problems so they come up with a bright idea, to kidnap Freddy Heineken for a huge ransom. I know that this ridiculous idea was plotted in 1988 so there wasn't security cameras everywhere like there is today but I really don't know how they thought that they were going to get away with such a huge heist. They seemed to be making it up as they went along and they didn't figure out a what they were going to do with the money until the end, which seemed a bit strange. For entertainment, it wasn't that great because the 4 childhood buddies seemed to be bickering most of the time and the money didn't really bring any joy to there life's. You didn't get to see what happened from the investigating point of view so the police kept on popping up out of the blue, without much explanation. Anthony Hopkins played his part well, as usual, but the 4 main characters didn't really bring intensity to such a difficult situation, which is mostly due to the writing. I'm sure that the money that they robbed to fund the kidnapping, could have cleared up some of there debt so I didn't have much sympathy for the dumb criminals. At the end of the day, it was blatant greed that pushed this guys on the run so they got everything that they deserved. Average!Round-Up: Sam Worthington has made some weird films since his big role in Avatar! He's had roles in Clash & Wraith of the Titans, which wasn't that bad but Termination Salvation wasn't that great. Since then, he's had some small projects like Sabotage, which was pretty average and Man on a Ledge which was also average but with some more Avatar movies in the pipeline, he really is set up for life. His acting style isn't the greatest but he has made some decent choices so at 38 years old, he really hasn't done too bad since making his debut in Hart's War in 2002. Anyway, the director of this movie Daniel Alfredson, also directed the Girl Who Played With Fire and the Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest, which were no way as good as the original and he has made quite a few TV series so he hasn't made that many movies for the big screen. He could have done a better job with this film, especially with Hopkins commitment to the project but the concept was interesting, as it's based on true events.I recommend this movie to people who are into their crime/drama movies about a group of childhood friends who come up with a plan to kidnap Mr. Heineken for a hefty ransom, to help them out of there financial difficulties. 4/10

Bob Rutzel This based upon a true story.Amsterdam, 1983, five construction workers go the bank for a loan to help revive their company, but are turned down. They are at a loss what to do when one of them says they should kidnap Freddy Heineken (Anthony Hopkins), the beer tycoon and get the ransom money. We see the planning, and execution of this plan, which is quite good for these amateurs. They kidnap Mr. Heineken and his chauffeur, Ab (David Denick) and both are well-treated with no harm coming to them. Mr Heineken makes some demands to make his "stay" more comfortable and he gets his way. The rest of the movie shows the five stressing about not getting the money as quickly as they planned. These actors are basically unknown to us and they do a good job. The main problem with this story is a lack of tension. They treat Mr. Heinekin and Ab in good fashion and since we know the ransom will be paid (at the time this was the most money ever paid for a kidnapping: 16-million Euros) we don't see any suspense on the horizon, and we are comfortable with it. What we don't know is how they slipped up and got caught. We have our suspicions how this happened, but we were wrong (as usual) and we are told what happened when the credits run at the end. One fairly good line comes out of this by Mr Heineken as he tries to talk his way out of bondage and he says, "there are two ways a man can be rich in this world; he can have a lot of money or he can have a lot of friends. But he cannot have both." Anthony Hopkins' screen time is short but he makes the most of it and does an excellent job as usual. (7/10)Violence: Yes. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Language: Yes, some not too much.

n-nguyen34 All the best cast were there. Frankly we came for their names. All characters were well built but struggling through a series of events that so less actions, so less thrill creating by so long the wait between two moments of 'ok, what's now'. Such a waste of an excellent story. I came to watch the movie by noon. Maybe that's the reason why the color, the ambiance created by the movie literally, easily bored me to fast asleep. To be fair, it could have been better off for another time of the day I suppose. My condolences to all leading actors for their huge waste of time. Hope this doesn't affect their otherwise excellent up&coming career.