Kidnap is a good old-fashioned no-nonsense thriller. Far better than last week's antiseptic Atomic Blonde, this is the summer's best unstoppable woman movie - Halle Berry kicks ass and is perfect for this sort of fun! Not to mention driving a hotter ride than anything in Baby Driver (an off the hook Chrysler Town & Country). The audience squealed like they were on a thrill ride - very enjoyable. *A*

Kidnap has a sound premise for a suspense film, but it is unfortunately rather boring despite almost nonstop motion and noise. The chief problem is uninspired direction. For around 85 percent of its length, this is a car-chase movie. And its idea of being a car-chase movie revolves around medium closeups of star Halle Berry's anguished face, cuts to the speedometer (whoa, 60mph!), and repetitive, slightly hazy aerial shots of a red minivan pursuing a blue-green car on mostly empty roads. Consider a moment in which said car swerves at the last second onto an exit ramp, forcing the aforementioned minivan to drive in reverse to turn on the same ramp and continue the pursuit. Rather than present these maneuvers in a well-choreographed or crisp way, we are given close-to-incomprehensible closeups separated by hard cuts to black. It honestly just feels amateurish, and the resulting tedium lets one's mind wander to unhelpful questions of logic and motivation. Berry is a game enough lead, though seeing her eyes bulge and dart as she narrates her own actions and thoughts grows a bit tiresome. The film only becomes slightly more suspenseful when the vehicular pursuit ends and the focus turns to the abductors' rural compound for a standard-issue-but-modestly-scary finale.

C

Why in the world is this rated R, by the way? Obviously it is "violent" to a degree, but I have seen far worse in PG-13 movies. There is no full-on gore. And I don't even remember any major profanity.

I thought it was a really entertaining movie.

7/10 ( B )

This was surprisingly good. Highly entertaining and suspenseful. Halle Berry seems to have a niche for this genre. B

Kidnap

An excellent, intense, nerve-racking, pulse-pounding action thriller with the awesome Halle Berry. She succeeds despite some lacklustre dialogue where she explains everything she's thinking. It is one of those rare thrillers where you are constantly putting yourself in our protagonist's shoes. What would I do here? I'd do that. Just do that, love! It's all so simple. But, it's not. And she's pretty resourceful anyway. I kept thinking maybe it was something to do with the husband because they touched on a potential custody battle. But nope. It's just your standard Southern US child trafficking ring. I loved the way the ending is filmed. So claustrophobic and nail-biting.

If you want a break from sleep-inducing blockbusters like Wonder Woman, Black Panther and any Fast flick, check this film out! It has black and it has woman, and it has better car sequences than anything you'll see in a Fast flick. Kidnap is a real visceral, high-tempo experience.

B+

Yeah I remember watching this last year, but never reviewed it because I thought it was pretty forgettable honestly. Halle Berry was really good in it though.

I thought this was a passable action thriller that serves the female audience well. Berry is really good in this but there are way too many of her face cuts and too much self talking which gets annoying in the end; don't expect your audience to be so dumb (?). I liked the final section and that's where the movie picks up both in tension as well as direction. With better treatment this could have turned even bigger hit for the studios and might even be a franchise starter but as of now it remains an average action thriller.

6/10