Kidnapping Mr. Heineken

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John C ‘Kidnapping Freddy Heineken’ is a story about a gang of Dutch crooks who decide that holding one of Holland’s wealthiest businessmen for ransom will be a fast-track to easy money. It’s hardly an inspiring premise, but the thing that makes it – slightly – better than the rest, is that it’s based on a true story. If you check out the literature online about it, you’ll see that – surprise, surprise – liberties have been taken with the plot, but, from what I can gather, it is reasonably faithful – if you excuse the obvious parts which have been ‘Hollywooded up’ to speed the story up. The second plus point is Anthony Hopkins, who plays the titular millionaire. Always a good performance from ‘Sir Tony.’ Unfortunately, he’s not in it as much as most of us would probably like. The main story focuses on the criminals, half of which are pretty bland, although one is played by Sam Worthington and another does have a family who features prominently, fleshing out his character a bit more. You may have to wait about forty-five minutes before we meet Hopkins though. The film does its best to get us to empathise with the criminals and, for the most part, it sort of succeeds. We can see that they’re the down-on-their-luck sorts who are only really after the money, but, at the end of the day, they are criminals, so – deep down – we’re pretty much waiting for them to get their comeuppance. If you’re interested in the history of the case, it’s probably best to read one of the books. Granted, I haven’t, but I’m happy to settle for the big screen adaptation. Yeah, it passes the time – it’s nothing special and I probably won’t remember it in a year or so, but it kept me just about entertained enough while I was watching it. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 12/31/24 Full Review Test T I watched this on blu ray recently. The critics don't seem to like it, but I did. It is based on a true story, and is presented at a brisk pace in a very straightforward manner. It unglamorously concentrates on the sequence of events from the criminal's perspective, without expending much artistic effort on speculation. There are several action scenes and a couple of road chases which build tension and add excitement. The underlying moral issues are exposed directly, and the film is very clear that taking a criminal path leads to negative outcomes. I enjoyed the intensity of the story, and the way the film conveys the enevitability of the consequences. My only criticism is that some of the darker scenes would have benefited from better lighting. Highly recommended otherwise, especially for anyone considering a kidnapping! Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 05/26/24 Full Review jelisije j Based on the true story of a kidnapping of the man who made an empire through beer and somehow I was not entertained with this story. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review isla s This is an almost good film which just isn't quite. The fact it's based on a true story intrigued me and some scenes I enjoyed but it felt a bit disjointed. Certainly Anthony Hopkins performance as the calm under pressure kidnapped person is respectable but the start was a bit chaotic and I didn't feel very engrossed by it after things went wrong either. I did think it was thought provoking how the role seemed to change from kidnapped to criminal. That was the most interesting aspect of it - how Freddy tried to convince the somewhat bumbling criminals to do things a certain way, supposedly for their own good. I think if the script was changed it could be a much better film but it didn't really work for me overall. Personally, I thought the story was more interesting than the film. It just didn't really grab my attention much and its certainly not a film I'm likely to remember much of at all in the future. I liked that there's a fair bit of explanation provided on screen at the end, to explain what happened next to various characters. A good story but a somewhat bland and boring film, I wouldn't go out of your way to see this at all, no. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member Drags & hard to follow. There are much better movies. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/12/23 Full Review Audience Member Uno dei rapimenti più famosi della storia, viene raccontato dando priorità ai dialoghi tra i quattro rapitori; fornendo invece meno dettagli su quello che accadde. Tanti litigi, dubbi e conversazioni poco originali, mentre i fatti sono raccontati in maniera troppo sbrigativa e senza la giusta enfasi. Forse un'occasione sprecata, forse non c'erano gli elementi necessari per dare quel tocco di emozione in più. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/12/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Kidnapping Mr. Heineken

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