King's Ransom

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King's Ransom

PG-13

Released Apr 22, 2005

1h 37m

Comedy

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

2%

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47 Reviews

32%

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5,000+ Ratings

When the rich and arrogant Malcolm King (Anthony Anderson) informs his wife, Renee (Kellita Smith), that he plans to divorce her, she becomes intent on taking as much of his money as possible in the settlement. Malcolm devises a way to keep his fortune, but it involves staging his own kidnapping. Unfortunately for Malcolm, numerous people, including the scheming Corey (Jay Mohr), are already planning on abducting him, and there are various inept attempts to procure the wealthy man's money.

Critics Consensus

Filled with crass dialogue, unlikable characters, and overdone slapstick gags, King's Ransom is an utterly inept would-be comedy.

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J. R. Jones

Chicago Reader

The script, by TV writer Wayne Conley, shares some elements with the old Danny DeVito comedy Ruthless People, but humor isn't one of them.

Jan 5, 2007

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Nathan Rabin

AV Club

King's Ransom lumbers forth clumsily, choreographing its slapstick pratfalls with all the class and taste of a Courtney Love relapse.

Sep 26, 2005

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Scott Brown

Entertainment Weekly

Basically an improv scene sprawling to feature length.

Rated: D+

May 4, 2005

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Cole Smithey

ColeSmithey.com

This slapdash comedy barely coughs up more than a couple of funny scenes as the story moves in predictable fits and starts before sputtering out of fuel half way through.

Rated: C-

Jun 19, 2009

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Mark Halverson

Sacramento News & Review

The wordplay of the title here is the only slightly clever element of this extremely lame comedy.

Rated: 1/5

Aug 7, 2008

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Garth Franklin

Dark Horizons

Rated: 0.5/4

Oct 30, 2006

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melissa l

I think it's funny, and don't know why there are so many bad reviews.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

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Audience Member

An okay comedy film that has some funny moments but can also be forgettable after you watch you it. The late Charlie Murphy was easily the best character in the movie and made me laugh the most of all the actors including Anthony Anderson, Jay Mohr, and Regina Hall. If you're a Charlie Murphy fan and want to watch something to remember him by I would recommend watching this along side Norbit and every episode of Chappelle's Show.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/26/23

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Audience Member

This movie never made a lot noise but was good...would of been a B movie if the cast didn't pull it off!!

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/15/23

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Audience Member

Anthony Anderson is a wealthy businessman and wants to divorce his wife, but she will get a large settlement as a result, so he intends to set up so he gets kidnapped and demand a ransom in order to keep his money safe. However, he's not the only one who plans to kidnap him for money. The plan fails and he ends up getting kidnapped by a guy who just needs some money instead of the brother of his mistress who kidnaps someone else instead. This had a lot of things going for it, but it isn't as funny as it should be. This could have been great given the cast, but instead it was mostly boring with some exceptions which were really good and funny. Too bad they couldn't fill more of the movie with that caliber of entertainment.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/12/23

Full Review

Audience Member

This movie had me laughing so hard!! I go into comedies looking for laughs not a story but everyone now a days think they are hard ass critics judging movies like they can do any better!

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/05/23

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Audience Member

funny it's a classic

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/13/23

Full Review

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Jeff Byrd

Director

Anthony Anderson

Malcolm King

Jay Mohr

Corey

Kellita Smith

Renee

Nicole Ari Parker

Angela

Regina Hall

Peaches

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Synopsis

When the rich and arrogant Malcolm King (Anthony Anderson) informs his wife, Renee (Kellita Smith), that he plans to divorce her, she becomes intent on taking as much of his money as possible in the settlement. Malcolm devises a way to keep his fortune, but it involves staging his own kidnapping. Unfortunately for Malcolm, numerous people, including the scheming Corey (Jay Mohr), are already planning on abducting him, and there are various inept attempts to procure the wealthy man's money.

Director: Jeff Byrd
Producer: Jeff Byrd, Darryl Taja
Screenwriter: Wayne Conley, Kevin Bisch
Distributor: New Line Cinema
Production Co: Alter Ego
Rating: PG-13 (Sexual Humor|Language|Crude Humor)
Genre: Comedy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Apr 22, 2005, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Oct 11, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $4.0M
Runtime: 1h 37m
Sound Mix: SDDS, Dolby SRD, DTS, Surround
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.37:1)

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