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      Held for Ransom

      2000 1 hr. 27 min. Mystery & Thriller List
      Reviews 23% 100+ Ratings Audience Score A psychopath (Dennis Hopper) kidnaps schoolchildren, keeps them in a swampland hide-out and demands ransom from their parents. Read More Read Less

      Audience Reviews

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      steve d Making a complete mess out of a great book, this films "twist" make little sense and undermines one of the books best story-lines. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member The late Dennis Hopper plays a psychotic, greedy, pedophile of a killer who kidnaps five high school students and takes them to his swampy Florida hideout in this nasty, mean-spirited thriller. He demands their parents a sum in exchange for their freedom, while ogling and one of the captive girls, much to the displeasure of his surly wife. We spend the rest of the film rooting for these kids to escape. Aside from having a lot of excessive cursing and not being terribly original, HELD FOR RANSOM is, at best, forgettable. Still, few can play creepy and horrifying like Dennis Hopper, and the kids do a good job of making their characters worth rooting for, even if the material doesn't give them much to work with. But much of this 91 minute film has a lot of scenes that are quite disturbing to sit through, particularly when one girl is nearly raped by Hopper. There's also a subplot involving one of the girls' parents apparently being involved in the kidnapping scheme, but the script fails to develop it as effectively as it should. As such, the climactic revelation isn't as shocking as it should be. The same is true for a conflict between the High School dreamboat boy and his nervous little brother (who proves to be the real hero). The real gratification we get from seeing this film is seeing Hopper's character get his comeuppance. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/23/23 Full Review Audience Member The late Dennis Hopper portrays a psychotic killer who kidnaps five high school students and takes them to his swampy Florida hideout in this nasty, mean-spirited thriller. Of course the kids try to escape, but it won't be easy. Fairly predictable and full of cussing, this is best served as a rental. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/19/23 Full Review Audience Member I was initially drawn in by the promising combination of Dennis Hopper and Zachary Ty Bryan in the same film but as cliche after cliche built up within the first 5 minutes I had wondered if I had made a huge mistake. Lucky for me the movie picked up a bit. I could only be mildly bothered that these five kids were unable to take control from one man with a gun. The movie picks up when you see a couple of cameos from Morgan Fairchild and Joan Van Ark and I'll be damned if Timothy Bottoms isn't the hardest working man in showbusiness (well now that James Brown is dead anyway). As for the rest of the film it never really rises above average. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/29/23 Full Review Audience Member REVIEW SOON......... Rated 1 out of 5 stars 02/11/23 Full Review Audience Member Another movie on @ the buttcrack of dawn. I only saw the last half hour though; so to be fair I need to see it again in it's entirity Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/21/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      Movie Info

      Synopsis A psychopath (Dennis Hopper) kidnaps schoolchildren, keeps them in a swampland hide-out and demands ransom from their parents.
      Director
      Lee Stanley
      Executive Producer
      Tony Cataldo, David Glasser, Adam M. Stone
      Screenwriter
      Lee Stanley
      Genre
      Mystery & Thriller
      Original Language
      English