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They've Taken Our Children: The Chowchilla Kidnapping Story

Play trailer They've Taken Our Children: The Chowchilla Kidnapping Story TV-PG 1993 1h 36m Drama Mystery & Thriller Play Trailer Watchlist
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Jim Schoenfeld (Tom Hodges), Rick Shoenfeld (Travis Fine) and Fred Woods (Tom Ransom) are three aimless California youths. Over the course of a few weeks, they hatch a plan to kidnap a bus full of children and hold them for ransom. Their plan goes off without a hitch, and they successfully hijack and hold hostage 26 kids and their elderly driver, Ed (Karl Malden). After the group is forced to hide in an underground location, Ed must find a way to safety. The film is based on actual events.
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They've Taken Our Children: The Chowchilla Kidnapping Story

Critics Reviews

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Tony Scott Variety Instead of setting up a true thriller, They've Taken Our Children: The Chowchilla Kidnapping numbly records the story step by step; the suspense, as well as the bus, vanishes. Feb 5, 2018 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Audience Member About average this film was but this film did suffer a bit on the story expecially at the begining and afterwards I would describe it as being a bit slow and it wasn't as interesting for me to give it 5 stars or more than what I have given it. The acting I would say was about average it had some strong acting but the acting wasn't all strong the acting did become weak at times and it did suffer in points but this wasn't the biggest problem.However,the acting wasn't bad it just wasn't really good overall I would say it was average the children got weak at times and that woman had a few squeechy bits and at times her voice was a bit too much over the top in my opinion. I think the plot could of had more of a twist at the begining and more effects throughout the film the storyline suffered in parts because not enough was going on and of course there wasn't enough twist at the begining because there wasn't enough going on the story got a bit slow and a bit boring in parts but the story overall was interesting in parts expecially when we found out who kidnapped the daughter and what happened at the end just the only problems it had with the plot was there wasn't enough happening,it was a bit slow and it didn't have enough of a twist at the begining and the story wasn't really interesting. However I thought the twist at the end was done very well and the ending of the film didn't suffer much it told the rest of the story and it showed what happened to cathy the little girl it showed who took her and what happened to him after I thought the middle and the ending were the best parts of the film. So for improvements 1.Better twist at begining 2.More of a interesting story. 3.A faster story 4.More happening throughout the film 5.Stronger acting Overall I would say this film was an average film but its up to you if you want to see it you may enjoy it you may not so if you see it you may be risking it I wouldn't pay for it I would see it on tele or something just like I did this time. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/08/23 Full Review Read all reviews
They've Taken Our Children: The Chowchilla Kidnapping Story

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Cast & Crew

Movie Info

Synopsis Jim Schoenfeld (Tom Hodges), Rick Shoenfeld (Travis Fine) and Fred Woods (Tom Ransom) are three aimless California youths. Over the course of a few weeks, they hatch a plan to kidnap a bus full of children and hold them for ransom. Their plan goes off without a hitch, and they successfully hijack and hold hostage 26 kids and their elderly driver, Ed (Karl Malden). After the group is forced to hide in an underground location, Ed must find a way to safety. The film is based on actual events.
Director
Vern Gillum
Producer
Bernadette Caulfield, Ronald H. Gilbert, Ardythe Goergens
Screenwriter
David Eyre Jr., Jack Baugh, Jefferson Morgan
Production Co
Leonard Hill Films
Rating
TV-PG
Genre
Drama, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language
English
Release Date (Streaming)
Sep 13, 2018
Runtime
1h 36m
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