\tFor some reason, Halle Berry stars in yet another junky thriller. According to the reviews, you should make way for the most unprincipled fun you\u2019ll have at a theater this summer. \u201cKidnap\u201d starring Halle Berry and a minivan, is the latest woman-on-the-hunt thriller. Berry has somehow already made two of these movies: \u201cPerfect Stranger,\u201d in which she tracked down her childhood pal\u2019s killer, and \u201cThe Call,\u201d in which she played a 911 operator chasing a child abductor. In \u201cKidnap,\u201d it\u2019s her own kid who gets taken. Apparently, those damn rednecks responsible have nothing on this blue-collar single mom, who careens across Louisiana freeways with the fury of a dozen Liam Neesons. Why Berry\u2019s r\u00e9sum\u00e9 is populated with so many movies like this is a little confusing as she is a great actress but hasn\u2019t made a single great film since winning her Oscar in 2002 is a true failure on Hollywood\u2019s part. Her shlock trifecta should be a case study in the treatment of A-list actresses (though Berry is a producer on \u201cKidnap,\u201d which implies that it got her full dedication). Yet these flicks are so shameless that you almost can\u2019t wish they didn\u2019t exist. \t<\/p>\n
\tAt their best, movies like these are inept and trashy enough to be fantastic experiences, if you give yourself over to their unintentional laughs. \u201cKidnap\u201d has all of the genre\u2019s hallmarks: shots that abruptly shift to slow-motion, an actress whose face and hair get grimier as the action intensifies, authorities who drag their feet, frenzied crying, one contrived situation after the next. But Berry\u2019s co-star \u2015 a hulking minivan, not often the vehicle of cross-town chases \u2015 sets \u201cKidnap\u201d apart. It\u2019s just a mama and her big red wagon. The premise\u2019s details don\u2019t actually matter, but Berry plays Karla Dyson, a diner waitress whose 6-year-old son is snatched from a park bench at a fair during broad daylight. She\u2019s on the phone with her lawyer when it happens, yelling because her wealthy ex-husband wants full custody. A quick flash and everything changes. She whips around, eyeing the park\u2019s parameters in search of little Frankie. Her vision blurs. The crowd\u2019s voices meld. There he is, being shoved into a shabby teal Mustang from the \u201980s. She\u2019s off, thrusting herself onto the car until it peels away. \t<\/p>\n
\tThen comes that maroon minivan, surprisingly equipped for a fevered quest, which spans almost all of the film\u2019s 94-minute runtime. The hustle builds toward a roadside confrontation with the backwoods-weirdo abductors (Chris McGinn and Lew Temple, both ineffective as clich\u00e9d Southern creepsters). Although they grow more threatening as the action continues, until they out-dumb themselves. And yet, \u201cKidnap\u201d is as fun as Karla\u2019s speedometer is high. Much of that amusement is involuntary, sure, but there\u2019s something thrilling about seeing a movie that\u2019s so flagrant in its lack of effort. It\u2019s best experienced with a packed audience willing to laugh along. Every now and then, that laughter comes right after you\u2019ve let out the breath you didn\u2019t know you were holding. It\u2019s quick and it doesn\u2019t happen often, but \u201cKidnap\u201d won\u2019t let you off without making you play along. The little plot that exists is incompetent, the dialogue trite, the action sloppy and uninspired. But you\u2019ll cheer, or someone around you will, when Karla gets a hold of her targets. By the time she yells \u201cyou took the wrong kid,\u201d you\u2019ll realize that \u201cKidnap\u201d has kidnapped you, too.\t<\/p>\n
Okay, This Is One of Those Movies If You Actually Liked It, You Will Never Admit It! LOL! <\/b> \t\t<\/p>\n