Stolen

STOLEN

Director : Simon West

Year : 2013

Genre : Action

Rating : **

'Stolen' once again reunites Nicolas Cage and director Simon West, who both scored a big hit in 1997 with the explosion filled 'Con Air'. While I am no fan of Cage (see my 'Knowing' review), 'Con Air' showcases one of his best cinematic performances and proves that he can bring a depth, believability and most importantly, restraint to his characterisations. I also like Simon West, whose work includes 'The Mechanic', 'Lara Croft : Tomb Raider' and the gun toting, knife wielding, dynamite filled romp 'The Expendables 2', which while critically slammed, I found to be a hugely entertaining parody of generic action films. Telling the story of a former thief who has to save his kidnapped daughter, 'Stolen' is essentially a rip off of Pierre Morel's 2007 action movie 'Taken' and to say that 'Con Air', 'The Expendables 2' and 'Taken' are all much better films than this is a huge understatement. While certainly fun, 'Stolen' has no tension, drive or ambition, there is little room for character development and the acting is certainly below par. There are some set pieces which work quite well and Cage gives a much better than I had expected. But overall, 'Stolen' is a very forgettable piece that adds absolutely new to the genre and is destined to be only be a footnote in the resume of a very talented director. 

After serving 8 years in prison for a foiled bank robbery, Will Montgomery (Cage) decides to visit his estranged teenage daughter. After failing to form a relationship with her and subsequently leaving, an ex partner of Montgomery's who is believed to have died, kidnaps his daughter and locks her in the boot of his taxi. To save her, the kidnapper demands that Montgomery pays $10 million, the same amount of money that was taken and lost during the failed robbery eight years earlier.

Along with the completely unnecessary horror remake 'When A Stranger Calls', 'Stolen' is very weak and limp compared to the rest of Simon West's filmography. While 'Con Air', 'The Mechanic' and 'The Expendables 2' were highly entertaining and action filled, 'Stolen' is much quieter, reserved and slower. Normally, many directors would see a slower paced film as a chance to develop characters and give the audience a story to care about. But West directs the film in such a haphazard way that even the big action pieces seem heartless and rather boring. He doesn't use the camera in any inventive or even interesting ways and the pacing is so slow that I found myself falling asleep through half of the film. Where tension and dread should be built, West resorts to pointless and uninteresting backstories which add nothing to the narrative in any way. The story is not as serious in tone as 'Taken' and it isn't directed with such conviction, but the basic ideas behind it are so similar and the conclusions are so neat that as a result, 'Stolen' seems just like another generic and tedious action film; ironically, the same kind of films that West was lampooning in 'The Expendables 2'. While I was watching the film, I was constantly thinking to myself, ''Why am I not watching 'Taken' instead?''

For such a weak story and lifeless script, 'Stolen' boasts a pretty impressive cast. For years, Nicolas Cage has infuriated me with his over the top and wacky characterisations in films such as 'Ghost Rider', 'The Wicker Man' and 'Knowing'. Thankfully he doesn't bring the same annoying archetypes to Will Montgomery, but the character itself is so poorly written and the dialogue given is so generic, that Cage has very little to work with. In some ways, I missed the Nicolas Cage that usually angers me so much and I wish that he had bought more to his performance. When the lead actor looks like he couldn't care less about the film he is starring in, something is seriously wrong. As well as Cage, 'Stolen' showcases the talents (or non talents) of Danny Huston, Malin Akerman and Josh Lucas. Unfortunately for such an impressive cast, the characterisations are so conventional and clichéd that the fates of every single one can be worked out within 20 minutes of the film starting. Lucas doesn't portray an interesting or captivating antagonist in any way, Akerman is boringly stereotypical as a fellow thief and the 'sexy' female of the film and Danny Huston is simply wasted as the police chief hunting down Montgomery. I am such a fan of Danny Huston thanks to films such as 'The Kingdom', '30 Days Of Night' and 'The Aviator' and watching him blow his formidable talents in a waste of celluloid such as this is heartbreaking.

Throughout the film, we see that the police chief not only wants to arrest Will Montgomery, but he also greatly admires him. These ideas may seem strangely familiar to anyone who has watched 'Heat', the greatest crime film of all time. Interestingly, Simon West is said to be directing the upcoming remake of Michael Mann's blood soaked epic, so maybe 'Stolen' is just a rehearsal for 'Heat'. To me, it certainly seems that way. However, these ideas seem to be completely crowbarred into the film and do not add anything to the plot or the overall piece in any way.

Due it's rubbish script, lazy plot and bad characterisations, 'Stolen' completely tanked at the box office, being pulled out of cinemas only after 2 weeks of release. With a budget of £35 million, 'Stolen' was way too overpriced and having only made $183 thousand, the film is one of the biggest box office bombs of 2013 so far. As well as a commercial failure, 'Stolen' also took a hit critically, with many seeing it as a cheap rip off of 'Taken'.

To me, 'Stolen' is a completely unnecessary movie. While not horribly bad as 'Movie 43', 'Evil Dead' or 'Hollow', it is just as boring and dull and that automatically gives it a low rating. If someone punched up the script better, the cast took their parts more seriously and the action set pieces were directed better, 'Stolen' could have been an entertaining and fun romp. Failing to utilise the talents of it's cast and failing to give the audience a story to care about, 'Stolen' has absolutely no reason to exist.

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