Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Movies

Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores

Wide Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Limited Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

58 (Untitled)
96 35 Shots of Rum
56 Adam
39 Adventures of Power
66 Afterschool
73 Amreeka
49 Antichrist
76 Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86 Beaches of Agnes, The
71 Big Fan
65 Black Dynamite
76 Bliss
26 Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
44 Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81 Bright Star
76 Broken Embraces
70 Bronson
62 Cloud 9
65 Coco Before Chanel
69 Cold Souls
60 Collapse
82 Cove, The
75 Crude
82 Damned United, The
53 Dare
50 Defamation
67 Departures
70 Earth Days
85 Education, An
55 Endgame
88 Fantastic Mr. Fox
31 Fix
49 Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80 Food, Inc.
xx From Mexico with Love
28 Gentlemen Broncos
72 Good Hair
89 Goodbye Solo
63 Horse Boy, The
74 House of the Devil, The
xx How to Seduce Difficult Women
26 I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
70 It Might Get Loud
46 Killing Kasztner
43 Little Traitor, The
34 Looking for Palladin
80 Lorna's Silence
46 Love Hurts
84 Maid, The
45 Mammoth
75 Messenger, The
55 Missing Person, The
59 More Than a Game
34 Motherhood
62 My One and Only
48 New York, I Love You
66 No Impact Man
26 Oh My God
68 Paranormal Activity
68 Paris
79 Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
73 Red Cliff
69 September Issue, The
79 Serious Man, A
65 Skin
41 Splinterheads
42 Staten Island
50 Stoning of Soraya M., The
58 Storm
82 Sun, The
49 Ten9Eight: Shoot for the Moon
73 That Evening Sun
61 Trucker
49 Turning Green
83 U2 3D
45 Uncertainty
67 Visual Acoustics
32 War on Kids
67 Way We Get By, The
65 Wedding Song, The
xx White on Rice
59 William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
74 Woman in Berlin, A
43 Women in Trouble
69 Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Secuestro Express

EMAILPRINTMiramax Films

Secuestro Express reviews
48
8.9 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 17 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 26 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >

Movie Info

Genre(s): Action  |  Drama  |  Foreign  |  Suspense/Thriller

Written by: Jonathan Jakubowicz

Directed by: Jonathan Jakubowicz

Release Date:
Theatrical: August 5, 2005
DVD: January 3, 2006

Running Time: 90 minutes, Color

Origin: Spanish (with English subtitles)

Summary

RATING: R for strong violence, drug use, sexuality and language

Starring Mía Maestro, Rubén Blades, Carlos Julio Molina, Pedro Perez, Carlos Madera, and Jean Paul Leroux

Secuestro Express -- the business of quick kidnapping perpetrated by two or three organized thugs who chose their victims among the upper-class in Latin America. This film tells the frightening story of one young couple's ordeal as they careen through the underbelly of Caracas, Venezuela in the hands of three thugs who've made them their latest payday. (Miramax Films)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

80

The New York Times Laura Kern

The constant threat of violence and rape is difficult to endure, but the unpredictable Secuestro Express is more than just a dizzying thrill ride laced with small doses of pitch-black comic relief.

Read Full Review >
80

The Hollywood Reporter Sura Wood

Jakubowicz's direction is assured except in the film's final moments, when he makes a clumsy attempt at sociopolitical philosophy that is delivered by an omniscient narrator. It's an indulgence that threatens to undercut the ferocity that precedes it.

Read Full Review >
75

New York Post V.A. Musetto

There's nary a dull moment in the semi-autobiographical Secuestro Express (secuestro means kidnap), as Jakubowicz pleases the eyes with closeups, sped-up scenes, hand-held camerawork and other stylized tricks.

Read Full Review >
70

TV Guide Ken Fox

This is pulp with smarts and a social conscience.

Read Full Review >
67

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Zips along at an urgent pace, both tantalizing and repulsing as it goes.

Read Full Review >
60

Empire Anna Smith

Illuminating as to the reality of being a victim of crime in a dangerous society but not exactly absorbing entertainment.

Read Full Review >
60

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

Jakubowicz has aptly said of his film that "the beauty of Secuestro Express is how localized it is. The more local it becomes, the more universal it becomes." The truth of his remark resonates throughout this fast and furious film.

Read Full Review >
60

Variety Robert Koehler

Assuming the victims' point of view in the type of kidnapping that's now epidemic in Latin America, Jonathan Jakubowicz's Kidnap Express depicts a nocturnal Caracas with tense energy.

Read Full Review >
50

Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall

Slick, violent thriller that could seriously dampen tourism to Venezuela.

Read Full Review >
50

Chicago Tribune Robert K. Elder

Exploits the epidemic of kidnapping in Venezuela without offering solutions or insight--only sophomoric platitudes. Jakubowicz's talents as a filmmaker are many, but crafting an articulate, well-examined social theory isn't among them.

Read Full Review >
50

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

There's no denying the movie's visceral impact: It's too bad, though, that Jakubowicz isn't aiming for anything other than sensation.

Read Full Review >
50

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Jakubowicz successfully portrays a country corrupted beyond repair by financial inequality. But the sadism that drives the story is so gleefully nasty, it overshadows any rational arguments he's trying to make.

Read Full Review >
50

Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson

It's a skillfully made film, but not especially fun to watch, and the apparent thesis that poverty justifies such acts doesn't quite wash.

Read Full Review >
40

Village Voice Nona Willis-Aronowitz

A focus on a timely social problem paired with an archetypal class-war tale would be a winning combination for Secuestro Express, were it not for the movie's strangely exploitative nature.

Read Full Review >
40

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

Too often, though, Jakubowicz falls back on his relentlessly pirouetting DV camera, attention-deficient editing and ear-splitting sound effects as a substitute for real tension, or a more piercing inquiry into the bubbling tension between South America's haves and its poverty-stricken have-nots.

Read Full Review >
25

San Francisco Chronicle Walter Addiego

Has more in common with a horror movie than with a genuine political work.

Read Full Review >
10

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Writer-director Jonathan Jakubowicz does his best Quentin Tarantino impersonation, loading the film with percussively profane dialogue, smug adolescent nihilism, rampant drug use, pop-culture references, homophobic invective, and empty stylistic excess.

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 8.9 (out of 10) based on 26 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Gisela M. gave it a10:
I'm Venezuelan and when I saw the movie it made me remember a personal episode that I lived in my country a couple years ago. Because I know that things like that are happening in Venezuela is good to tell the world the truth about it. With young people like Jakubowicz working hard in improving Venezuelan movies and trying to reach a high quality, the only thing that I can say sincerely is : congratulations for your effort .

Karlin H. gave it a7:
I can't say that it was the best movie that I've ever saw, but neither that it was the worst. Being from Venezuela and living outside, it made me realized that hey!, no body is safe anywhere. Artistically, it was ok, there's still room for improvement. As a social issue, its a sad reality that the whole world is living, so embrace for what is to come...

Juan A. gave it a5:
Nice direction. Awful script, don't like it at all. So many mistakes in the script. But it's nice to watch... only once. It's just another standard film.

maiba r. gave it a10:
Aunque tienes algunos detallitos, de las pelìculas venezolanas que he visto es la mas real hasta en el vocabulario usado por los actores.

Pedro gave it a10:
It's a terrific movie.

Andres M. gave it a10:
Me parece que para ser una pelicula venezolana es muy buena ya que trata sobre la realidad que vive nuestro pais.

Rafael A. gave it a10:
I am so proud to be Venezuelan, Secuestro Express is the best venezuelan movie that i´ve ever seen... Congratulations Jonathan, keep working.

Read more user comments >

Popular on CBS sites: SEC Football | NFL | Video Game Cheats | iPhone | Video Game Reviews | Notebooks | Antivirus Software

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy (UPDATED) | Terms of Use