X
- 2015
- R
- Alchemy
- 1 h 35 m
- 2015
- R
- Alchemy
- 1 h 35 m
Summary In 1983, a group of childhood friends pulled off the crime of the century: kidnapping one of the richest men in the world, the heir of the Heineken beer empire (Anthony Hopkins). The shocking capture—by gunpoint in broad daylight on the streets of Amsterdam—resulted in the largest ransom ever paid for a kidnapped individual. It was truly...
Directed By: Daniel Alfredson
Written By: William Brookfield, Peter R. de Vries
- 2015
- R
- Alchemy
- 1 h 35 m
- 2015
- R
- Alchemy
- 1 h 35 m
Kidnapping Mr. Heineken
33
5.5
Where to Watch
Summary In 1983, a group of childhood friends pulled off the crime of the century: kidnapping one of the richest men in the world, the heir of the Heineken beer empire (Anthony Hopkins). The shocking capture—by gunpoint in broad daylight on the streets of Amsterdam—resulted in the largest ransom ever paid for a kidnapped individual. It was truly...
Directed By: Daniel Alfredson
Written By: William Brookfield, Peter R. de Vries
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Unfavorable
Based on 19 Critic Reviews
33
5% Positive
1 Review
1 Review
63% Mixed
12 Reviews
12 Reviews
32% Negative
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Unfavorable
Based on 19 Critic Reviews
33
5% Positive
1 Review
1 Review
63% Mixed
12 Reviews
12 Reviews
32% Negative
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
Anthony Hopkins plays the king of the hops, and he is excellent. So is the rest of the movie, a sober, no-frills account about the highest ransom ever collected up to that time — $10 million and counting.
Kidnapping Mr. Heineken never conveys how a bunch of working stiffs transformed themselves into a coiled — if scrappy and ragtag — criminal operation.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 26 User Ratings
5.5
38% Positive
10 Ratings
10 Ratings
42% Mixed
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
19% Negative
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 26 User Ratings
5.5
38% Positive
10 Ratings
10 Ratings
42% Mixed
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
19% Negative
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
Un casting extra, et plutôt deux fois qu'une, une affiche qui rassemble Anthony Hopkins, Sam Worthington et Jim Sturgess pour les plus connus, avec un scénar inspiré d'une histoire vraie, ce film doit frôler l'excellence ?
Mais alors, pourquoi n'a-t-il eu aucune programmation au cinéma ?
Je vais tenter de répondre à cette question, sans rien dévoiler du suspens qu'offre se long métrage.
Sans être pour autant super-déçu, je m'attendais quand même à mieux, surtout dans la mise en scène. En effet, Daniel Alfredson n'a absolument pas cherché plus loin que le kidnapping, la genèse manque de profondeur, le poumon de cette histoire aurait dû être beaucoup plus convaincant. La présentation des cinq protagonistes ne m'a absolument pas touché, aucune émotion, aucune motivation autre que le manque d'argent n'a été exploité pour que l'on s'attache un minimum aux personnages. Dommage !
Un divertissement honnête pour un dimanche après-midi avec une bonne bière ;).
Report
Mr. Hopkins doesn’t have much to do, but it can be amusing to see him upstage everyone else with sonorous murmurings and imperious demands for a robe and Chinese takeout.
Kidnapping Mr. Heineken isn’t a comedy of incompetence, or the psychological battle of wills its opening scene suggests. It’s hard to see exactly what the filmmakers were going for, beyond bringing a real-life story to the big screen as dutifully and dully as possible.
Jim Sturgess, Sam Worthington, and True Blood's Ryan Kwanten co-star in this glossy, lifelessly paced edition as three of the criminals, though their underwritten personas and motivations are fairly interchangeable.
For all the thematic emphasis the script ultimately places on the allegedly thick bonds among these men, it's surprising how often they communicate solely through exposition.
About as appealing as day-old beer littered with cigarette butts, the abysmal caper drama Kidnapping Mr. Heineken is one of those international co-productions produced for all the right tax-credit reasons and none of the right artistic ones.
Critics were after this one. It's true that doesn't do anything great. But it manages to do almost everything "ok". Maybe the biggest problem is that it looks lazy, because they don't bring anything really great in any aspect. It lacks a bit of strenght on the emotion, witts on the dialogue, intelligence on the plot... etc. But is not bad
Report
As tedious as being imprisoned for several weeks. How a crime drama with such good cast can be so dull is borderline a crime. The actors are good, but the characters they play have the personality of barren unsympathetic schmucks. The screenplay and conversation are dry, primarily dabbling in curses and complaints for nearly the entire movie. While there are clearly a couple of good moments by the actors, they are too few to sustain interest for the rest of boring banters.
Kidnapping Mr. Heineken is exactly what it advertises, the story of five men who are down on their luck and decide to snatch a billionaire in hope for monetary gain. It's amazing that none of these five characters is even close to being relatable. The movie tries to depict individuals who are pushed to do illegal things by the circumstance, yet they are all manipulative, aggressive and severely lacking empathy.
At latter half they are even interchangeable since everyone has a knack for whining, in exception of Sam Worthington's character who surprises audience with poor and crazy decisions. Probably the best decision the movie did was to put Anthony Hopkins as Heineken in a box and let him do a few monologues. Still, there is no tangible connection between Heineken and the kidnappers, there's not even connection between the kidnappers themselves. When the movie tries to pull friendship theme, it only makes things more awkward.
For action crime, one would expect an intelligent plot, perhaps major twists and thought out plans, sadly there's a barely any level of sophistication here as five of them partially wing it and hope for the best. In fact, most of the times they are just fooling around, laughing annoyingly and verbally abusing each other. As for action scenes, majority of TV shows will offer more than this movie.
The film offers the shallow sense of helplessness and uneasiness as audience watch five aversive men threatening an old man for money and bicker with each other.
Report
A complete disappointment, it's a shame to see an actor like Anthony Hopkins reduced to this kind of flimsy and totally disposable papers, the same happens with Jim Sturgess and Sam Worthington who since Avatar is virtually gone, both promises that were erased over time.
I do not recommend it.
Report
Production Company
Informant Media,
Global Film Partners,
Embankment Films,
Informant Europe SPRL,
European Film Company,
Umedia
Release Date Mar 6, 2015
Duration 1 h 35 m
Rating R
Tagline It was the perfect crime until they got way with it.
Awards
National Film Awards, UK
• 1 Nomination
