Kevin Zegers plays Paul Dynan a struggling young man who can't make ends meet due to hard times and an ailing mother. But he has a plan...kidnap 3 spoiled rich kids with no likeable qualities and ransom them for money. He found two people who are a little psychotic to help him. They turn out to be wild cards in Paul's grand scheme.
There is some first person narration by Paul in the beginning to describe his situation, but it ceases as the movie progresses. The movie touches on themes of anarchy and class warfare. Decent acting, well written.
F-bomb, no sex, no nudity.
The Entitled
2011
Action / Crime / Thriller
The Entitled
2011
Action / Crime / Thriller
Plot summary
Paul Dynan's life is turned upside down when he decides to kidnap three young socialites and hold them ransom to save his family. Things spiral out of control when his psychotic partners get trigger happy and his victims come with their own surprises. When blood is shed and his perfect plan goes horribly wrong, Dynan must fight to stay one step ahead of his own twisted game.
Uploaded by: OTTO
Director
Top cast
Movie Reviews
NEED TO DO SOMETHING ON FRIDAY NIGHT..
Entitlement generation.
Paul is a dis-likable young man with a plan. His mother can't afford her medication (doesn't Canada have nationalized heath care?) and they're repossessing her house. He needs money right away. He hatches a complex kidnapping plan which is supposed to be brilliant, but which is, in fact, fairly stupid. Only the intervention of the script writers allows this plan to succeed in the end.
*SPOILERS*
Paul recruits two psychopathic morons to assist him in his crime. Together they kidnap three adult children of some rather shady rich guys and demand a million from each parent be transferred to an offshore account. The old rich guys are obviously corrupt, though what business they're in isn't clear. These old miscreants are played by some well-known and accomplished actors, but the actors playing the young kidnappers are not so good. Anyway, as criminals they continue to make stupid mistakes, leaving fingerprints, making calls and just doing stupid things. Other reviews here have listed some of the blunders these idiots make which in the real world would land them in prison in a New York minute. Our protagonist doesn't intend for his accomplices to come out of it alive and he kills one of them personally. The girl accomplice gets kicked to death by the boy accomplice for no reason except he's a homicidal maniac. Among other contradictions is the improbability that two escaped hostages would be able to hike several miles through dense woods at night or that the ill-fated sidekicks would be able to track them.
Then we come to a hole in the plot big enough to drive a minor asteroid through: after money has been transferred to the offshore account Paul calls up the fathers and tells them their children are free (actually one is already dead and two have escaped) and just not to make any phone calls or answer the phone for the next hour or so. So the dim-witted dads just sit there and don't answer the phone for the next hour as the surviving children desperately attempt to call. And of course they don't phone the police. What? These guys are supposed to be smart, though crooked, businessmen. Doesn't it occur to them that there's no possible way the kidnapper could know if they're using the phone? They don't even look at caller ID to see who's calling them!
This is almost a credible thriller, if you park your brain at the door, but the ending is abysmal. Paul, the mastermind of the kidnapping, is supposed to be the entitled one, you see. He deserves the money because rich guys are always corrupt and he needs it more than they do. So in the end he gets away with 2 million and he's supposed to be the hero because he had such a smart plan. He only committed enough felonies to get life in prison. He murdered his friend and engineered a kidnapping, but he's supposed to be the hero, despite the fact that's he's an extremely unlikable pratt. Somebody in these review pages suggested that this was a right-wing scenario. Nothing could be further from the truth. This is pure leftist, entitled generation, narcissistic nonsense. "Occupiers" will love it because it sticks it to the rich guys, I mean, Paul represents the 99%, one of the liberals' beloved victims who isn't doing it out of greed but to obtain justice for his ailing mom and see that the rich bastards pay their fair share. Isn't 'social justice' what it's all about?
Watchable but no 'movie of the year'
After seeing the trailer I was super stoked, the trailer was so dark and it looked like it was going to be an amazing movie. The movie started off in a little bit of confusion for me, wasn't in chronological at all, which in some movies add suspense and mystery, however it mostly made me confused. Further on in movie I felt that a classic story like this, the poor jealous against the rich cocky people, but yet with a little twist. The story in my mind could have made this movie one of the best this year but yet they came up pretty short.
For the acting, I was extremely surprised about the performance of the former 'gossip girl'-actor Keven Zegers, he was the one thing that kept the movie good. He was perfect for the role as the dark yet intelligent conspirator. As for the others I do feel that some of them had an adequate performance but a lot of the times the dialogues seemed strained. Laura Vandervoort was obviously in it only to play the spoiled, helpless beauty, which was done okay.
To sum it up, it was an enjoyable movie, definitely watchable for a regular night but don't expect anything close to 'the movie of the year' or month for that matter. But I still give it 6, much due to the fundamental story, smartness and yet again surprisingly convincing acting from Zegers.