Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

To fully understand how realistic this movie is one would have to understand the radical change of home assaults in Spain during recent years.Ex-combatants from Eastern Europe and beyond have recently found themselves out of job and out of borders in the EU, so many of them have recycled themselves into well-trained, ruthless, and well organized criminals, the type that Europe is not truly prepared for.If someone enters into someone's home in the US, chances are the intruder may be received with a legally owned gun and the right to shoot and kill that person. Unfortunately for Europeans, gun ownership is generally not that easily allowed, and confronting a criminal may cost the victim in court if you happen to hurt the "poor" criminal.To make matters even worst, Europeans are used to quiet thefts, the ones that steal your stuff when you are not home. You may cry for your stolen TV, but not for your personal safety.So when military-trained criminals, used to brutality and violence, come to one's house, there is little one can do......or isn't there?Here is where we find this excellent movie, if by excellent we mean "plausible". Do not expect dramatic performances nor John Wayne coming in his horse via the living room. However, expect human emotions and human actions.I do not give 10 points because I have notice a certain inconsistency in the criminal side of the plot that makes the movie less believable without any reason other than trying to stick to what almost every single movie on this genre does. Worse still, it does not affect the outcome of the movie, so I do not understand why it was necessary to attempt to modify the realistic formula that works so well in the rest of the movie.However, if you are willing to forgive that slip, you will be rewarded with an incredibly realistic portrait of the drama that many Spanish families suffered and are still suffering today.One tip: If you are going to watch this movie, get your reading glasses and opt for the original Spanish version with English subtitles (which, by the way, is something that you should do whenever you watch any movie at all).

While watching Secuestrados, I was mostly thinking what is the fascination with torture porn? Watching people get beaten or beat the hell out of others has become a staple for some directors (Eli Roth) and actors. But the first time you saw one of these is gut-wrenching, by the 20th time is just… boring. I know this kind of violence is real and sometime more gruesome that what is depicted on screen, but isn't the idea to have fun and forget our problems, when we go to the movies?Everything begins with a long take of a man waking in the middle of the forest, tied and with a plastic bag on his head. As he wanders in the forest we see (and hear) him struggle to breath. After several distressing minutes he gets to a road, gets hit by a car, the driver stops and helps him tear the plastic bag apart, the man demands a cellphone, the driver dials a number and the man tells the other person on the line to not open the door, a little girl or boy answers: "Daddy, they are here and they have shot mommy" Fade to title. (*Spoiler: This scene has nothing to do with what happens next, this is probably used to establish the modus operandi of the thieves or something, I really don't know)From there we see a family moving in a new house, the daughter being a classic teenager who doesn't want to spend the night dinning with the family and has made plans with a friend and later that night, a break in of three men with hoods that want money and will stop at nothing to get it. It is very straightforward plot, nothing is really surprising and all the characters play their roles well although they are not developed at all. We have the leader of the gang who is mostly relaxed, the violent that is like a gorilla with steroids and there is the one that has a little bit of conscience. On the other hand the dad does everything that is requested of him, if a little stupidly, and the mom and daughter that try to hold their own while being captive. Whether the family or the robbers or anyone in between survives I will not spoil, but really, the ending is just overkill. Why giving it a passing grade if I didn't found the story interesting? Because the movie is visually capable, with long shots that don't have cuts and are very well staged. The acting is skillful for the genre, if at times a little corny or depending to much on screams. But images don't always carry the movie all the way and in this case the story lacks depth, meaning or gravitas. Maybe the story of the "daddy" with the plastic bag and how he escaped and end up in the middle of the woods would have been more interesting.

So I'll start out by saying i give this film stars at all because the plot is reasonably well written, it IS very scary, and even the ending is not too far from what I think would probably happen in the real world.Having said that, I took off points for over-the-top gratuity and cameras that focused for very long periods of time on the one most disturbing part of a scene while action unfolds out of frame. Stylistically, this is Hostle-esque albeit much more believable yet with the same sense of pointless brutality (which you might see as over-the-top or a reflection of the violent criminals portrayed, I'm more the former, but some the latter).This is for sure a movie to watch either alone or with a friend who you KNOW has guts of steel, this movie is shocking and WILL make girls cry so to speak (seriously, my gf would never forgive me if I took her to see a movie even resembling this). So as I said, tread carefully and prepare to put your shocked face on, cuz you're gonna be, I guarantee it; I'm someone who is perturbed by very little in cinema, THIS PERTURBED ME. But I suppose I can't decide if it was worth watching or not, interesting, to be sure.

"Kidnapped" packs one hell of a punch.A Spanish couple and their teenage daughter move to a new house.But during the night all hell breaks loose as the family of three is taken hostage by three masked men.The climax ends in nihilistic bloodshed."Kidnapped" contains twelve scenes and plenty of suspense.In fact as the movie progresses the tension becomes almost unbearable and the violence becomes more ugly and hard-hitting.I must say that since James Watkins "Eden Lake" I haven't seen such vicious and harsh full-length horror debut.The camera work is phenomenal as is the acting,so kudos should go to its director Miguel Angel Vivas.If you liked "Eden Lake","Martyrs","The Strangers","Cherry Tree Lane","Inside" or "A Serbian Movie" check out this savage assault on the viewer's mind.10 kidnappers out of 10.