Stolen (2012) - USA
Reviewed by Andrew Chan (FCCA)
Nicolas Cage and Simon West goes a long way back with Con-Air and the 2012’s Stolen appears to re-establish this relationship in the utmost grand action thriller scale. Whilst the robbery techniques are fun to watch and seeing Nicolas Cage does Liam Neeson style is also refreshing to watch. The film however suffers from a coherent story, a sophisticated plot line and a thrilling tone that could have made a lot of difference. Instead we get a rehash of Liam Neeson‘ star superior Taken and that’s not a compliment to the director of Expendables 2 and Cage repayment of tax debt.
Nicholas Cage is fast becoming another used by action icon being regulated to DTV budget movies. Cage is a great actor, but his showing here is simply two note, frustrated and grinning. As a character actor, Cage still can hide a performance and churn out something interesting, however, this is not to be seen here. Josh Lucas who plays the main villain lacks charisma and overacts to terrible effect. Just shooting people and acting brutal does not translate to a menacing performance.
All in all, Stolen can easily be a better film, but the film takes shortcuts, makes robbery easier than it should be and more importantly low budgeted. The chase scenes are far too easy for Cage to escape and the cops just seem so useless that makes you wonder why bother spending tax payer money on them. Cage and West have both seen better days and hopefully they will be better.
I rated it 5/10
