The runaway success of decent action vehicle Taken meant it was always going to have it’s imitators. However, it seems to have fallen into a trap of becoming so popular that every medium budget release is now going to be compared to it whilst being slightly unoriginal itself. Take newly released here, box office bomb in the States, Stolen. Daughter of a supposed expert gets kidnapped so he goes round town to get her back. Sure similar, but add in the sheer lunacy of modern day Nicholas Cage and a vastly different locale and background and it doesn’t compare.
After burning a stash of hot money right before being caught following a botched robbery, master bank robber Will Montgomery (Cage, Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance) leaves prison eight years later keen to reconnect with his old gang and distant daughter. However, his former partner Vincent (Josh Lucas, The Lincoln Lawyer) hasn’t had the best of times since the robbery; losing his leg, becoming an addict and whatnot. He’s got it into his head that Will still has the loot and takes his daughter hostage with a 12 hour ransom demand on her head. Scrambling to find her and stop his ex-partner, Will has to cope with his old arch rival FBI agent Harlend (Danny Huston, Wrath Of The Titans) sniffing around for the cash too. All this only a couple of hours after being released from prison.
Cage’s modern day career is something of a fascinating oddity. Gone are the days of him being the toast of the town as a respected actor with charm and talent. Bad choices and vain efforts to recapture his youth (check out the terrible dye job on his hair here) have cut his name down in Hollywood over the last decade or so. Still, he’s never not charismatic and the film lights up when he’s on camera. There is some fantastically dodgy acting though. Check out when he has trouble reading some notes to his daughter because he’s emotional and try not to laugh, I dare you.
Being from the Cage’s own production company, he has a fair few moments of ad-libbing gold (at his own insistence no doubt). When he’s trying to justify his actions to his daughter for the first time he’s seen her since being released from prison, he’s slurps his way through a glass of water messily. No way would that be in any normal script of an action/heist film like this. It’s a crazy Cage world and we just live in it!
Lucas tries to go at it with Cage over who can be crazier in this film and comes second. He’s not far off, but I did expect a lot more from a one legged, ex-addict, unwashed, bum, revenge-driven, psychopath than what Lucas delivers. Huston is one of those “oh that guy from that thing I watched awhile ago” types and brings some stability and maturity to the film, until the script goes full steam ahead with really stupid comedy moments. The rest of the cast is rather bland and forgettable. When you consider this film has the always entertaining M.C. Gainey (Lost), a mistake has been made somewhere.
Stolen is at least notable for reuniting Cage with his Con Air director Simon West. After the terrific job West did on last year’s Expendables 2, the direction of this film is off. A weird tongue-in-cheek comedy tone detracts slightly and comes across as goofy. Considering we have a film about the kidnapping of a teenager, the tone is near knock about, played for laughs. It’s kind of nice to have a film that does something different, but it feels so inappropriate here.
Some of the musical cues seem off as well. Most of the music is blaring trumpets, ‘cool sleuth’ style but this is when Will is off to confront Vincent about his daughter in the endgame of the movie. Surely something sinister would be more apt? Whilst all this is off, West still manages to throw in some genius, especially with some really sweet camera angles – the angle where the camera is attached to the side of a car door and focused back on Cage as his daughter leaves in a taxi is genius. There are some decent action sequences too, which is to be expected of West.
So does Stolen hold up as a ‘Taken clone’? Well since the two main characters are retired/out of action ‘masters of their chosen profession sure, but we’re on opposite of the crime spectrum. Will is a master thief and he gets to show off his skills throughout the film but draws the line at killing. Liam Neeson’s character is a former intelligence agent who will kill to get what he wants. Yeah, it’s got a ‘daughter gets kidnapped’ plot but surely then Taken ripped off about five films from the 80’s and 90’s easily. New Orleans at Mardi Gras is bright and colourful and doesn’t compare to broody, murky Parisian underground. There are similarities but differences in tone and style are abound and it’s nothing we’ve not seen before anyway.
I must say I was a bit surprised to learn of the box office takings of this film so far. Apparently Stolen has only made just over two million dollars before it’s release in the UK, making it an amazing box office bomb. I really wonder why no one is keen to see it. I can understand to a point; at this stage of Nicholas Cage’s career, he’s not really a hot commodity and, as a vehicle for him, it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. Maybe again, people were just comparing it to Taken and staying away; but it’s a shame, because it deserves a bit more credit than that.
If I had to sum up Stolen in one word it would be capable. It’s not terrible, merely serviceable in the grand machine of cinematic output. Perhaps we expect too much from our films nowadays, when a decade or two ago, this would be considered a decent little action flick and definitely would have earned a lot more at the box office. With the fall of the Cage and an unfortunate comparison to the much more popular Taken contributing to a scuppered launch with strangely poor direction, it’s a slight shame to see this hung, drawn and quartered, and you can’t help but feel sorry for everyone involved. Mildly entertaining distraction.
Terry Lewis – @thatterrylewis.
