Yes, the popular opinion on this board is correct - despite some good acting (with what they had to work with, I mean), this film is rubbish. It's nothing you have not seen before except with prettier kids.Like another reviewer I only got it see Morgan Fairchild and Joan Van Ark, both of whom look good but have very small parts. Fairchild looks lovely but has only 3 scenes; Van Ark plays her standard quivering mother with a similar number of scenes - she does not even get to react to the "twist" at the end! As for Dennis Hopper, it's a part he could play in his sleep. Obviously this was one of those "pay the mortgage" films.To be fair though, some of the music on the soundtrack is okay.

A strait to video release, you have to give it some credit. HELD FOR RANSOM is based on the Lois Duncan novel and you can obviously tell that it is a low-budget film. But the fact that it was based on a book helped give it some more famous actors to star in the film. The film was a little suspenseful you have to admit, but I still don't understand why everyone hated this movie so. I mean, we get to see Tsianina Joelson strip down to her bra and panties. No, but seriously the film was pretty enjoyable for me. It is very realistic as to what some people might do in a hostage situation. It is somewhat different from the book as the film takes place in the sweltering Everglades and the book is in the icy cold mountains. I seriously didn't think it was that bad. HELD FOR RANSOM gets 4/5.

I will never see that $4.25 again. Why did I rent this movie?I sit here, in utter shock at just how terribly awful this movie was, on practically all accounts. Oh, how naive I used to be, to think that even the worst movie would have some redeeming qualities. This one had none whatsoever. The wretchedness of the acting was obscured only by the abysmal script. The basic plot line (high school students from wealthy families, kidnapped and held captive in the Everglades), if it had been used to its full potential, could have become a C-minus teen thriller.I would typically call a poorly developed character "two dimensional." Now, to call ANY of the characters in this waste of perfectly good celluloid as "one dimensional" would be an obsequious compliment. There WERE no characters in this movie. Just bad guys and worse guys.My recurring thought throughout the movie was "Please, please, Mr. Alligator, just eat SOMEBODY, ANYBODY, EVERYBODY." In this small thing I was not disappointed.Stay away from this movie! Stay away! Please, please, for the love of all that is good and decent, STAY AWAY!

If the "F" word were deleted from this film, there would be no dialog. Actually, it's a "B" movie, which shows how far Dennis Hopper has fallen. Of all the films that Hopper has made with twenty-somethings and teens, this one is incredibly weak.There is no plot and the storyline is hopeless. There is a minimal twist at the end, but it appears to be so ridiculously inconsequential that it lacks any true meaning.Hopper plays a character that is supposed to be brutal, but even that element is watered-down. No sex, no nudity, and violence in this film amounts to Hopper slapping around the oldest kid from "Home Improvement."A dud? You betcha. Suspense? Not even.