Stolen from the Suburbs
Stolen from the Suburbs
| 30 August 2015 (USA)
Stolen from the Suburbs Trailers

A single mother from the suburbs searches for her kidnapped daughter before human traffickers sell her on the international market.

Reviews
phd_travel

This is a fast moving Lifetime movie thriller about a teenage girl who gets kidnapped by human traffickers. The police seem unable or unwilling to help effectively so Mom and a woman helping fight human trafficking set about to rescue her. The climax and rescue are quite good and not too unrealistic.Olivia d'Abo is unrecognizable as head villain. Cynthia Watros is quite good as Mom. Worth a watch. Warning for girls obey Mommy and don't get too close to these older guys.

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wes-connors

In the sunny suburbs of California, young teenagers are routinely rounded-up and sold as sex slaves. Unaware of the problem, wealthy single mom Cynthia Watros (as Katherine) moves from Wisconsin into the danger zone, with her blonde and beautifully-figured 16-year-old daughter Sydney Sweeney (as Emma Hudson). Handsome young men arouse Ms. Sweeney's interests, but mom gets mad when she won't bring them home for closer inspection. Grounded and defiant, Sweeney sneaks out of the house to make time with asthmatically cute Nick Roux (as Adam). Next thing you know, she is "Stolen from the Suburbs" to be sold as a sex slave. Victims' specialist Brooke Nevin (as Anna Fray) and Ms. Watros join forces to search for Sweeney..."If you want to find Emma, you're going to have to do it yourself," advises Ms. Nevin...This is a very serious topic, and several of the performers try to give it a serious reading. Unfortunately, this TV movie production treats the subject most predominantly as escapist entertainment, with a touch of repulsion. In that regard, writer/director Alex Wright is successful. You do want to see the fenced-in, tied-up, and bikini-clad young women released before the closing credits. As the young girls' sex-trafficking mistress, tightly-attired Olivia d'Abo (as Melena) drives her unbelievable role over the cliff. The Lifetime TV channel adds a "public service announcement" about the child sex trade, but does not tell you their movie is ludicrous. For the record, the police and FBI are interested and you should tell them before going to any "Pink Motel".***** Stolen from the Suburbs (2015-08-30) Alex Wright ~ Cynthia Watros, Sydney Sweeney, Brooke Nevin, Olivia d'Abo

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deetdee12

I'm giving this silliness 3 stars because it IS absolutely hilarious in how far fetched it goes, but past that we have a nearly fact-free plot, much scenery chewing and, yet again, a cautionary tale in the vein of "Go Ask Alice" (which appears to be the source these days for Lifetime Movies).I absolutely love the bumbling, ineffective cops (and, of course, there's an unseen shady one on the force, who's able to move with magic speed to get info to Evil Boss Lady Madam Olivia D'Abo), who even after mom and faux social worker are witnesses to a freakin' murder, right after a confession of the kidnapping, still fail to do jack about the teens. Best, of course, is how one desperate mommy is able to nearly single handedly take down an international human trafficking ring....or maybe it's the endless references to "THE Syndicate". Cause apparently there's just one, and it cannot be named.Or is it the figures concocted on the fly? "90% of the girls in juvenile hall are underage prostitutes". Really???? How strange since we routinely see police departments with case workers to help these children break free. To say nothing of the MUCH larger social service organizations that have already existed for decades.Or maybe it's how "Anna" got the DA to "bargain it down to self defense" (because it was), but still served time for manslaughter. Ummmmm, "self defense" means you're acquitted. You go free. No charges, no time. And a girl younger than the teens in this movie could already tell you that.Or was it the "Romeo trap", which was clearly taken straight from the bad spy novel concept of a "honey trap", back in the 1950's? Because this was easily the stupidest thing I had ever seen.The truth is, middle class teens (or in this case, rich ones) are not group kidnapped, because their families WILL come looking for them. Maybe not in the way we've seen here, but certainly private detectives would be rich from tracking them. And this silliness, once again, did nothing to accurately depict how human trafficking in the US really does work.In reality, most kids are the homeless runaways from bad (or at least perceived to the kid as bad) family lives described early on, because they're the easiest to prey upon. Or girls (and boys) are lured by pimps into "the game" through a slow process of manipulation, faux love, drugging etc.Or they're young women lured from eastern European countries or developing Asian nations by the promise of employment, etc into foreign countries.Want a real figure? Of the missing and exploited children (read under 18) who are kidnapped each year the percentage of those taken by a stranger (which this counts as) and not a family member or someone known to them is .02%. Yes, you read that right. The reason the cases we hear about make the news and receive so much coverage is precisely because they're the exception.I'm not saying this couldn't happen, just it's HIGHLY unlikely. Oh and for the record, I watched this with MY 15 year old daughter. And she howled with laughter.

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edwagreen

Terrific problem dealing with kidnapped girls who becomes victims of sex trafficking. The film really doesn't say much good about police who are depicted as doing little to nothing and often treating the victim as a criminal.The film shows to the violent extent that the gangs shall use to get their victims to comply.After being kidnapped, the girls are literally dehumanized and told that they shall never see their families again and are the property of their masters.The film details one such case where a mother literally took on the gang literally to free her daughter, even if that meant endangering her own life.

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