The Entitled
The Entitled
R | 06 September 2011 (USA)
The Entitled Trailers

Without the security of the job he wants or the future he dreamed of, Paul Dynan plans the perfect crime to help his struggling family – abduct the socialite children of three wealthy men and collect a ransom of $3-million dollars. Over the course of one long night, Paul and his accomplices hold the rich kids hostage awaiting the ransom with little idea of the secrets that will surface between the fathers when they are forced to choose between their children and their money.

Reviews
scoup

Entitled takes your basic movie kidnapping ransom plot and freshens it up through good acting, plot twists and accessibility.Excellent casting. Each actor felt natural in their part and with some restraint to avoid overacting they gel nicely. The first character death is almost welcome due to the annoyance of his behavior.Here's the best part of the movie: As the plot moves along and the viewer watches with anticipation of the stereotypical progression, we are happily dealt nice little twists. No twist is over the top or pushing the limits of belief. A subtle film noir feel is mixed with an everyman identification.I'd like to see another movie like this one...

... View More
napierslogs

A group of under-privileged kids starving for money and attention; a group of over-privileged kids starving for action and attention; a group of over-privileged adults trying to be content with their current state of life. That's "The Entitled." One group wants what the others have and the others just plain want. If you want an intelligent, thought-out thriller, you've got it.The film starts out a little pedestrian and juvenile with pointless scenes and then a few scenes continuously pointing out that our main hero was poor. But as it turns out, those scenes weren't pointless or over-done, you just had to wait until the end to figure it out. Everything contributes to the final result.Our main hero is Paul Dynan (Kevin Zegers) — broke, jobless, defeated, and almost option-less. A last ditch effort to save his mother and their house, he abducts three local rich kids, uses two misfit friends to torture them, and tries to get money out of their fathers.The brilliant aspects of this film which they did so well were the different relationship dynamics. The group of rich, entitled kids consisted of two males and one female. One couple but all three were friends. The group of poor, angry kids was exactly the same (just minus the money). The three fathers had the same relationships that their kids had, just a taller, older version.Continuing in the vein of brilliant relationship dynamics, the plot of the kidnapping was propelled forward by how everybody acted within their own group. Apparently the key to a successful crime (or not successful) is knowing how all the individuals will act. The key to a successful crime thriller is making sure that your characters act in interesting ways.The lead acting was very impressive, just as I was frequently in awe of how impressively smart the turns were in this thriller, I was amazed by how natural and creepy Zegers could be. Ray Liotta and the two other actors playing the fathers were equally as arresting.The minor actors couldn't overcome the sometimes awkward and painful dialogue. Now don't get me wrong, the screenplay by William Morrisey is actually pretty good story-wise, he just doesn't give a good voice to the over-privileged, entitled rich kids. But then again, who does? I still think the opening sequences could have been tightened up to help me realize how important they actually are to the story. But above all else, "The Entitled" made me think and I like watching films about some characters who do think and some characters who don't think. And I'll let you figure out which groups they belong to.

... View More
vcgraves

This "film" is simply awful. The writing stinks, the whole concept is stupid and sadly, totally uninteresting. But that's only half the problem. It appears as though this was shot with Dad's hand-held camcorder he bought from Best Buy last Christmas. Ever heard of a tripod? How about a steady cam? And maybe next time you could hire an editor. The non-clever dialog just runs on and on as Liotta and the other guy trade lines that are so uninspired it seems like they're reading them off cue cards for the first time, or perhaps just making them up as they go along. You can imagine Ray saying to Dad (who's holding the Sony) "Camcorder rolling? O.K., I'm gonna start yammering now. Be sure not to hold the camera too steady!" I beg you, dear IMDb reader, do not rent this movie. It's not worth anywhere near the $1.07 I spent at Redbox. I could have bought gum instead, damn!

... View More
mosleh-1

Like others have mentioned is not the movie of the year, but it is respectable. Good director & good story.The acting and the script lack enthusiasm and spark. Fortunately the worst actor gets eliminated early on. I think he was perhaps the son of the producer or whoever financed this movie, or made it happen. The story has an elegant twist, but the story could have been developed much better to make this an excellent suspense movie.The director created enough suspense with what's given in the script, but the fact is that the story needed to be developed more to where everyone could be a real suspect. Overall, it's a pretty good movie compared to what is being produced out there, and considering there are not any big stars in this movies.

... View More