King's Ransom (2005)

A lot of fun.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

his character, Malcom King, is a slimeball in this. The one mistake with the movie is none of the characters are likable. His wife is a golddigger. His employees can't stand him and Corey has prior arrests, so you can't root for him either. King is getting a divorce, so in order to try to keep his wife from getting half, he plots his own kidnapping. The same night, some disgruntled employees and a loser, Corey, are planning to kidnap him too. King has gotten his buffoon of a girlfriend to get her brother to do the kidnapping. But he kidnaps the wrong guy and King is kidnapped for real. King still goes around disrespecting people but teaches Corey how to be a little more forceful. I thought those parts were funny. If you want to see some mustard smeared in a guy's face, then that scene is for you. There were other scenes that were funny, like Peaches going in the bedroom blindfolded, her brother watching exercise shows, Corey at the burger shack, etc...FINAL VERDICT: I liked this. I thought it was OK for a comedy. Sure it was silly, but it was supposed to be. And Anthony Anderson is good like he usually is in comedies.

Anthony Anderson is Malcolm King, a rich and cocky businessman who tries to get out of being robbed blind by his ex-wife in a divorce settlement by planning his own kidnapping. But someone else already has gotten the same idea, and now King is caught up in a game of "who has the millionaire?" King's Ransom takes a harmless premise and turns it into a torturous experience. It is one of the worst attempts at comedy and it may be the first comedy ever that has failed to make the audience laugh at least once. It was like they weren't even trying to entertain the audience. I have to ask, what was the point? There was some potential in the premise and the cast wasn't terrible. However, the script fails the film at every turn and it was probably written by a five year old. It's just too bad this film wasn't meant for kids since they would have gotten more entertainment out of it. I would also be more forgiving if this was a kid's film.The semi decent cast is wasted in this mess and nobody gives a good performance. Anthony Anderson gives a really bad performance as Malcolm King. He overacts like crazy and just ends up being really annoying. Regina Hall over did the airhead role and it got tired fast. Sadly, she probably gave the best performance out of everyone. Jay Mohr tried way too hard to be funny and it didn't work. Donald Faison and Kellita Smith should be ashamed for agreeing to appear in this piece of crap.I believe the blame shouldn't only go to the screenwriter but to the director as well. Jeff Byrd does a really poor job at directing and he seems to be trying too hard. He sets up all these situations of different people trying to kidnap Malcolm on the same night. There was like four different attempts and none of them were funny. Also, all the subplots are weak and none of them are good enough to save the movie. I will cut Jeff some slack since this is his first real film. However, this isn't the way you should start off. Also, he has to work with a very weak script and an obnoxious lead. I really wish I was joking here but there is not one funny moment. It's really just 95 minutes of pure boredom and there is no point in wasting your time to watch this movie. In the end, this light comedy may end up being the worst movie of 2005. Rating 1/10

King's Ransom Starring: Anthony Anderson, Charlie Murphy, Regina Hall, Nicole Ari Parker, Kellita Smith, Jay Mohr, Brooke D'Orsay, Donald Faison and Loretta Devine Rated PG-13 for Crude and Sexual Humor and Language Genre: Comedy/Crime Star Rating: ***1/2 out of 5 This is the first movie with Anthony Anderson playing the leading role and before that he was pretty much the sidekick role in these buddy comedy movies. Anthony Anderson plays Malcolm King, who is a big time rich businessman who has an ex-wife, Renee King (Kellita Smith) who is wanting half of the money Malcolm is making in his company in the divorce settlement. Malcolm decides to plan his own kidnapping so that way he doesn't have to pay his ex-wife half the money with the help of his dim-witted mistress, Peaches Clarke (Regina Hall) and her ex-con brother, Herb Clarke (Charlie Murphy). But Malcolm's employees have had enough of Malcolm's attitude and are wanting to hold him for ransom and another guy named Corey (Jay Mohr) is kidnapping Malcolm to try to get the money for his sister. This movie was outrageously hilarious! Plus I think this is also the first time I have seen Charlie Murphy do a movie because he is mainly known for being one of the co-stars off "Chappelle's Show"! BOTTOM LINE: OUTRAGEOUS!

O.k. I'm a black guy. And I usually grade on a curve for black comedies, but this was the worst movie I've ever seen.Any screenplay writer knows that you are suppose to set-up what's going on in the movie in the first 10 minutes. How about 20 minutes later I still didn't have a clue, then all of my friends and I walked out of a $10.00 movie!I'm not even going to waste my time writing a plot review for this movie, because I didn't see the whole thing. Two words: IT SUCKS!Save your money don't rent the DVD, wait for it to come on HBO or better yet wait 3 years until it comes on TBS and they will show it every day if they can edit the harsh language.