Captured (1998)

Too much of everything

Beautiful, moving film.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

When a man can't tolerate anyone coming between him and his dream, he becomes unable to understand what's going on with him. The biggest unfortunate is we don't know that we are wrong and when we realize, it's too late to go back. It's true that we have choices but in this movie, the car theif Robert had choice not to go back for Holden. At the same time, Holden was a selfish businessman, not giving damn to environment, and believing himself a victim of American justice systems. He could have understood that housearrasting an intruder car thief, chopping of his fingers, avoiding a police help would have done only harm.

Not surprising that there's not a lot of reviews here. When a movie goes direct to video,9 times out of ten it's lousy. ...but there are exceptions to the rule. Captured certainly is,it's not fantastic but it's pretty good. Nick Mancuso (of the 1980's TV action series "Riptide")plays his role to the hilt here. Yes,it can make some of us say "yeah!" when he discovers his car almost being stolen and he knocks the daylights out of one of them,breaking his arm.On the other hand when "Robert",the brother of the man Nick beats up,swears that he'll steal that car one way or another and he ends up a prisoner in a car specially engineered to be a garage "jail",you wonder,is Nick's character taking this too far? That's a definite question when the simple revenge turns sadistic. I had to close my eyes when he got out the hedge clippers or whatever. This makes one ask,who's the real bad guy here? My personal answer,both. You can decide that yourself.The subplot about his legal hassles in building his dream project is a bit dull and sort of slowed the story down for me. It's relevant but not very interesting. Also when the two men bicker back and forth in the garage about their ideas of American injustice that's affected them personally,their dialouge became the standard cliché' (obvious talk) that I'd heard in other movies and TV shows.The sets and the "greedy big businessman" unfortunately remind me of those really dull,forgettable & lifeless movies that they churned out in the late '80s & early 90's. For a movie made in 1998,it seems a bit dated,like it should have been made in 1988 or 1989. That's why I rate it 6 stars.Despite that,I'd recommend it to people who have a strong resistance to on screen violence and just to people who want a movie to watch that's at least half-way watchable story-wise. Also for people who are fed up with crime but...take the lesson here,don't take your anger to "this" level. (END)

I did not expect this movie to be good. I figured it would be another dumb B movie. Turned out to be a very good dramatic well written film. It of course is not movie theater quality but it is worthy of watching if you are looking for a little entertainment.

Now, suppose you walked to your parking garage after a particularly bad day at work, facing the possibility of losing everything you've worked for, and you catch a car thief in the process of stealing your prized new Porsche? You'd probably want to beat the living snot out of him! Well, that's how the movie starts, and that's exactly what Holden Downs does, with the help of a tire iron. Of course, big brother wants to get revenge, and that starts "the rest of the story."In a very interesting premise, the big businessman manages to hold captive the car thief, caught in the act the second time too! We can all identify with the desire to see justice, but the story gets a bit gory. I must admit that it kept me watching the whole 95 minutes. This movie is much more terrifying than that bad movie, "Blair Witch Project", because it gets you thinking what you would do if someone broke into your house after dark and you were alone! Although much of the movie was inventive, the ending was not particularly clever nor satisfying. There were no winners, all losers. Still, I give it 5 of 10 for such an interesting premise, and macabre entertainment value.