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Movies / On DVD / Captivity
Captivity

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Captivity (2007)

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Reviews Counted:71

Fresh:5

Rotten:66

Average Rating:2.7/10

Consensus: Lacking scares or psychological insight, Captivity is a distasteful entry in the 'torture porn' subgenre.

Australian Rating: MA15+ [See Full Rating] Strong violence, Blood and gore

Runtime: 1 hr 38 mins

Genre: Horror/Suspense

Australian Theatrical Release:
May 8, 2008 Wide

US Box Office: $2,626,800

Synopsis: Top cover girl and fashion model, Jennifer Tree (ELISHA CUTHBERT) has it all - beauty, fame, money and power. Her face appears on covers of hundreds of magazines. At the top of her game, Jennifer... Top cover girl and fashion model, Jennifer Tree (ELISHA CUTHBERT) has it all - beauty, fame, money and power. Her face appears on covers of hundreds of magazines. At the top of her game, Jennifer is America's sweetheart. She is loved and adored and sought after. Everyone wants her. But someone out there has been watching and waiting. Someone wants her in the worst way. Out alone at a charity event in Soho, Jennifer is drugged and taken. Held captive in a cell, Jennifer is subjected to a series of terrifying, life-threatening tortures that could only be conceived by a twisted, sadistic mind. Inspired by the fact that over 850,000 are reported missing every year in the United States, many of whom are never seen again, CAPTIVITY follows the story of one woman who is abducted and tortured, held against her will in a place where days turn into weeks. Her will to escape and survive is challenged every moment by a maniac's desire to demoralize innocent victims and play out his sick game that has been played many times before Jennifer was taken. A combination of SAW and HOSTEL meets SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, CAPTIVITY is a psychological thriller/horror film that shows us the true terror of the crimes of abduction and confinement that are committed every day by serial killers and psychopaths at large. Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Roland Joffe (THE KILLING FIELDS, THE MISSION), CAPTIVITY delves deeply into the minds of both captor and victim with a fresh and terrifying view of this epidemic horror. Being released this summer in theatres nation-wide, CAPTIVITY has been called one of the most controversial films of the year. It's a disturbing and raw, yet classy and thought provoking film which will leave you terrified, and looking over your shoulder as you leave the theatre wondering if you could be next. --© After Dark Films [More]

Starring: Elisha Cuthbert, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Laz Alonso, Daniel Gillies

Starring: Elisha Cuthbert, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Laz Alonso, Daniel Gillies, Michael Harney, Mark Damon

Director: Roland Joffé

Director: Roland Joffé
Screenwriter: Larry Cohen, Joseph Tura
Producer: Mark Damon
Composer: Marco Beltrami
Studio: After Dark Films

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Reviews for Captivity

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1 - 20 (sorted by source; Australian critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 >> >|
Arrange By:Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 

Without even calling into question the morals of a film which seems to exist only to depict the suffering of multiple women through hideous tortures, the film is still an empty mess, offering only a minor afterthought of an explanation to who is doing the

Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment Comment
05/01/08
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Even in the fetid swamp of the torture porn genre, it stands out as a particularly awful movie.

Full Review Source: Antagony & Ecstasy | comment Comment
09/12/07
Tim Brayton
Tim Brayton
Antagony & Ecstasy

Captivity is the kind of film that gives torture porn a bad name. It's disturbing in the most unpleasant ways possible outside of Abu Ghraib or battlefield snuff films.

Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | comment Comment
07/20/07
Marc Savlov
Marc Savlov
Austin Chronicle

Captivity has the compulsory quality of a straight-to-DVD movie -- and considering the fast-fading torture-porn movement, that's no doubt the destiny of similar offerings to follow.

Full Review Source: AV Club | comment Comment
07/13/07
Scott Tobias
Scott Tobias
AV Club

Joffe and his screenwriter Larry Cohen deserve a little credit for pointing up the psychological horrors where they can, but Captivity is still a grubby, exploitative film with an extremely guessable twist and universally dull performances.

Full Review Source: BBC | comment 4 Comments
06/22/07
Paul Arendt
Paul Arendt
BBC

It's a Saw rip-off with less smarts. (Take a moment, please, to allow that sentence to sink in.)

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment 3 Comments
07/14/07
Ty Burr
Ty Burr
Boston Globe

Although shot with a modicum of style by a seriously slumming Roland Joffe... nothing terribly thrilling happens in this 'thriller.'

Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
07/13/07
Chad Greene
Chad Greene
Boxoffice Magazine

A film of two halves, while the first is original, bleak and psychologically disturbing, the second couldn't be more conventional if it tried. By the end, we're the ones feeling like we've been drugged and duped - into watching this nonsense.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
06/22/07
James Mottram
James Mottram
Channel 4 Film

It's not scary because not one second is believable.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
07/16/07
Andrea Gronvall
Andrea Gronvall
Chicago Reader

It feels desperate from beginning to end, and is only offensive in that it presumes to be better than we think...

Full Review Source: Cinema Crazed | comment Comment
07/15/07
Felix Vasquez Jr.
Felix Vasquez Jr.
Cinema Crazed

Inexplicável, como o director de A Missão pode ser também o responsável por este filme vazio, estúpido e repleto de momentos acidentalmente hilários em função de sua imbecilidade.

Full Review Source: Cinema em Cena | comment Comment
01/02/08
Pablo Villaca
Pablo Villaca
Cinema em Cena

The irony is that Captivity is ABOUT the things it's hated for - a culture that views women as objects, fascination with death and mutilation, turning to the misery of others for our entertainment.

Full Review Source: Coast (Halifax, Nova Scotia) | comment Comment
07/17/07
Mark Palermo
Mark Palermo
Coast (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

What could have at least been a halfway decent house-of-horrors scary movie digresses into a puddle of fake blood in this stale little thriller that peaks when its resident baddie mixes a batch of eyeballs in an electric blender.

Full Review Source: ColeSmithey.com | comment Comment
07/26/07
Cole Smithey
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com

It flunks because it’s one of the daftest, dullest films I’ve seen in an absolute age.

Full Review Source: Daily Mirror [UK] | comment Comment
06/22/07
David Edwards
David Edwards
Daily Mirror [UK]

Captivity is an abomination, and perhaps a new low in the torture-porn genre: a film I liked even less than Hostel.

Full Review Source: Daily Telegraph | comment 2 Comments
06/22/07
Tim Robey
Tim Robey
Daily Telegraph

One has to worry about a world where there is a constant appetite for films like this one.

Full Review Source: Detroit Free Press | comment Comment
07/13/07
Terry Lawson
Terry Lawson
Detroit Free Press

Some inventive individual moments aside, Captivity is off-puttingly derivative and clumsily written.

Full Review Source: DustinPutman.com | comment Comment
07/14/07
Dustin Putman
Dustin Putman
DustinPutman.com

It sure beats hearing you have cancer.

Full Review Source: E! Online | comment Comment
07/14/07
N.V. Cooper
N.V. Cooper
E! Online

. . .sitting through it is a form of torture that far outstrips anything seen on the screen.

Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | comment Comment
07/13/07
Peter Sobczynski
Peter Sobczynski
eFilmCritic.com

I never, ever imagined the experience of spending 80 minutes watching Elisha Cuthbert could be so punishing and vile.

Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | comment Comment
07/13/07
Brian Orndorf
Brian Orndorf
eFilmCritic.com
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by source; Australian critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 >> >|
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