Kidnapping Mr. Heineken
The inside story of the planning, execution, rousing aftermath and ultimate downfall of the kidnappers of beer tycoon Alfred "Freddy" Heineken, which resulted in the largest ransom ever paid for an individual.
Director:
Daniel Alfredson
Cast:
Jim Sturgess, Sam Worthington, Anthony Hopkins
Screening Date:
Feb 28, 2015
Running Time:
94 Minutes
| Excellent | Very Good | Good | Fair | Poor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11.3% | 17.0% | 39.6% | 24.5% | 7.5% |
"‘Well Done!”
“Superb morality play well told, well acted, well shot. The
deadence of the 80’s led to their destruction. Friends over
money is a message still in operation today.”
“In the words of a fellow movie goer nothing really
happened.”
“Reality tops fiction again. Here’s a story Hollywood
couldn’t come up with – a bunch of rather irresponsible
young men clever enough to pull off a crime with
just enough of a moral compass to make it not work. Remarkable true story, well told, although accents do come
and go here.”
“I can’t really rate this film as it is not the kind of film I am interested in. It is a very well made and I am sure many
would enjoy it. I did find it exciting.”
“Anthony Hopkins is a screen legend, and although he
hasn’t much to do here he dominates the screen as much as
he dominates the boys.”
“A lot of chasing, not much of a story. Very short jail
sentences for kidnapping!”
“This was a great character study of the decay of youth
taking the ‘quick-strike’ easy way out. Sad to hear some
of them ended up as hardened criminals as that sort
of mitigates the moral story of friendship over greed.
Nonetheless, a gripping story, well acted.”
“Loved the beginning of the noir drawings and mood
setting. Builds up tension. Becomes claustrophobic and
then so redundant.”
“What a great tale for young movie goers. No superheroes,
no special effects and a great parable of greed and
corruption run rampant. Sad to hear that some of the boys
became hardened criminals, but I guess even Dutch prisons
were never known for their ‘rehabilitation’ qualitities.”
“Suspenseful. Held my interest. Good build up of tension
and psychological drama. Good advertising makes it sound
like they are going to get away with it. Loved that Anthony
Hopkins winked and smiled.... Sam Worthington needs to
lose the accent or get more dialect coaching. Noticed that
the book was written by the reporter who hunted down the
member who escaped to Paraguay. Better than reading
800 pages. In the discussion there was no mention of Sam
Worthington’s anger over his father getting fired by Mr.
Heineken. There wasn’t enough of a focus on that in the
film. Besides being rich why pick him? Why not another
rich person?”
“Gripping. Screenplay was efficiently crafted. There was
no fat on it or in the direction - everything worked. This
film really did it just masterfully in depicting the crumbling job of the kidnappers failure.”
“Great character study of the inability of boys to grow up
to be men. Hopkins’ line about ‘friendship and money’
so true, but this wasn’t about friendship it was about self-
centered immature youth trying to take the easy way out.”
If you'd like to know more about the film...
Here's an article on some of the other largest ransoms in the world.
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-biggest-ransoms-ever-2012-9
An article from 2009 discussing other crimes commited by one of the kidnappers, Willem 'The Nose' Holleeder.
