Kalistani Major History

[Doc]

"Kidnapped!" the new Action-Comedy from Republican Pictures Opens across Republic
Audiences call it "So bad it's good"; Reward Company with K3.5 Million in first week
Sulari, Suldanor
August 1, 5334


"Kidnapped!" starring Kelsey Day and Carlos Estevez is a raucous movie, even though it is also a "bad" movie

There are many opinions about what makes a movie "good" or "bad": one dimensional characters can really irritate people who care about story telling, but the masses tend to love them. A script can make or break a movie. A lot of times, the goodness or badness of a film depends a lot on the quality of the director. Or the Set and costume design. Sometimes, sound plays a large role, or lighting.

The new action-comedy "Kidnapped!" from Republican Studios has none of the elements one would traditionally assign to "good movies". The characters are "more like caricatures, even though they are both very good looking caricatures," said one film critic, writing for KRM. "The two main characters of the story [Bella, played by Dana based Actress Kelsey Day, and Charlie, played by Carlos Estevez] were the archetypical rich girl and misunderstood convict. That's about as deep as they go- like two inches deep," said Martin Cruz from Kalistani Rawk Monthly. "The supporting characters, an out of control cop (played by punk rock Veteran Jack Elmer), a super rich and out of touch father (played by Dale Henderson) and a cocaine addled television show director (played admirably by noted straight edge punk Greg Rift) all don't have a lot of backstory. You pretty much get what you see the first time you meet these guys."

The "set" is two cars on the Freeway and a generic looking Police Station.

Costumes don't change, at all.

The movie's plot is utterly ridiculous and can be summed up as "Man accidentally kidnaps rich girl. Police over react. Man and girl fall in love during a high speed chase." and that's it.

But, despite the utter lack of character development, plot, set or costume design, concern for being blinded on a regular basis by a reflected sun flare, the movie was wildly popular, with people standing in line to see it again, after they had already seen it. "It's stupid," said one theatergoer. "Stupid and funny. There are some really hilarious parts that I told my brother and his friends about and now we're watching it together."

Another theater goer called it "So bad its good. Like some obvious stuff that seemed a little amateurish actually fit into the story well. They have just these random characters who are all musicians just appearing as cameos throughout, in just absurd situations. My favorite was when Ted Howell and Martin Coyle (from the Noise Alternative band Banjax) are playing these ridiculous vigilantes, and they just cause more problems for the cops than actually do anything that helps, and they are so stoked about it while they are getting arrested themselves. That was hilarious."

The movie itself is a critique of sensationalism in media, and on the level of satire, it sort of works, if you squint your eyes hard enough. The "concern" expressed for the kidnapping victim by the news media was "pretty obscene" according to Cruz. "Often some countries tend to focus on high profile stories, and like it should create some sympathy for the victim, but in fact, ends up just making people turn their tv's off. When its obvious that their concern is really for ratings. This movie hits that point pretty squarely on the nose." Another critique the movie makes is about how power corrupts the police force. "This film is set in Kalistan, and we have some pretty benign police in this country, but the police officers in the movie could be the police force of ANY country that lets their police officers investigate crimes. You see how this movie turns a routine question about a stolen car into a kidnapping into a high speed chase which puts a lot of lives and safety at risk, largely because of over-reaction by power-hungry cops. It could in theory happen here too."

"Biting social satire," though was not why millions of young theater goers went to see this movie over the last week. "I think Carlos and Kayley have mad chemistry. I'm surprised it took them that long to fall in love," said teenaged Willow Allison, of Dana. "I mean, I think if I was in her situation, I wouldn't fall in love with a dude who kidnapped me, but- he was innocent. So yeah, let the hearts fly." Many of Allison's peers echoed the sentiment. Many of these kids' parents called the love story "unbelievable," but said there were a lot of funny lines in the show and it was good for what it was: an hour and a half view into an alternative universe full of continuity errors, caricature and stereotype, and almost no plot development at all.

"Plus I really loved the soundtrack," said Brad Ignacio from Yoshimi. "Lots of good punk rock here. Its about time we heard some more of that." In fact, the soundtrack was the one thing "Kidnapped!" got correct, if the universal praise for the Last Chance Records soundtrack is to be believed. LCR was contacted to do the entire soundtrack, and made a record which consists entirely of pop punk and ska tracks from popular regional bands. "the high energy of punk really set a good background tone for the story, which was after all, literally a high speed chase." Said Ignacio.

"I loved it," said Yoshimi mom Yuki Matsumoto. "My kids did too. We'll probably see it again next week."

"Kidnapped!" by Republican Pictures proves that the movie does not need to be "good" for it to be good. It is currently in theaters, and shows are reportedly still packed around the Republic.