Name : Noel Murray / Alias : AV Club
While Kidnapped doesn't add anything substantially new to the tradition, Vivas hits his marks with ruthless efficiency.

Name : Joe Neumaier / Alias : New York Daily News
Swedish director Daniel Alfredson pushes the caper button too many times. More sly wit would have helped things come to a head.

Name : Peter Howell / Alias : Toronto Star
Fairly enjoyable and credit is due to its sterling cast, led by Anthony Hopkins as Heineken .

Name : Liz Braun / Alias : Toronto Sun
The real-life kidnapping had all the elements of a thriller, so how it became such a mild-mannered movie is anybody's guess.

Name : Nick Pinkerton / Alias : Village Voice
As most of Kidnapped is devoted to watching people in extreme duress, leaving room for little else, it follows that the film exists solely to be "intense."

Name : William Goss / Alias : Film.com
Survival horror has rarely been approached so sparingly and yet, for all there is to admire. the initial sense of potential suspense gives way to the creeping contempt of familiarity.

Name : Tom Long / Alias : Detroit News
Heineken may be weighed down by the predictable reality of actual events. Or it just may be lacking in electricity and depth. Either way, it's lacking.

Name : Aaron Hillis / Alias : Village Voice
Glossy, lifelessly paced .

Name : Richard Roeper / Alias : Chicago Sun-Times
The true story of Freddy Heineken's kidnapping is fascinating, but "Kidnapping Mr. Heineken" is a disappointingly superficial film in which neither the kidnappers nor their captives are particularly interesting.

Name : David Rooney / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
Gripping but grueling, this Spanish debut feature scores on technical prowess but its nihilistic viciousness is hard to take.

Name : Keith Uhlich / Alias : AV Club
Much like the lager that gives the film its name, Kidnapping Mr. Heineken is bland on the palate and best pissed away.

Name : Rex Reed / Alias : New York Observer
Anthony Hopkins plays the king of the hops, and he is excellent. So is the rest of the movie, a sober, no-frills account about the highest ransom ever collected up to that time-$10 million and counting.

Name : Robert Abele / Alias : Los Angeles Times
Despite its true-events pedigree, "Kidnapping Mr. Heineken" is woefully captive to B-movie crime saga tropes.

Name : Trevor Johnston / Alias : Time Out
One capably staged chase sequence apart, it's not one to set the pulse racing.

Name : Scott Foundas / Alias : Variety
Anthony Hopkins and a cast of erstwhile next-big-things go slumming in Daniel Alfredson's listless, fact-based kidnapping caper.

Name : Stephen Holden / Alias : New York Times
Starting as a coldly realistic thriller, this film eventually loses its bearings as the director Miguel Angel Vivas succumbs to a fit of nihilism, transforming "Kidnapped" into gruesome tit-for-tat torture porn.

Name : Chris Nashawaty / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
In just a few scenes, Hopkins conjures up some sorely needed fizz. But the low-key vibe of the film doesn't match the high-stakes audacity of the crime.

Name : Bill Goodykoontz / Alias : Arizona Republic
The utter lack of surprises and waste of a first-rate cast - Anthony Hopkins as Alfred "Freddy" Heineken; Jim Sturgess and Sam Worthington as kidnappers - make for a tremendous letdown.

Name : Manohla Dargis / Alias : New York Times
The sole object lesson in the true-crime drama "Kidnapping Mr. Heineken" is that not every crime deserves its own movie.

Name : Joshua Rothkopf / Alias : Time Out
Some kind of napping for sure.

Name : Kyle Smith / Alias : New York Post
In 1983, five knuckleheads decided to strike it rich by kidnapping beer magnate Freddy Heineken. "Kidnapping Mr. Heineken" is a dull, trite thriller about their crime and undoing.

Name : Andrew O'Hehir / Alias : Salon.com
My eyes never left the screen and my attention never wandered; in a restricted, technical sense of the term, "Kidnapped" is a masterpiece.

Name : Geoff Pevere / Alias : Globe and Mail
Not only is Hopkins's Freddy incomparably more charismatic than any of his captors, he's the only one who, weirdly enough, seems to be enjoying the ordeal. But maybe that's simply a matter of pay scale.

Name : Variety Staff / Alias : Variety
An enchanting and humane fable.