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Kidnapping Mr. Heineken
In 1983, a group of childhood friends pulled off the crime of the century: kidnapping one of the richest men in the world, the heir of the Heineken beer empire (Anthony Hopkins). The shocking capture - by gunpoint in broad daylight on the streets of Amsterdam - resulted in the largest ransom ever paid for a kidnapped individual. It was truly the perfect crime…until they got away with it.
7 February 1959, Baudour, Belgium
31 December 1937, Margam, Port Talbot, West Glamorgan, Wales, UK
3 June 1980, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
26 August 1972, Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands
May 01, 2015
It fails to accentuate the peculiarities of its from-the-headlines tale and instead turns itself into a rather generic and predictable kidnapping thriller.
March 05, 2015
Anthony Hopkins and a cast of erstwhile next-big-things go slumming in Daniel Alfredson's listless, fact-based kidnapping caper.
March 05, 2015
The sole object lesson in the true-crime drama "Kidnapping Mr. Heineken" is that not every crime deserves its own movie.
December 21, 2015
While the ransom paid was the largest ever, the stakes never seem as high as they should be.
April 27, 2016
The stakes might be high, but never once do they produce even a frisson of delight, horror or tension.
May 24, 2016
Hopkins in captivity is always fascinating. He is not Hannibal Lecter-dangerous here, but as a stubborn captive in chains, he is still a defanged alpha male worth watching. If only we were allowed to see more of him.
March 06, 2015
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.
April 27, 2016
Time and again, good material is introduced and discarded.
March 05, 2015
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.
March 05, 2015
Despite its true-events pedigree, "Kidnapping Mr. Heineken" is woefully captive to B-movie crime saga tropes.
March 30, 2015
One capably staged chase sequence apart, it's not one to set the pulse racing.
June 02, 2016
It's far from perfect, but Kidnapping Mr. Heineken still proves to be a generally likable and engaging small-time thriller, regardless of its imperfections.