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"Captivity" could've been a great summer film, but as soon as you exit the theater, you'll think nothing more of it. Indeed, it showed promise during trailers and previews to be the next 'intelligent' thriller along the lines of the excellent "Saw" series, yet most of the plot seems rehashed and boring.

Elisha Cuthbert plays a model/cover girl whose fame and glory has spread to many magazine covers across America. As her journey through stardom unfolds, she gains a few stalkers along the way, and one of them ends up kidnapping her from a charity event and placing her in his dungeon of doom and despair. How this is different from Saw I am still not quite sure, and many of the traps seem shallow or not well thought out. Eventually, through her push for freedom, she meets up with Daniel Gillies, who also happens to be in the dungeon. They of course fall for each other (who doesn't see that coming nowadays?) and vow to escape or die trying.

When you are watching this movie, you can't help but think that this movie feels as if every single aspect is borrowed from other great movies. It's as if the movie producers looked at great horror movies, like Saw and maybe Hostel for its shock value, and said, "Let's put everything that made them great together and create another great movie with both of their content." Unfortunately, that's not how good movies are made, and this point is made extremely clear from this movie.

It's a shame that Cuthbert signed onto this movie, as it had potential to be a large boost to her career, but it disappoints on almost every level. "Captivity" can only be described as a mildly entertaining flop.

Learn more about this author, Stryker Smith.
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