You won't be disappointed!

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The movie runs out of plot and jokes well before the end of a two-hour running time, long for a light comedy.

CAPTIVE is a rather boring low budget thriller that fails to offer up much in the way of thrills or depth, despite having a startling opening sequence depicting a violent jail break. It's essentially a two hander between Kate Mara and David Oyelowo, the latter of whom plays an escaped rapist who ends up in Mara's home and takes her hostage. All good so far, but then the film turns into a lengthy, rambling sermon that seems to have been designed to advertise The Purpose-Driven Life, one of those Christian self-help books. As such, it feels more than a little preachy, as well as dull.

Recovering meth-addict and single mother Ashley Smith (Kate Mara) finds herself in a perilous life or death situation when she is taken hostage in her own home by escaped and wanted felon Brian Nichols (David Oyelowo). Based on a true story, Captive follows Ashley over a 7 hour period highlighting her attempts to survive this terrifying ordeal.In some ways I actually admire this film as it does at least try to avoid many of the clichés that plague home-invasion thrillers (perhaps being based on a true story may be the reason that it partly succeeds in this respect). Rather than being a ridiculous film that shows the victim trying to escape in increasingly preposterous and unlikely ways the narrative here has a much more slow-burning approach to it - essentially it shows the victim and the captor conversing and as things progress it turns out that they actually both share some common ground. For someone like me (who's unfamiliar with the real life case) this did make the film interesting and at the very least made it watchable. Whilst I'm happy to commend the filmmakers for employing this approach it does sadly come at the expense of any real excitement, tension or suspense. I appreciate that this is based on a true story and that perhaps what we're presented with here may well be an 'accurate' portrayal of actual events, but in reality having very little going on outside of the rather incisive narrative does mean that the film starts to drag and feel boring.The performances from Mara and Oyelowo are both very good (with the latter being excellent) and the generally non clichéd approach to the material mean that it is nowhere near as ridiculous or far-fetched as other films in the genre (the only ridiculous part to this film lay with Nichols escape, but this was a minor problem which I feel can just about be tolerated in the name of 'suspension of disbelief').Captive is the sort of film that I would say is worth a look (if nothing else due to the fact that it's based on a true story). The narrative is interesting enough to make it watchable and the performances are good, but it really needed more in the way of excitement, tension and suspense and the absence of these things is what lets it down slightly.

Raise your hand if you thought this movie was going to be about a man getting saved by Jesus after a woman talked to him about it while he held her hostage? Well... that is not what this movie is about. This movie is about a mentally unstable man spending 7 hours or so with a strange woman he selected at random in a parking lot to chill with because he was lonely or something. The movie's main resolution is that she overcomes her meth problem, she turns in the alleged "monster", and she goes on to Oprah to share her horrific story and meet Rick Warren. Granted, the real story is problem a thousand times better than the movie version. But the movie version sucks. You will not feel satisfied. You will not see God working through these people (well sort of but not in a way that moves you to tears). Go read the purpose drive life and pretend this movie never happened.

Great acting and a true story cannot compensate for a second-rate cinematic adaptation like director Jerry Jameson's "Captive," even with first-rate thesping from David Oyelowo, Kate Mara, Michael Kenneth Williams, and Mimi Rogers. Basically, this hostage drama is based on a true-life incident that occurred in Atlanta, Georgia, back in 2005. Rape suspect Brian Nichols broke out of his cell in the Fulton County Courthouse and shot a judge, a court reporter, a sheriff's deputy, and later a Federal agent in a bid for freedom. After stealing three cars, he wound up at the Duluth, Georgia, apartment for Ashley Smith. Not long afterward, Atlanta Police surrounded the house and convinced the killer to surrender. Ashley Smith documented her experience entitled "Captive: The Untold Story of an Atlanta Hostage Hero." What could have been a genuinely exciting thriller amounts to a dreary potboiler with Christian author Rick Warren's devotional book "The Purpose Driven Life" serving as product placement. According to the hostage that Nichols holed up with, she read Warren's text to him and the message of "Captive" is that the killer saw the light and gave up to the authorities. Many well-intentioned Christian movies aimed at regular churchgoers boast low-budgets and borderline talent. Unlike those standard issue faith films, "Captive" contains first-rate acting with "Selma" star David Oyelowo cast as the killer with no qualms and "Fantastic Four" actress Kate Mara as Ashley Smith. Sadly, despite its workman-like screenplay by "Not Easily Broke" scenarist Brian Bird, "Captive" generates only a modicum of suspense. The charisma that Oyelowo and Mara bring to their respective roles has no counterpart with anything else here, except "Days of Grace" lenser Luis David Sansans' wobbly cinematography that lends an edgy quality to this lackluster outing. Nothing about this PG-13 rated, 97-minute melodrama is remotely captivating. Indeed, during the end credits, we catch a glimpse of the real-life Brian Nichols and are treated to a "Oprah" interview with Smith about her close encounter with death. Most of these Christian movies rake in millions, but "Captive" has struggled despite its laudable cast and earned back little more than its $2-million budget. For the record, Oyelowo served as one of the producers. Comparably, "Captive" and "No Good Deed" share some similarities, except "No Good Deeds" coined far greater cash. Presumably, "Captive" didn't have enough Christian values to bring in the flock. Spectators that appreciate strong acting may enjoy it simply because "Raise the Titanic" director Jerry Jameson doesn't rub our collective noses into scripture.