As Good As It Gets

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Kidnapped Coed (1976) * 1/2 (out of 4) Criminal Eddie Matlock (Jack Canon) kidnaps Sandra (Leslie Rivers) so that he can hold her for ransom and get a major pay-down from her rich father. A couple goons have other ideas but Eddie and Sandra hit the road where their adventure leads them to a strange farm house.KIDNAPPED COED is the second feature from director Frederick R. Friedel. As with his first film AXE, this one here was made in North Carolina on an obviously low-budget but unlike that film, this one here really doesn't have too much going for it. I say this because like that film this one here doesn't have too much of a story but while AXE was rather weird in its own way, this one here just plays out like a no-budget version of BADLANDS.I will say that the best thing going for the film are the performances by Canon and Rivers. I thought both of them were quite good in their parts and it's really too bad that there wasn't more of a story for them to act in. For the majority of the running time the two are sitting, standing or laying around and talking about subjects that don't really move the plot and instead are just downright boring. At 75 minutes the film seems double that and by the time the ending comes you're already out of it.I will say that other than the performances there is a really campy moment that happens towards the end with a farmer. I'm not going to spoil it but the dialogue and acting had my laughing extremely hard.

Cynical small-time criminal Eddie Matlock (an intense and credible performance by Jack Canon) abducts teenage girl Sandra Morely (a solid and sympathetic portrayal by pretty redhead Leslie Rivers). However, things don't go as smoothly as planned after a series of unusual and unexpected complications ensue.Writer/director Frederick Friedel, who previously gave us the singular "Axe," once again does his customary bang-up job of crafting a uniquely bleak and brooding atmosphere, relates the absorbing story at a deliberate pace, maintains a harsh grim tone throughout, makes nice use of seedy rundown locations, and starkly exposes the seamy underbelly that exists right beneath the surface of heartland America. Moreover, Friedel's fascinating depiction of a cruel and brutal world populated by deliciously deranged and dangerous secondary characters gives this picture an additional jarring edge: The random encounters with such folks as a sleazy rapist motel clerk and his equally slimy bellhop cohort, a demented pitchfork-wielding farmer with a catatonic daughter, and an unfriendly and unhelpful blind man rate as striking moments of inspired lunacy. Larry Drake pops up in a small role as a nursing home attendant. Austin McKinney's sharp cinematography and the groovy percussive score by John Willhelm and George Newman Shaw are both up to speed. Exploitation cinema fans looking for something different should dig this one.

John Canon and Leslie Rivers...what a pair! These two unsung decent actors had surprisingly convincing chemistry between them. They both made this movie that much more tolerable as did the excellent cinematography and the well conveyed moody atmosphere. The story is well-tread and predictable and the incidents too few for the movie's timeframe. As a result, we have a movie that drags on with its poigniant moments of developing love between kidnapper and abductee fizzling to an ignorable drone. What's remarkable is how society in this picture is portrayed as uncaring and ugly: an old man sits on a bench looking on as blood curdling shrieks emit from the window of the hotel where Leslie River's character is being raped. Other incidents of violence occure while passers-by either go about their own business or wish not to be disturbed. At one point, while running from her abductor, Rivers pleads with a wandering man for help but he can't do anything as he is blind. The surroundings being filled with useless or evil people creates a feeling of helplessness. Finally, the picture ends as it does (I wont spoil) and mercifully so as it tends to go on a bit too long and instead of "THE END" we see "FOR ADOLPH". What the hell does that mean? Hitler? Probably not, but still, one of those mysteries that makes a movie that much more special.

You would never guess that "The Kidnapped Coed" clocks in at a mere 76 minutes. At times, it seemed like an eternity.I would like to state that I am definitely not someone who needs violent action or gratuitous nudity every few minutes in a movie. However, I do enjoy some dialogue every once in a while. The dramatic pauses in "Kidnapped Coed" are long enough that you could take a solid nap during one. It gets awfully boring sitting around for a full two minutes looking at the main characters and waiting for one of them to actually say something. With tighter editing, this film could have been cut down to about half an hour and none of the plot would have been lost."Kidnapped Coed" is about the following: Man kidnaps young woman. He holds her for ransom. Woman falls in love with kidnapper. They spend a lot of time doing absolutely nothing.The only positive thing I can really say about this little flick is that it has surprisingly good cinematography. A couple of the shots were very nicely set up. Too bad the rest of the film lacked that quality. 2/10