Secuestro Express (2004)

The current wave of kidnappings in Latin America inspired this tense suspense drama. Martin (Jean Paul Leroux) and Carla (Mía Maestro) are a wealthy young couple who, after a night of club hopping, head back to their car to go home. However, three kidnappers -- Bubu (Pedro Perez), Niga (Carlos Madera), and Trece (Carlos Julio Molina) -- are waiting for them; seeing how free they are with their money, the men figure that Martin and Carla should fetch a decent ransom for their release. The kidnappers demand 20,000 dollars to set Martin and Carla free, and Carla's father (Rubén Blades) struggles to raise the cash, with the criminals insisting upon payment in a mere two hours. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time: 87 mins
Secuestro Express (2004)

The film ends with the following dialogue:

Half the world is dying of starvation, while the other half is dying of obesity.
There are two options.
Fight the monster, or invite him to dinner,

But the thing is; is that the punks and hoodlums had money and they even said it at one time. Poverty is just an excuse for this lifestyle or drugs and crime. This does not mean that we should not address poverty or the huge disparity of income but when a film like this tries to even hint at that there is an excuse for this is completely ridiculous. The film closes with the above quote as one of the main actors drives away in a non-discrete compact car instead of the SUV in the beginning....

I too would have given up on being pushed around by the punks. Although it did not work out for Martin, I would have done the same thing. I wonder, if he was friends with one of the distribution drug dealers he would not have known the others or the cab driver and would have been smarter than to get into the broken down cab after fleeing from the gang. I almost thought that one of the parents would have taken a hit out on the gang instead of paying ransom. And it really did no good for the money that the father of Carla gave without any guarantee than some gangsters word.

Mía Maestro did an excellent job on this part and played a whole range of emotions and even a little sexy at times. I look forward to seeing more of her.

Special features consisted of a couple of deleted short scenes and a short documentary of making of the film with the actors talking in English and also a longer Spanish version with English subtitles. It also includes a music video.