Taken in Broad Daylight (2009 TV Movie) User Reviews

Taken too Long To Explain At Any Time **1/2

[edwagreen · 5/10 · 30 May 2009]

Although this is a true story and the victim showed her mettle, there is really nothing basically outstanding in this film which seems to drag on and on.

A much older LeVar Burton does shine as the police officer, a friend of the victim's family, who helps lead the way to her eventual freedom.

A nightmare begins when a recently accepted to college young lady is kidnapped at random in a parking lot by a lunatic, abused by his father, living with a fanatically religious grandmother, and arrested over 20 times for a variety of offenses. The guy is totally off the wall and kidnapped our unfortunate girl as he was lonely.

Ready to kill her several times, she was able to talk her way out of it and you see that the guy may be falling for her until the very last scene-the usual come out and put your hands up.

When you think of it, as difficult as this movie is, it is really routine.

Even though its a true story it feel like I've seen this several times before

[dbborroughs · 4/10 · 16 July 2009]

TV movie about a girl who is kidnapped in broad daylight who manipulates her capture until she can get away. Another based on a true story tale that follows both the girl and her captor and the investigation into her disappearance. Adequately made with good performances, the film suffers in that it doesn't really strive to be much more than it is. It's a TV movie of the week and nothing more. The result is it plays like any number of similar movies even though at times it spins a tale that isn't run of the mill. This could have been so much better had the producers not used the "TV Formula Machine" on the story and let the stories own power speak for itself, I mean isn't that what drew them to the story in the first place? In all honesty unless you've seen very few movies odds are you've seen better.

another prodding Lifetime kidnapping movie

[SnoopyStyle · 5/10 · 18 October 2013]

Anne Sluti (Sara Canning) is a 17 year old girl in Nebraska who gets kidnapped by a crazy Tony Zappa (James Van Der Beek). LeVar Burton plays police detective Mike Timbrook.

It's a slow moving Lifetime movie. The kidnapping is compelling but the story just drags along for far too long. There isn't enough depth in the story. James Van Der Beek isn't menacing enough. He just doesn't act crazy well. Maybe the investigation shouldn't be half the movie. Maybe if this was a tough character study of Zappa. Maybe it should be just a two person play. Maybe if the production value was more than the standard TV movie.

Real life stories?

[wilmac291 · 1/10 · 22 February 2009]

I can only assume this was "based on real events", as the whole story could have been told in 20 minutes. Unfortunately, it lasted much longer. Long stretches of stupidity compounded by boredom. The lack of depth was astonishing. (Did they ever speak to ANYONE that witnessed the abduction?) James Van Der Beek's career has apparently found his level, and perhaps he is at minute 14. The most intrigue in the whole mess were the clues our abductee would leave in her phone calls. But it only took once for LeVar Burton to say "play that back" to realize he was going to crack the code each time. If you didn't see every event coming up the street, you are movie-impared. Unless you are forced at gunpoint (and even then, perhaps take a chance the gun isn't loaded?), avoid this long, anti-climactic, poorly acted piece of drivel at all costs.

Don't do it!

[manfrommalaga · 1/10 · 8 June 2014]

I don't want to sound like an amateur film critic like most of the above, so I'll just say that this film is god-awful, with weak, unconvincing performances all round (particularly the captor). It's like watching a long-winded reconstruction on a crime phone-in show. Avoid at all costs. Clean the oven or something. Dear o dear. There really isn't anything else I can add. I could try but I'd just be waffling. OK, OK, Sarah Canning is half decent I suppose. But it ends there. It really does. Maybe give the oven a miss. wipe the tops of the cupboards or something. Or maybe watch another film altogether if you're that desperate. It really is bad.

Survival instinct

[kosmasp · 5/10 · 10 April 2021]

Taking James van der Beek who generally is playing nice guys and making him into this despicable example of a human being ... I mean that is some achievement. From him too of course - he is playing that part of course and he really does more than a nice job with it.

Kidnappings are evil - and having the movie tell you that this actually happened ... I can't tell how anyone who decides watching this might feel about it. Now certain things may be predictable and others may seem cliche - but overall the movie tries to make you feel as uncomfortable as possible .. and it achieves just that. It does feel like a TV drama/movie of the week in certain aspects too though, which may not feel like this is something you need to see ... watch the trailer and decide for yourself then.

Poorly Acted Film About a Kidnapping

[kdavies-69347 · 10 March 2016]

There are very few redeeming points in this 'made for T.V' drama about a high school senior who was kidnapped from a parking lot in Nebraska back in 2001.

Although the topic of this film is a fairly serious one, it is a huge disappointment in terms of writing, direction and acting. The movie starts out as a teenage high school drama, and ever so slowly and painfully gets worse and worse as it goes along. The dialogue is unbelievably and at best, poorly delivered. The most intense scene was a mind boggling cluster of bad lines, and inane acting, that it ruins any drama that should have been part of such a horrendous act.

Every part of this movie dissolves into your typical 'straight to video' movie.

2/10

Disappointment.

[rmax304823 · 4/10 · 5 September 2014]

Every judgment is relative to something else. I was unhappy with the film because I expected more, based on a review I'd read. I'd expected more of a police procedural. Instead, it's the usual story of a young girl kidnapped, raped, and otherwise degraded by a smiling young maniac who drives her from her home in Kansas to Wyoming, while he quotes Robert Service. ("A bunch of the boys were whooping it up/ in the Malamut Saloon.") I wanted action, not fancy egghead LITerature!

We can believe most, if not all, of her suffering. God knows we see enough of it. Sara Canning, as the real-life victim Anne Sluti, is beaten unconscious, bound with duct tape, blindfolded and teased, sexually violated, half drowned, and made to eat an oatmeal cookie. We don't learn much about James Van Der Beek, as Tony Zappa, except that he was raised by his Bible-thumping grandma, he is a genuine imbecile, and has been a bad boy all his life.

Anne Sluti, on the other hand, is a good girl. She must be, otherwise there might be shades of gray in the movie, which we must avoid at all hazards. The point of the movie is to make the audience weep with sympathy and hate the perp. We don't want them to think. There are endless close ups of Anne Sluti's mother's anguished face. The actress, Diana Reis, seems to have been chosen for the role precisely because the default expression of her features seems to be "agonized preoccupation." And I could almost hear, in my mind's ear, the writers wishing ruefully that the real-life heroine could at least have had a more proper name than "SLUTI". I mean -- after all. Couldn't she have at least been given a decent name? Like Angelica Primrose?

Some of the story, though it's supposed to be real, I simply can't swallow. The villain, Tony Zappa -- that's a proper name for a heavy, and it must have made the writers glow with satisfaction -- forces his captive to make a phone call home, claiming that she simply decided to take off on her own and she wasn't kidnapped. She tells the waiting police, who are taping every word, that "it was time for equality vacation." The cops twig to it at once. It's not a slip of the tongue, not a parapraxis, it's a clue. "Equality." And one of the states next door is Wyoming, whose motto is "The Land of Equality." So that's where she is now -- in Wyoming. A thousand far-flung dots are connected in an intant.

I don't believe it. Do you?

You have never seen such suffering. Except in every other movie ever made about young women in jeopardy.

Involving made-for-TV thriller

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 31 December 2012]

Clever and resourceful 17-year-old teenager Anne Sluti (a fine and appealing performance by the attractive Sara Canning) gets kidnapped by the unstable and dangerous Tony Zappa (well played with frightening intensity by James Van Der Beek). Anne uses her considerable smarts to manipulate her captor into keeping her alive throughout her harrowing six day ordeal. Director Gary Yates, working from a compact script by Charlene Blaine and Kim Delgado, relates the gripping story at a steady pace, wisely avoids lurid sensationalism, and grounds the narrative in a believable everyday world. Anne's bold game of wits with her captor creates a substantial amount of drama and tension (the climax with Anne and Tony holed up in a house surrounded by a SWAT team in particular is quite taut and suspenseful). The sound acting rates as another definite plus: Levar Burton as the compassionate Detective Mike Timbrook, Diana Reis and Tom Anniko as Anne's worried parents, Brian Edward Roach as Anne's equally concerned brother Tom, and Alexandra Castillo as determined FBI agent Reynolds. Brenton Spencer's crisp cinematography makes galvanizing use of a constantly moving camera. Jeff Toyne's spare moody score likewise does the trick. A worthwhile telefilm.

Quite awful

[krisdl · 2/10 · 20 September 2012]

To have something so harrowing portrayed by such terrible acting is a crime.

I watched this to find out how a human being over comes such a situation but instead I watched actors and actresses fight with a maimed script which was followed by terrible acting. Don't watch this film you will regret it.

The best performance came from the lead girl.

The rest of the cast including vanderbeak were crying awful.

How this makes the family feel I have no idea to have this straight to video rubbish appear on TV representing you.

Would be fine as a 1/2 hour TV episode...

[gdump · 4/10 · 26 March 2012]

...but as a movie, it's simply far too long.

The "Plot" section above tells you _everything_ there is about this movie.

The acting is neither very good nor particularly believable. You can tell it is a true story because no script writer would write something with so much filler where absolutely nothing happens. Even a bad scriptwriter would write something to fill the time.

It's a compelling story and I watched it far longer than I normally would have watched something of this calibre, but I ultimately had to turn it off to keep from yelling at the TV, "For $%^&^ sakes, DO something!"

You can have a cookie

[nogodnomasters · 2/10 · 26 April 2019]

Made-for-TV faith-based abduction and rape film based on a true story. White girl in Nebraska gets abducted and the local police and FBI go all out to find her. Parents didn't even have to wait 24 hours to file a missing person report.

I was bored.

James Van Der BORE

[chrisbolding · 3/10 · 7 December 2018]

Poorly acted abduction compared to other kidnapping films. Was just constantly waiting for the film to end.

Poorly made *based on true events* movie

[juliabalos · 1/10 · 11 October 2020]

There's really nothing good about this made for tv movie except that it ended. Based on the true events of the kidnapping of Anne Sluti by Tony Zappa, this movie sorta details how Anne was kidnapped, how she left clues for the cops in order for them to find her, and how the lead detective (portrayed by LeVar Burton) discovered them.

The run time is remarkably short, only 89min, but so boring that you'll think you wasted a lifetime watching it. There's absolutely no character development, and there's no real suspense or progression between one scene to the next. It's like whomever edited the film just spliced together random shots and called it a day. Maybe if they took the time to remedy these things, and extend the run time to accommodate better character development, it could have saved this movie, by a little bit.

The acting is also terrible, even for a made for tv movie. Don't get me started on the dialogue. Oh my it's horrendous!! There's one scene where Anne (Sara Canning) is walking barefooted and let's out a moan. Tony (James Van der Been) says for her not to complain, pain builds character. WHAT!?! Granted, I don't know, and it's entirely possible that the real kidnapper actually said that, but in this movie it sounds ridiculous and moronic. All in all this movie didn't inspire any kind of emotion in regards to Anne's plight, and by the end I couldn't care less if they rescued her. Maybe this story is better suited for a novel, because as a movie it simply lacked all the things necessary to make it captivating and suspenseful. Don't waste your time.

Taken in Broad Daylight

[kristencerone · 8/10 · 28 April 2014]

I feel that Taken in Broad Daylight was a well-put together crime film. From the beginning, I was drawn in by the immediate trauma that was the kidnapping of Anne Sluti. I wanted to know what would happen next and more importantly, why Tony Zappa took her in the first place. There was a constant mystery throughout the whole film of whether or not she would be saved and see her family again. This kept wondering and interested in what would happen in the next scene. Furthermore, the constant fearful emotions were very relevant for the audience because these types of feelings are what anyone would feel if they were in the position of Anne Sluti. Also, the movie allowed me to use my psychological mind to dissect the actions of the perpetrator and try to determine why he committed his crime. Gary Yates did a great job of putting together a film that would thoroughly expose our fears of violent crime such as kidnapping and allowing the viewers to put themselves in the position of the main characters and truly feel the agony that they were feeling.

James van der beek was excellent!!!

[jamesbarnshaw · 8/10 · 2 November 2011]

A lot of the reviews are moderately negative. I would have to agree to some extent with them. eg - it may be a run of the mill kidnap film. But for me James van der beek made this film very watchable indeed. I've grown up in the generation of Dawson's creek, so that was all i've really seen him in. Except from another good turn in The Rules Of Attraction. His performance in this was outstanding. What i consider a fairly realistic interpretation of a sociopath/kidnapper. But how do i know whats realistic for that character? LOL. Give this film a watch, it may have been done before, but van der beek makes the difference between bad and good in my opinion. 8/10.

Excellent Story / Movie

[myspecialparadise · 9/10 · 25 February 2012]

The acting is quite superb, when it comes to the two main characters ... unfortunately, the movie will most likely hinder James Van Der Beek's career ... much like Sleepers and Hallow Man marred Kevin Bacon's career. The public glorifies its heroes, but once that hero joins the dark side ... the public moves on, in search of a new hero. Actors need to be a lot more careful in the roles they choose, because the remainder of their careers depend on the choices they make! There are far too many victims in America ... portray a predator in one of these type movies and you lose a whole slew of fans ... specially if you portray more than one! Believe this, playing Ted Bundy did nothing positive for Mark Harmon's career.

Both leads are extremely powerful as portrayed by Sarah Canning & James Van Der Beek ... I was very surprised to find that LeVar Burton, from Star Trek NG, played the part of Mike Timbrook. LeVar looked so different, I did not recognize him ... but his acting was spot on!

The Ballad of Dangerous Dan McGrew

[lavatch · 8/10 · 14 July 2020]

Quick-thinking Anne Sluti always has her sharp mind engaged after being abducted at gunpoint at a shopping mall in Kearney, Nebraska. The kidnapper named Anthony Steven Wright, a.k.a., Tony Zappy and nicknamed "The Jack-Rabbit" is the deranged soul looking only for companionship in the felonious offenses he commits.

Anne was all set to start college in Terre Haute when she was kidnapped. Her six-day journey into hell took her from Kearney to Wyoming to Montana. When Tony allowed her to place phone calls, she gave clues to her loved ones about her whereabouts.

Detective Timbrook has been a longstanding friend of the Sluti family. The detective works closely with the FBI, using his intuitive sense of Anne to help in her discovery. It is revealed that Tony was beaten by his father, then raised by a stern, religious grandmother. Tony knows his Bible, and he is a bit of a poet as well. He recounts the Robert Service poem "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" to an appalled Anne, as if he is making a connection with an old hero from the Wild West.

Things finally come to a head when the efficient police and FBI locate the whereabouts of Tony and Anne. It was a moving ending when Anne raced into the arms of Detective Timbrook, then reunited with her loving family. She went on to attend the Rose Hulman institute, earning a degree in bio medical engineering. But she deserves a Purple Heart for courage and tenacity, as well as using her instincts for survival to close the book on the ballad of dangerous Dan McGrew.