Gone in a heartbeat

Year of release : 1996

Run time : 1h30m

Genre : Thriller / Crime

Cast : James Marsden

The Hale's kids are moving away to college, and the two spouses are living alone again, for the first time since they were young. Not much time passes, and the wife, who works with charities, has a heart attack while at work (they have a diner). The doctor gives her medication and puts her on a diet with a workout routine.

Michael and David are good students, with Michael being a grade A student, and class president. What people don't know is, David and Michael break into people's houses, stealing their valuables, and even school property (they stole the computers, but brought them back).

The man they sold the items to, tells them that if they had 100.000 dollars he could turn them into 1 million dollars within weeks.

So they plan to kidnap a rich person, and ask for 100.000 dollars as ransom. They see Jan Hale, and Michael kidnaps her by knocking on her door one day. He and David drive to a nearby forest, handcuff her to the wheel of the car, cover the car with evergreen branches, and leave her there.

They call the husband from a payphone and ask for the ransom money telling him not to call the police.

The husband calls the police, and he does what they tell him to do.

Jan manages to break free from the wheel handcuffs but she still has handcuffs on her hands and legs. Outside is a full blown winter, with a lot of snow and cold (and she's in her home clothes), while a blizzard is being announced on the news.

I personally enjoyed the movie. But some things were not well thought through. Michael kidnaps Jan without wearing a mask, he wore sun glasses and a hat! So did the other! They blind folded her after, so she won't see where they take her!

I think Jan could have honked and maybe used the car's lights at night to flash.

The acting was Ok. I thought the actors playing the teenagers were fine, the ones playing the spouses seemed off.

The soundtrack was so and so.

Apparently the movie is based on actual events which took place in Whitehorse,Yukon, Canada, in 1992, when the teenage kidnappers (one a high school valedictorian) kidnapped one of the owners of the MacDonald's franchise !

You can watch the full movie for free, if you follow this link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMBi-xBbQQ8

Rating : Worth a watch !