Captive (I) (1998) User Reviews

Pretty bad stuff

[Alain-20 · 1/10 · 4 March 2000]

This started out as another one of those weird movies about a damsel in distress. It is very similar to Scissors with Sharon Stone. In fact, it's almost identical.

Nevertheless, the story is too long, you don't really care about the main character, and the ending is so formulaic, you can see it coming from the opening credits.

Too bad, because Eleniak is a good actress.

Interesting qualities

[albertayler1 · 7/10 · 10 August 2009]

Yes, of course it was your standard B-movie (the old-school B-movie) format. Beautiful young woman thrown into sinister, corrupt insane asylum (or psychiatric institute, etc.). Her relatives or others are conspiring to keep her there for financial reasons. So is the phony doctor director of the establishment. However there is one twist here. The narrator (with voice-over) at times is the corrupt orderly or attendant who molests patients and creates situations that will be blamed on the heroine to make her seem more insane. That's different! But it is not consistently used. Most of the story is told from the point of view of the heroine. Actually I didn't see the ending coming until quite late in the film....I would identify this as one of the those "Canadians." A film made in Canada with some American actors and several Canadians to meet the quota requirements for subsidy. The crew is mostly Canadian and it was produced in Canada to take advantage of cheaper production costs. There is no shame in this if it is good. This was reasonably well done. Michael Ironside is always good to watch. The others were professional. You can't expect too much from these things. It's bottom of the bill (today straight to video and cable) and does not aspire to more than that.

Captivating

[Sputtosi · 10/10 · 17 June 2002]

CAPTIVE/ I suspect that the director didn't have a good script to work on and a decent budget to work with. Altough CAPTIVE is a simple story, predictable at times, it remains a consistent piece of dark drama.

Erika Eleniak and Michael Ironside are very convincing in their roles. but it's an unknown actor Noël Burton that steals the show as Dr.Haggar. I wish we see more of this actor in other movies.

Out of 10, I give it 6/

Sputtosi