Taken in Broad Daylight (2009)

It is a performances centric movie

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

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

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.

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.

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!