“The Entitled” is a suspense thriller with a simple plan that gets more complicated as the movie progresses. The main plot of the movie revolves around Paul (Kevin Zegers), who is a recent college graduate that can’t find a decent job and is stuck being a bike messenger. As his mother’s health continues to deteriorate and money problems start to mount, Paul gets desperate. He devises a plan, with the help of his girlfriend, Jenna (Tatiana Maslany), and his anti-social buddy, Dean (Devon Bostick), to kidnap three rich college students and extort $3 million from their fathers (Ray Liotta, Victor Garber, and Stephen McHattie).

The few things I did enjoy about this movie were scenic shots, the music, and the special features, even though there were few included. I loved how the camera panned an overhead view of the city during the beginning of the movie and the view of the vast forest. The music was also pretty good and set the mood for the movie and added to the atmosphere. Lastly, I enjoyed the special features which included a behind the scenes featurette, several trailers, and the alternate ending, which I was happy they chose not to use.

I think this movie had potential, but was presented and executed incorrectly making it a total mess. For instance, the cast was full of talented actors, but the badly written script and cheesy dialogue did not properly showcase their acting skills. In addition, I liked how the movie slowly revealed how all the characters but it was predictable and too slow to keep me interested or even care. Lastly, there were too many arguments and minor betrayals for each of the groups (the kidnappers, the victims, and the fathers). I noticed myself shaking my head in disappointment several times throughout the movie.

It is usually a bad sign when I say the only good things about a movie are the minor things such as the background music or certain scenic shots. The elements for a decent or good movie were here, but weren’t used correctly. I do not recommend this movie and am giving it a “D+.”