3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A Used Story, Used Production Techniques: A Tired Movie, March 27, 2007
This review is from: Beeper (DVD)
BEEPER is the product of those films that deal with kidnapping of a child with the only connection with the perpetrators being by cell phone or other mechanical devices supposedly to enhance the tension of identifying the bad guy. By now the story is so used and tired that it takes a spectacular gimmick to make it fly. BEEPER remains grounded.
Dr. Richard Avery (Ed Quinn, known to only those who watch TV) flies to India with his young son (he is a widower) to give a lecture at a worldwide medical conference. In the audience the son Sam (Stefan Djordjevic) disappears and the good doctor notices too late, beginning a long series of chases to find Sam. Avery encounters Sr. Inspector Vijay Kumar (Gulshan Grover), whose specialty is drug dealing problems, and Inspector Julia Hyde (Joey Lauren Adams), whose specialty is kidnapping. But Avery is informed that he is to follow instructions given through a beeper and to avoid the police. Avery finds his only source of information is through Zolo (Harvey Keitel), a drug lord in Delhi who has special interests in fulfilling the ransom: cash for opium. After an endless car chase through the streets and markets of Delhi the truth about who is the real kidnapper is revealed...and the movie glides to a bumpy end.
Seeing India as a backdrop for an intrigue film is promising but visually this viewer gets the feeling that much of the footage is actually from a can rather than being on set. The acting ranges from fair to really awful and the script by Michael Cordell and Gregory Gieras is dreary. Made in 2002 and just released on DVD it is not a secret why the movie didn't make it in the theaters. Even the usually reliable Keitel can't save this one. Grady Harp, March 07
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1.0 out of 5 stars
Harvey saves this from the trash bin., August 27, 2008
This review is from: Beeper (DVD)
This one I got in the $1.99 bin, buy two get one for a penny. Well, I guess it was worth a dollar-forty. A typical kidnap genre that expected to show originality based on a setting in India falls short with a poor screenplay and some no-name actors that haven't graduated school. But, Harvey Keitel (Wise Guys; Reservoir Dogs; Pulp Fiction) saves the movie from the trash bin with his typical outstanding acting and portrayal of Zolo. (I betcha he ad-libbed a lot with what he was given.) Zolo is a ruthless drug dealer that's been around the block. Business is business and he "can't afford to care" about some tourist doctor's son kidnapped for no apparent reason. But, Doctor Richard Avery (Ed Quinn) has his opium and the doctor won't give it up until Zolo helps him find the `beeper' that the kidnappers are using to relay info about Avery's son. Zolo has no choice as the doctor is ready to give his own life rather than give up the dope. So, off they go on a city wide hunt and chase looking for the beeper before midnight when the kidnapper claims he'll kill the boy. Won't give away the ending, but I bet you'll figure out who the perp is before the end. Worth a look if you don't have a lot to do and there are a couple beers iced ready to go. Or, go watch a re-run of Firewall, Man On Fire, Along Came a Spider.
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