Product Details

• Actors: David Arquette, William H. Macy, Ryan Browning, Sam McMurray, Thomas Ian Nicholas
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Showtime Ent.
• DVD Release Date: November 23, 2004
• Run Time: 96 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0002XL2LG
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #114,563 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Stealing Sinatra" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

What do you get when you combine three inexperienced criminals, a rented house in Los Angeles and the son of one of America’s greatest legends? You get the 1963 kidnapping of Frank Sinatra, Jr. Featuring an excellent soundtrack of period music, this madcap caper is more outlandish than fiction!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Could have been much better, but it has a unique "feel", March 15, 2005

By 

Kristopher Haines (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Stealing Sinatra (DVD)

Sometimes truth is indeed stranger than fiction, especially the epilogue. Perhaps it is because it is based on such strange facts that it resists being fictionalized. "Stealing Sinatra" registers as flat. What a waste. I think that its biggest problem is it neglects to include some of the more interesting facts of the story. Why did Barry Keenan do it? The movie shows him popping pills but it does not mention (if memory serves) that he was once a great mind and the youngest person to trade on the stock exchange. It does mention his maraculous rebound in the end, but does not mention that kidnapper and kidnapee are often forced to exchange awkward glances at ritzy parties. All and all it is an adequate film, due mostly to the way it evokes its time period, and of course the remarkable skill of William H. Macy.

4.0 out of 5 stars Totally Excellent!, September 13, 2011

By 

Duff Mason (Lake Stevens, WA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Stealing Sinatra (DVD)

This movie isn't for everybody, but I enjoyed it thoroughly. It probably helped that I grew up in the L.A. area, and the San Fernando valley in particular (I've been to Canoga Park, and driven down Sherman Way!). I loved the way they evoked the Southern CA surf culture, and especially the surf music, of the early 60's. I've always been big a fan of that era. And has anyone noticed how prevalent 60's surf music still is today? You hear it constantly on TV commercials and in the media. The pre-counterculture 60's period detail in this movie was excellent: clothing, cars, houses, hairstyles etc. It's an almost overlooked time in our history and culture. (As a former valley-boy, I was amazed to see on the end credits that this was filmed in Vancouver B.C!). The real-life story here is no secret. The fun of this movie is in the journey, not the destination. I'm glad they chose to make it as an almost surreal, truth-stranger-than-fiction comedy. This is serious subject matter, but it would have been a total flop as a straight ahead drama. The thrill was in getting to know the perpetrators, and in the realization that they were really just regular, likeable guys (guys I might have hung out with at one time) doing incredibly stupid things and getting in deeper and deeper. Of course the glue that held the whole thing together was David Arquette. You can have fun just watching him think. I've followed him, on and off, since the Scream movies, and he just gets interestinger and interestinger. I was mesmerized watching him go from friendly to scheming to salesman to wounded in the time it took to light a cigarette. There's a world of subtlety and nuance on his face. Bill Macy also added depth and dimension to the whole affair and provided a solid foundation for Arquette to stand on. For me, this is an excellent low budget gem, and a movie I never get tired of watching.

4.0 out of 5 stars Oh c'mon, this isn't half bad, March 2, 2010

By 

Bradley F. Smith (Miami Beach, FL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Stealing Sinatra (DVD)

Sure, it's a Showtime production, but this low-budget charmer evokes the feel of innocent 1963 pretty well, and the trio of kidnappers does a nice job showing how incompetent the real ones really were. It's got a snappy soundtrack, too. William Macy steals the show as the laconic older kidnapper, constantly advising his cohorts that what they are up to is bad. I'm not clear on the facts of the case and don't know how close this comes to a documentary. Was the guy from Jan & Dean really involved? Very watchable.