Synopsis: Top cover girl and fashion model, Jennifer Tree (Elisha Cuthbert) has it all--beauty, fame, money and power. Her face appears on covers of hundreds of magazines. At the top of her game, Jennifer is America's sweetheart. She is loved and adored and sought after. Everyone wants her. But someone out there has been watching and waiting. Someone wants her in the worst way. Out alone at a charity event in Soho, Jennifer is drugged and taken. Held captive in a cell, Jennifer is subjected to a series of terrifying, life-threatening tortures that could only be conceived by a twisted, sadistic mind.

While I adore Elisha Cuthbert (of "The Girl Next Door" and "24" fame), this was not a movie worthy of her talents. It's hard to do horror right and sadly "Captivity" didn't do much to impress. It was like a cheap "Saw" or "Hostel" knock-off. There was blood o' plenty, but not in they typical fashion. Elisha wasn't being tortured and bled to death – instead she was forced to guzzle a concoction of organs and blood that was mixed up in a blender. It was nasty and really didn't have any plot value. It was just gross for the sake of being gross. The killer enjoyed doing gross stuff like that, as well as subjecting her to videos of his other victims and freaking her out. 

The plot (of which there wasn't much) was very predictable and what annoyed me most was the fade-out effect every time Elisha was drugged – the camera would fade to black and then it would come back as she woke up. The first few times were OK, but then this kept happening over and over until I lost count. Lastly, having heard how 'controversial' this movie was supposed to be and given its hard R-Rating, I had expected to see Elisha Cuthbert nude. However, the only scene where she's nude is when she's behind a screen of some sort and it's all blurry, so you can't see anything. Overall, "Captivity" is quite a big disappointment. I'd recommend saving your $10 and just waiting for DVD if you're really stuck on seeing it. 

All in all, I'd give this movie 1 Captive (out of 5). Re-watch value: NONE

As much as I like a good thriller or even a good horror movie I just felt "Captivity" was lacking in both those areas.  The acting was descent but the story had some plot holes and loose ends that were never really tied up.  The torture scenes even though creative weren't really all that cool (we had seen most of them before.)  Overall I just thought the movie really kind of sucked and was a lame attempt to catapult on the latest band wagon of thrillers and horror.

Overall Rating: 1.5 Stars (out of 5). Re-Watch Value: Low (Maybe on cable, late at night when I'm bored).

Trivia: The initial advertising campaign for Captivity featured a multi-paneled poster. The first panel was labeled "Abduction," featuring actress Elisha Cuthbert appearing petrified, her mouth covered by a black gloved hand. The second panel was labeled "Confinement" and showed Cuthbert behind a chain-link fence with a bloody thumb poking through. The third was labeled "Torture" and featured Cuthbert on her back, her face hidden within a white cast and red tubes going up her nose. The fourth panel was labeled "Termination" and featured what appeared to be a limp body hanging over a table. The poster was placed on several billboards across Los Angeles, causing a significant uproar and resulting in many complaints. Distributor Lionsgate -- who were not involved in the film's advertising campaign and claimed to know nothing of the poster in question before the posters were distributed -- and producer After Dark Films ultimately decided to remove the controversial poster from the advertising campaign and took the billboards down.

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