Parents' Guide to

Billionaire Ransom

By Brian Costello, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 16+

Drunk driving, violence in teen-survival action movie.

Movie NR 2016 98 minutes
Billionaire Ransom Poster Image

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What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

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This movie comes off as a combination of various survival-themed action movies paired with stories of wealthy teens. Is it Less Than Zero meets Red Dawn? Deliverance 90210? Something like that, but the premise and its execution are ultimately too preposterous to even come close to any of those movies or TV shows. The spoiled teens of wealthy parents are sent to a tough-love survivalist camp on a remote island in the UK, but then must fend for themselves and fight back when mercenaries try to take them hostage. But not even rain nor mud nor bloody injuries can mess up their supermodel hair and their nice clothing. Characters who are drenched from rain and bodies of water are miraculously dry in the subsequent scene.

On the whole, Billionaire Ransom is mindless entertainment, watching the one percent get in touch with their animal natures. But it's hard to root for or identify with any of the characters. The mercenaries seem to have some deeper reason for taking billionaire children hostage besides simple greed, but these Marxist tendencies are merely hinted at. The lead female antagonist comes off more like a '90s goth in a Marilyn Manson video instead of a highly trained killer. The rich teens, even as they learn to take care of themselves through a mixture of killing deer and not eating the poison foliage that grows in the woods, are never really likable. Billionaire Ransom never truly takes on a life of its own, and instead feels like an awkward mishmash of its influences.

Movie Details

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