Stealing Sinatra (2002)

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!

 Stealing Sinatra has a weak pulse
David Arquette (Scream Trilogy, Stephen King's Riding The Bullet) stars as Barry who has the perfect plan. He wants to kidnap Frank Sinatra Jr., played by Thomas Ian Nicholas (American Pie 1-3, L.A. D.J.) , for ransom of a large amount of money. Coming along for the ride is Barry's friend Joe, played by Ryan Browning (The Smokers, Extreme Days) and Mr. John Irwin, played by the always masterful William H. Macy (Cellular, The Cooler). Macy doesnt think this a brilliant plan but he goes along with it. They kidnap Sinatra Jr. while he was staying in a hotel and bring them back to the place where their gonna keep him. Arquette has Macy take all the phone calls from Frank Sinatra, Sr., played by James Russo so that way they can ask for the ransom money and then when they get it, Jr. will be released. Stealing Sinatra has it moments, it's a TV movie people. Nicholas does a fine job as Sinatra Jr., he sings good too and of course Macy is wonderful but Arquette and Browning are way miscast for their roles. Also starring Evangeline Lilly (Tv's LOST), who was one of those bikini models in that one commercial shoot. Doesnt feel like their was much oomph in this "supposed" comedy...I didnt laugh that much. February 1, 2006

 Boring as boring can be
Ugh. Don't waste your time. You may think this is a "movie", but it's just something Showtime threw together. None of the acting is very good, and it has very little, if any, redeeming qualities.
I know, I know, it has "Sinatra" in the title, how bad can it be? Well, it's bad, trust me.
The only thing I liked about it, assuming they stuck to facts, is that you learn what happened to Frank Jr's captors. October 12, 2005

 Could have been much better, but it has a unique "feel"
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.
March 16, 2005

 Great job by William H. Macy
William H. Macy steals the show with a performance that sounds like every middle aged drunk with a good heart I've ever known. It's unfortunate that the character got mixed up with these misfits.

James Russo does a pretty good Sinatra swagger.

The girl playing Nancy Sinatra was real cute and did a good job portraying the pre-boots Nancy.

The DVD has lot of good extras including a funny outake real, and a good director commentary tract comparing the movie to the acutal events. January 12, 2005

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