Dinesh Kamath's column on Hollywood film 'Stolen' that was published in Newsband

Stolen, formerly known as Medallion, is a film starring Nicolas Cage, Danny Huston, Malin Åkerman, M.C. Gainey, Sami Gayle, Mark Valley and Josh Lucas.

The movie has an interesting plot. A former thief, Will Montgomery (Nicolas Cage), is released from prison for a bank robbery of $10 million. He decides to visit his estranged daughter, Alison, whom he hasn't seen in eight years. But then an old partner (Josh Lucas), who many believed to have died, kidnaps Alison and locks her in the trunk of his medallion taxi cab, and demands ransom: the $10 million he believes Will still has. Since he doesn't, Will has to rob another bank as the detective that put him away (Danny Huston) tracks him down again. Thus the thief Will Montgomery (Nicolas Cage) has 12 hours to steal $10,000 to get his kidnapped daughter back, who is being held for ransom by his former partner in crime.

The film has Nicolas Cage as Will Montgomery, Malin Åkerman as Riley Simms, Mark Valley as Fletcher, Sami Gayle as Alison, Tanc Sade as Pete, Josh Lucas as Vincent, Danny Huston and M.C. Gainey.

In Stolen, Nicolas Cage plays a robber-gone-right after a prison stretch ... only he has to go wrong again after an ex-partner kidnaps his now-teenage daughter.

The movie begins with the "job" that gets Cage's character a prison stretch. All the elements are in place: good-girl partner (Malin Akerman), loose-cannon partner (Josh Lucas), nemesis cop (Danny Huston). The film depicts Cage's character's insistence on listening to a lucky classic rock tune all the way through before commencing a job, for luck.

Stationed outside the New Orleans jewelry emporium, Huston's character lets out a howl of outrage as he realizes he's foiled again. Things go wrong, Cage's character goes up the river, and when he's released, not only is Huston's cop back on his trail, but loose cannon Lucas, having faked his own death and gone from unreliable to very, very bad (you can tell because he's grown his hair out and has scary bags under his eyes) abducts his now-teenage and very cranky daughter, in the hopes of recouping the loss from the prior robbery. "I don't have the money," Cage's character, who has the evocative name Will Montgomery, protests. This annoys Lucas' evil dude to the extent that he gives Will's daughter a little chat about how he mutilated himself to fake his own death, and he's willing to do the same to her. That's the sadistic part. Driven to the point of desperation and with the clock ticking, Will convinces Akerman's also-now-reformed character to go in with him on one last job.

There are some not-bad bits that are well-staged by director Simon West, including one that answers the burning question "How far will Nic Cage go to answer a cellphone within eight rings?" And the New Orleans locations are evocative. But the script, by David Guggenheim, is good and has one of the characters praising Will Montgomery's "skills."

Nicolas Cage has his own brand of cinema now and that draws a lot of people to the theatres. Stolen is action packed thriller which comes from Simon West, the director behind films like Con Air and The Expendables 2. The audience will love to see this movie.

This film is technically a heist movie, actually a relationship movie, and it’s really about the characters and how they interact: Even though it’s got all the pyrotechnics and the roller coaster ride of an action movie.

Simon had a vision with the film from the very beginning…If you look at all his productions there’s always a good sense of humor and his actors interact so beautifully and there’s chemistry.

Most heist films are caught up with the complex dynamics of plot, and they’re obsessed with twists and turns and betrayals and double crosses.  What this film has that most heist films don’t have is heart.  Because in a world where there was a master thief who was cold, calculating and manipulative, and everything was planned out and he knew how to pull off the perfect heist; what happens when that’s completely set off kilter because the objective is to save the one thing in this world that he actually feels something for…his daughter? That is what’s different about this film. It’s a heist thriller.

It’s a fun date movie.  The relationship between Nicolas and Sami in the movie shows so beautifully:  They’re going to touch a lot of heart strings there, its going to be much more than an action thriller and it is that too: Its got lots of action, tension, great storyline. It has that whole element of you know you’re going to be sitting on the edge of your seat from the start until the end.

So do watch the film Stolen when it gets released on 9 November 2012. You’ll love it.