Excess Baggage

Or: what happens when you give a 19-year-old with three hot music videos and one mainstream boxoffice hit to her credit a production deal? Alicia Silverstone stars as Emily, a poor little rich girl who, to get her businessman father's attention, stages her own kidnapping. Her meticulous plan goes awry when the car in which she is hiding is stolen. Predictably, she bonds with her unwitting kidnapper. Popular with girls and boys, Silverstone guarantees an audience, but she is not the main attraction. She is easily upstaged by Benicio Del Toro (one of The Usual Suspects) as Vincent, the thief who finds himself in over his head. Ditto for Christopher Walken at his dissipated, quietly menacing best as Ray, the "friend of the family" whom Emily's father enlists to find her. A very optional purchase. (K. Lee Benson)