Excess Baggage

Emily is the daughter of a wealthy man who has spent years trying, without success, to get her father's attention. Her latest scheme is to stage her own kidnapping: she disguises her voice, calls him with a ransom demand and a location, binds and gags herself, and climbs into the trunk of her own car. What she does not count on is Vincent, a professional car thief, who takes the vehicle with her still hidden inside. When he discovers his unexpected passenger, the two are thrown together, while Emily's family believes she has genuinely been abducted.

The film was directed by Marco Brambilla, who had made his feature debut with Demolition Man in 1993, and who returned to directing with Excess Baggage in 1997, four years before Dinotopia. Max D. Adams wrote the screenplay, and Alicia Silverstone, who plays Emily, also produced. Benicio del Toro appears as Vincent, with Christopher Walken, Jack Thompson, Harry Connick Jr. and Nicholas Turturro among the supporting cast. Columbia Pictures released the film in the United States in August 1997.

Reception was mixed. On IMDb and on TMDB, viewers rate it modestly, and its film critics' rating is lower still, at 4.6 out of 10 from 31 reviews. The gap suggests a comedy that drew some audience goodwill but little enthusiasm from reviewers.