Excess Baggage MPAA Rating: PG-13 Entertainment: +2 1/2 Content: -1 1/2

Emily T. Hope (Alicia Silverstone), is the rich, but emotionally neglected daughter of Alexander Hope (Jack Thompson), a wealthy businessman who puts more stock in his business than in her. A perennial troublemaker, Emily believes she's come up with the perfect plan to make her father notice her. She plots her own kidnapping by locking herself in a car trunk, and then awaits her paternal rescue. What she didn't plan on, however, was for a professional car thief to come along and steal her car and ruin the plan. Vincent Roche (Benicio Del Toro) is the unsuspecting thief who is inadvertently drawn into the kidnapping plot involving the young heiress. When the kidnapping scheme backfires, she goes on the run with the car thief implicated in the fake kidnapping. In the meantime, Emily and Vincent fall for each other and they must try to get everything back to normal. Teenagers and young adults will enjoy Silverstone in this dark comedy, but her hard-edged character will leave more mature adults cold.

Many teenage girls idolize Silverstone, so her behavior in this film should be parents' main concern. She smokes and drinks hard liquor throughout the film, and she also exhibits a serious "bad girl" attitude. She blames it on the lack of love and attention from her father. But while that may be true, she's old enough to know better and the fact that she stages her own kidnapping just confirms that she's a bad role model. The film also extols Vincent, who is a car thief, and his behavior is never condemned. Language also causes a problem with over a dozen each of crude words, obscenities, and profanity. Many of the words have sexual connotations such as the use of the phrase "hard on." Many teens will probably want to see this film, but parents won't appreciate the suitcase full of bad attitudes they come home with. EXCESS BAGGAGE is too excessive.

Preview Reviewer: Kristi Shepherd
Distributor: Columbia Pictures, 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232