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Ransom (Special Edition)
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List Price: $14.99
Our Price: $13.49
Your Save: $ 1.50 ( 10% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Touchstone Home Entertainment
Starring: Mel Gibson, Rene Russo, Brawley Nolte, Gary Sinise, Delroy Lindo
Directed By: Ron Howard
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: DVD
Brand: GIBSON,MEL
EAN: 0786936232981
Format: Anamorphic
Label: Touchstone Home Entertainment
Manufacturer: Touchstone Home Entertainment
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Touchstone Home Entertainment
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2004-03-23
Running Time: 121
Studio: Touchstone Home Entertainment
Theatrical Release Date: 1996-11-08
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Editorial Reviews:
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In this action-thriller, Academy Award(R)-winning superstar Mel Gibson (Best Director, BRAVEHEART, 1995) is Tom Mullen, a wealthy executive whose charmed life is suddenly shattered when his young son is abducted and held for ransom by a gang of ruthless criminals! That's when Mullen defies the experts and takes matters into his own hands ... boldly turning the tables on the kidnappers in a last-chance effort to rescue the boy! A critically acclaimed smash from Academy Award(R)-winning director Ron Howard (A BEAUTIFUL MIND, 2001) that features Rene Russo (THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR) and Gary Sinise (THE HUMAN STAIN) in an excellent supporting cast -- you'll find RANSOM pays off big with unpredictable twists and unstoppable excitement!
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: my DVD was stolen
Comment: I'm not sure about this particular DVD because after it was delivered to my house, someone took it. I didn't even get to open or watch the movie. I've seen it through borrowing from people or libraries-it's one of my favorite MEL GIBSON movies.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good film
Comment: Ransom, starring: Mel Gibson (Tom Mullen), Renee Russo (Kate Mullen), Gary Sinise (Det. Jimmy Shaker), Brawley Nolte (Sean Mullen), Liev Schrieber (Clark Barnes), Donnie Wahlberg (Cubby Barnes), Lili Taylor (Maris Connor), Delroy Lindo (Lonnie Hawkins), and Dan Hedaya (Jackie Brown), a nine year old boy named Sean Mullen is abducted by several kidnappers who by and large have no human decency in them. Jimmy Shaker (Sinise) is the ring leader, and is also an NYPD detective who is furious that Tom (Gibson) is walking free after bribing a union rep in order to head off a machinist strike. He knows that Tom generally buys his way out of trouble, and he decides he wants to make some extra cash by demanding 2 million dollars as ransom.
During the time that Sean (Nolte) is being held for ransom, most of the kidnappers are either indifferent, or flat out cruel to him. Maris (Taylor), who worked for Tom, knows Sean and yet she shows him almost no compassion whatsoever. When Sean asks her if he can have a chocolate bar, she responds by slapping more tape over his eyes and telling him that "This is it for you."
And then, we've got Cubby Barnes (Wahlberg). Cubby was the only one of the kidnappers who was ever kind to Sean. He did everything in his power to make Sean feel comfortable. Well, as comfortable as you can make a nine year old boy when his hands are cuffed behind his back, and his feet are cuffed to a bed, there's Heavy Metal music blasting from a stereo in the room; and he's got tape over his eyes. Cubby told Sean a joke, and gave him a piece of a candy bar, and that was the only time I saw Sean break a smile during the time he was held captive. Cubby did not seem to care about what his cohorts wanted with the kid. He probably thought it was ridiculous to torment an innocent kid who had done nothing wrong other than be a kid in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Toward the end of the film, Maris seems to realize that she's ruined her own life, and permanently scarred an innocent kid. She ultimately ends up shooting her boyfriend (Sinise) in the shoulder before he turns around and shoots her. Sinise's character turns his back on his cohorts in order to collect his reward for "rescuing" Sean, but it all blows up in his face at the end of the film.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Suspenseful, but too long
Comment: Some nice twists, and they are needed, because this somewhat dated thriller seems almost over about 20 minutes into it. Then the twists begin to kick in. Still, it could have used a trim. Mel is a little over the top. I can't watch anything by him now without thinking of his anti-Semitic rant. You'll be entertained by this, but you won't learn anything about anything. Also, the formatting has NOT been updated for today's wide screen TVs. In fact, it's got black lines on all four sides, not just left and right.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Wow!!
Comment: Ok, not too many times does a movie come along and have me wondering what the heck is going on.
RANSOM took me by surprise. Yes, it's a contrived "we have your kid, you want him back, you pay" plot and storyline. But, it's how it is played out that makes this movie good entertainment.
Now, no "fictional" movie is ever going to depict real life. But, suspend the "reality" for the movie and you go along for a wild ride. Tom Mullen (Gibson) is an airline executive, built the company from the ground-up, and will do anything to protect it. Kate (Russo) is his wife, who obviously has seen the ups and downs of their life, but has honored her "for better for worse" marriage vows. Then, they have a talented and bright child Sean (Brawley Nolte) who isn't too neglected and seems to have adequate child/parent time with each parent.
In what we should expect to happen, does indeed happen, the child is taken for ransom. But, it's in the how and the who that really grips us. He is taken from a public place which shows the kidnappers as thumbing their nose under everyone, and shows us we are too complacent in our feelings of security in public places, even during the day.
Det. Jimmy Shaker (Sinise) is the ring-leader, and I think his identity coming out sooner is to me part of the whole riddle and scheme of the movie, after all, he has no motive....well he does, but we will get to that later. He seems to be functionally insane. He can function in public, do his job and then he's a psycho on top of it all. How else can you do what he did??
After a botched "money drop" attempt, Mullen finds himself in a situation where he ponders "would paying the money really insure my son's safe return"? And he's right. We know it wouldn't. And he attempts to convince his wife that it's not about the money, it's about getting their son back alive. Once the kidnapper has their money, they have no reassurance if the boy will come back alive, which is the whole point behind paying the ransom, now isn't it?
So... since it's all about money, why not turn it into a bounty? Which is what Mullen does. Who wouldn't turn in someone they know for $2 million? Which is what he is counting on, and Shaker didn't. Now Shaker has to keep calm (which he can't do, since his scheme is coming apart at the seems along with everyone he's around) and he's going beserk, while everyone else is trying to abandon the plan.
And Shaker doesn't like people "bailing" on him. Can anyone say "psycho"?
Shaker decides to give in, and gives the child back alive, killing all his co-horts in the process. But, it's when his greed gets the better of him he gets found out. Had he followed the plan, likely he would have been sipping margaritas in Mexico, but he had to have to money early and pays the ultimate price. Apparently his meds didn't kick in to save his brain or his life.
Yes, Mel Gibson might have over-acted as the father. But since it's fiction who are we to argue with that? I did enjoy the balcony scene where for a moment we thought he was going to jump. After all, he thought he'd killed his son. I was hoping he wouldn't jump, then again Shaker wouldn't have won either, but it didn't happen, which was a good thing.
Rene Russo was wonderful as the mother, she had a more realistic charm in the role, but likely wouldn't have faired as well against Sinise.
Gary Sinise was wonderful in the movie as far as the crazy bad guy. He stands out more so in the movie since you're wondering what the heck set this guy off. He can play bad guys just as well as good guys (which is why I just love him in CSI: NY).
As Shaker is talking/rambling on, we realize one thing, the motive. He wonderfully explains his motive--he saw criminals everyday getting off by buying their way out of trouble. Mullen had recently done so with the Jackie Brown deal. Since Mullen didn't mind paying to stay out of jail/prison, then why not pay to get his son back?
Brawley Nolte did a wonderful job as Sean, and it does tug at your heartstrings to see how he was treated and then when he recognizes his kidnapper's voice.
Donnie Wahlberg did a wonderful job as the only friend the kid seemed to have in the whole ordeal, and made him a promise that was eventually carried out.
The rest of the cast were wonderful, and I wish I could remember all the actors in this movie.
The FBI were portrayed as neutral, they were trying to help the Mullens get their son back, while the father decided to take things into his own hands. At least it stayed away from "the FBI saved the day" plot. The movie played out on it's own, and could have been directed by anyone. The cast seemed to compliment each other.
If you have DVR (and you're not paying any extra to record it), record it from a movie channel once, if you like buy it; if not, then save the money, and delete.
I for one, am going to get the DVD.
Customer Rating:
Summary: More Meat Than the 1956 Original
Comment: The year Mel Gibson was born, Glenn Ford and Donna Reed had the roles of frantic parents dealing with the abduction of their son.
The original 1956 film version of "Ransom" was of its time, complete with docile Bible quoting servants and a mother who, while periodically confrontational with those working on the case, remains upstairs and in bed under sedation for most of the time, and the kidnappers remain unseen.
But this impressive 1996 remake is very much of its time, too, and as Tom and Kate Mullen (Mel Gibson and Renee Russo), and airline executive and a former High School Science teacher,we come to view a more complex couple, and we see how a shady business deal by someone who is supposed to be viewed as a "good guy" has led to the incident related in this story.
As young Sean Mullen, Brawley Nolte is a typical nine-year-old with an independent spirit. Abducted while at a science fair over which his mother presides, he spends much of the film bound, and blindfolded with Heavy Metal music as the main sound he hears while lying on a mattress in a dark room, occasionally being pulled into a sitting position by his captors, and making only one attempt to fight back.
In trying to retrive her son, Renee Russo is more than just a mom who lies upstairs under sedation, but as might any modern woman in the same situation, takes a more active role in retrieving her son, even confronting the kidnapper and taking a few hard knocks along the way.
Delroy Lindo's Lonnie Hawkins leads the team of FBI agents working on the case in the Mullen's apartment. He monitors Tom Mullen's confrontation with an incarcerated mobster named Jackie Brown(Dan Hedaya), a suspect in the kidnapping, and a botched attempt at a money drop before having to really steel himself to deal with Mullen's most dramatic act of sabotage: Going on network TV to announce that the $2 million ransom will now become a bounty on the kidnapper's head. From there, the drama escalates.
Gary Sinese plays the devious Detective Jimmy Shaker, Lili Taylor is his conflicted lover, Maris Conner, who has a connection to the Mullens. Liev Schreiber and Donnie Wahlberg play Clark and Cubby Barnes, Evan Handler is Miles Roberts, and Iraida Polanco is the Mullens' not-so-docile housekeeper, Fatima, who lends a little assistance with the case.
Under Ron Howard's skillful direction, the 1950s censorship codes are lifted and viewers are presented with an intense gritty, realistic, and ultimately satisfactory drama.
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