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In Ransom, Mel Gibson stars as Tom Mullen, a successful and wealthy airline executive whose happy life includes his beautiful wife Kate (Rene Russo), his lovable son Sean (Brawley Nolte) and a bank account full of money. Mullen's dreamy New York life is turned upside down when a gang of ruthless criminals kidnap his son and demand $2 million for his safe return. Unfortunately, Mullen is not willing to roll over and take it up the you know what. He decides to play a little bit of Russian roulette with his son's life and the kidnappers and the bounty increases to $4 million. That is when all hell breaks loose! Besides starring Gibson and Russo, Ransom features a brilliant supporting cast that includes Gary Sinise, Delroy Lindo, Liev Schreiber and Donnie Wahlburg. The movie is directed by Ron Howard.
Ransom is a decent movie. It is action-packed, suspenseful and Gibson and Sinise are quite good in their respective roles. But with that being said, I found the story was full of holes, the characters could have used a bit more depth and the whole kidnapping scheme was weak. I would have been more impressed had the kidnappers actually had a decent plan that they tried to carry through. Instead, I found their plot simple, not really planned, executed or explained well and quite disappointing. Not that I want to be sitting there cheering for the bad guys and watching them hatch this brilliantly successful plot, but really, their plan could have been foiled by a group of nursery school kids. They really were quite the band of idiots. It really took away from the movie and resulted in Ransom being a decent flick instead of a very good and even great movie.
The Special Edition of Ransom also includes a handful of extras. First, we have the commentary by Ron Howard. Howard's commentary is quite informative. Although there are a few times where we have to sit through long pauses in his commentary, I did find Howard to be relatively entertaining - he even seems to be a bit bitter that he did not get nominated for an Academy Award for Apollo 13, something that he does mention at one point during the commentary (while Mel did get nominated for Braveheart).
Next, we have four deleted scenes. They are short scenes (not the "Extensive Deleted Scenes" mentioned on the back of the DVD) and the movie did not miss much by having the scenes taken out.
What Would You Do? is not really asking what would you do. It is a brief feature on the filming of the movie that includes interviews with Ron Howard, Mel Gibson, Rene Russo, Gary SInese, Delroy Lindo, Liev Schreiber and a few other members of the cast and crew. I think there were probably about two minutes of interviews with crew members telling us "what they would do" if their child was kidnapped. Ron Howard also reminds us what a terrible parent he was because he lost one of his kids in a crowd in Quebec City. He also tells us this in the commentary. The featurette is interesting, brief but by no means groundbreaking journalism.
Next is "Between Takes", which just shows some of the goings on behind the scenes of the movie and shows the more personable sides of Howard, Gibson and Russo, in particular. I always enjoy watching these sorts of clips and although it was short, it was still fun.
Finally, the DVD includes the international trailer for Ransom.
Overall, Ransom is a moderately entertaining movie that is worth at least a single viewing. The DVD is somewhat thin on the special features but that is not always a bad thing. You can watch the movie and all the special features quite easily in a single afternoon or evening and feel that your movie appetite has been satisfied without feeling too bloated.
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