Synopsis
When a rich man's son is kidnapped, he cooperates with the police at first but then tries a unique tactic against the criminals.
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Cast
- Mel GibsonTom Mullen
- Rene RussoKatherine Mullen
- Gary SiniseDet. Jimmy Shaker
- Delroy LindoAgent Lonnie Hawkins
- Lili TaylorMaris
- Brawley NolteSean Mullen
- Liev SchreiberClark Barnes
- Donnie WahlbergCubby Barnes
- Evan HandlerMiles Roberts
- Nancy TicotinAgent Kimba Welch
Recommendations
- 100
The New York Times
Mr. Howard has made Ransom in the same clean, swift, logical style that sent his "Apollo 13" into orbit, resulting in a spellbinding crime tale that delivers surprises right down to the wire. - 90
Salon
The 1996 kidnap drama Ransom traverses the parameters of public life in America, from the image public figures present to us to the image they never intended us to see. Neither one tells the whole truth. Luckily, Ransom isn't content with surfaces.. - 75
Chicago Sun-Times
The movie would have benefitted from a tight rewrite (it is too ambitious in including plot threads it doesn't have time to deal with), but Gibson's strong central performance speeds it along. - 75
ReelViews
Ransom isn't a bad thriller, it's just not a great one. There's a little too much pointless running around, a subplot that leads nowhere, and a certain creeping predictability that argues for a shorter running length. - 75
Rolling Stone
Slick thrills and the star's blue eyes are enough to make Ransom the fall's monster hit. Instead, Howard and Gibson stake out a Moclock side in all of us that won't be banished, not even by a happy ending. I'll be damned. - 75
San Francisco Examiner
Ransom is every bit as taut and expertly directed, and it's another in the emergency genre, one in which Howard excels. - 70
Washington Post
There are more climaxes in here than in a Swedish blue movie. This is not to say you won't be thrilled, charged up and put through the ringer at times, but your intelligence will need to be shoved under your seat like warm, flat soda. - 50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Since "To pay or not to pay" is banal, the plot takes the popular path of excess to a brain-boggling twist (to be specific would be to ruin what fun there is), then spirals off in a series of ever more unlikely gyrations, until a heretofore decent picture has gone completely south into fantasy-land.
