A dramatic departure for director Ron Howard, who, remember, made a sweet and sunny comedy about pimps and prostitution (Night Shift). From the minute maverick entrepreneur Mel Gibson's son is snatched from his midst, this gut wrenching thriller never lets up. The ante is upped when, to his wife Rene Russo's distress, Gibson turns the table on the kidnappers, offering their $2 million ransom as a bounty. The expert ensemble includes Gary Sinise as an embittered cop and, in a chilling performance, indie-queen Lili Taylor (I Shot Andy Warhol) as a cold-hearted accomplice. This is sure to be a popular title. (K. Lee Benson)[DVD Review--Mar. 23, 2004--Touchstone, 121 min., R, $29.99-- Initially released in a bare-bones edition, Ron Howard's Ransom: Special Edition features the same non-anamorphic widescreen transfer (with more dirt and scratches on the image than you would expect), but adds another fine commentary track by director Howard (who went to high school with star Rene Russo), combined with a underwhelming 21 minutes worth of extras. The “extensive” deleted scenes hawked on the DVD jacket amount to less than four minutes (and mostly feature Delroy Lindo), the 13-minute “What You Would Do?” is essentially a “making of” promo, and the “captivating behind the scenes special” called “Between Takes” is really just four minutes worth of goofing and mugging. Bottom line: the “special edition” designation is a bit overstated, but Howard's commentary track is characteristically engaging, making this well worth picking up if you don't already have the original release.][Blu-ray Review—June 19, 2012—Touchstone, 121 min., R, $19.99—Making its first appearance on Blu-ray, 1996's Ransom features a great transfer and a DTS-HD 5.1 soundtrack. Bonus features are identical to the DVD release, including audio commentary by director Ron Howard, a "What Would You Do?" making-of featurette (14 min.), deleted scenes (4 min.), a "Between Takes" behind-the-scenes segment (4 min.), and trailers. Bottom line: a fine Blu-ray debut for this solid thriller.]
Ransom
(Touchstone, 121 min., R, avail. May 13) Vol. 12, Issue 3
Ransom
Star Ratings
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