Date: Fri 21-Feb-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Illustration: C

Location: A10

Quick Words:

Playing-Gibson-Russo-Sinise

Full Text:

(rev "Ransom" for Now Playing, 2/21/97)

Now Playing-

Overpromotion Probably Ruined A Great Big Payoff For `Ransom'

By Trey Paul Alexander III

There's nothing like starting off a column with a completely unrelated topic,

but have you ever noticed how Tom Cruise and Mel Gibson are the kings of

sprinting? Do they have contract clauses that call for at least one sequence

of them dashing determinedly toward the camera?

Think about it: Cruise in Mission: Impossible ? Running. Gibson in Braveheart

? Running. Cruise in Far and Away ? Running. Gibson in the Lethal Weapon

series? Running. Even in less obvious, less action-oriented films (Cruise in

The Firm and Jerry Maguire ; Gibson in Forever Young ), these two stars find

ways of high-stepping it. What's the point?, you ask. Well, this has been a

tangential thought, a random aside that only vaguely relates to this column

because of Gibson's starring role in Ransom - in which he has a running scene,

by the way - the focus of this week's review.

Ransom , playing at the Edmond Town Hall Theatre, is director Ron Howard's

follow-up to his rah-rah pleaser, Apollo 13 . Fairly early in this thriller,

in which the son (Brawley Nolte, yes, the son of Nick) of a wealthy couple

(Gibson, Rene Russo) is kidnapped and held for a $2 million ransom, it becomes

apparent Howard is attempting a grittier, more noirish tone with his latest

effort. If the thought of having one's offspring maliciously snatched and

threatened is not chilling enough, Howard dares to also present the abducted

child handcuffed to a bed in a dank room with electric tape across his eyes

and sinister music blaring on a boom box. No, not a pretty sight, nor one for

the faint of heart.

Though he shows signs of a harder edge here, over the course of his

directorial career, Howard has inarguably contended with his tendency towards

sugar-coating and sentimentality (or, in the case of Far and Away , pure

cornball). For the most part, his instincts for such do not undercut the grave

nature of the menacing crime depicted (except for occasionally awkward moments

of humor that would seem more at home in the morbid sensibilities of a Quentin

Tarantino flick than here), but the film does find itself partly undone by

another force: Not the director, but the Hollywood hype machine.

There needs to be a moratorium on any coming attractions or commercials that

seek to give away all the good parts of an upcoming motion picture. I know

show business and the bean counters want to create consumer awareness by

promoting their product, but I also imagine there will be long-term damage

done to the profitability of their motion pictures if they continue this

practice of divulging too much of a movie's content (ie, if I see that boy

gets girl during the commercial for a romantic comedy, then why would I pay to

go see the movie?).

Ransom boasts a fine cast that includes Gibson as the terrorized businessman

who will seek any means to get his son back; Russo (reunited with Gibson after

their pairing in the final Lethal Weapon offering, but under-used here) as his

distressed wife; Gary Sinise as a blue-collar New York City cop; and Delroy

Lindo as an FBI agent assisting the trauma-stricken family. They all gamely

invest themselves in this suspenseful brew, but the fact remains two of the

film's most intriguing plot twists (and I won't incriminate myself by naming

them, just in case there are folks out there who haven't seen the trailers

which spill the pivotal plot beans) are known to most viewers beforehand, thus

spoiling the shock value of the storyline's more fascinating inventions and

depriving audiences of the thrill of discovery.

Ransom , rated R for violence and profanity (definitely not for kids, nor the

weak-stomached parents), is a tense offering that still makes for diverting

viewing, but one wonders how much its potential impact was diminished by its

studio's overpromotion.