November 14–21, 1996

movie shorts

RANSOM

Mel Gibson plays Tom Mullen, a self-made union-busting multimillionaire airline mogul, with beautiful wife Kate (Rene Russo) and beautiful son Sean (Brawley Nolte, Nick's son). The movie gets down to business (which is, to get the kid kidnapped and tortured) almost immediately. The Mullens call the feds and go along with the idea to pay the $2 million ransom, mainly so Gibson can overact his heart out in the car as well as do some stunts. When Tom concludes that the feds are fuck-ups, he takes another approach, one of the "not gonna take it anymore" variety. That the film turns a guy as corrupt and wealthy as Donald Trump into a righteous action hero is twisted, to say the least. On top of its ugly class politics, the film delivers only cheap, formulaic thrills. Put it this way: do you have any doubt about the outcome?

— Cindy Fuchs

(AMC Andorra; AMC Olde City; AMC Orleans; Cinemagic; UA Cheltenham; UA Grant; UA Sameric; UA 69th St.; UA Ardmore; UA Baederwood)