OneEightNine Media Yeah, this is a throwaway thriller from back in the days but it aged well. It is about a rich guy who's son gets kidnapped and held for ransom. But the tables turn when the rich guy offers the ransom as a bounty. Mel Gibson makes this movie work. His intensity and high- level acting pushes what should have been an average thriller over the top. Would I not recommend hunting this film down just to watch it but if it was on television and you had nothing better to do, it is a relatively good waste of time.

Python Hyena Ransom (1996): Dir: Ron Howard / Cast: Mel Gibson, Rene Russo, Gary Sinise, Delroy Lindo. Lili Taylor: Misfiring action thriller that boarders on being clever but substitutes revealing information and a climax where violence is overused. Title regards a kidnapped boy but it is his father who has something to hide thus making him as much a prisoner. Mel Gibson stars as a former fighter pilot who now owns an airline but he is under investigation for bribing union officials. F.B.I advise him to pay the ransom but he offers a reward for his son's return instead. Directed with detail by Ron Howard with a realistic touch to the operation but this doesn't place well against his superior films such as Apollo 13 and The Paper. Gibson plays a man who is desperate yet smart. He is given the one role worth its salt until its action oriented third act. Rene Russo plays his frustrated wife who is totally brainless when she shows up at a location after being summoned by the kidnappers and is threatened. Gary Sinise as a corrupt cop would make a great villain but perhaps had the film saved that information for the third act as oppose to revealing it in the first thus leaving nothing left. Delroy Lindo leads the ransom operation, which is standard issue material. Lili Taylor plays one of Sinise's one dimensional accomplices. Theme regards the issue of ransom and measures taken. Score: 6 ½ / 10

InterlinkKnight Great story and well executed. Acting was all I could expect. Action was great too.I read someone didn't like the happy ending. At least me, I do like happy endings, or at least feel that everything make sense, or have a reason to tell the story. Was satisfactory ending. All I can ask for.I try to be very strict on movies. Want realism, action with meaning, interesting stories with good execution, good editing, good effects, good acting, etc. On this case I just can't say anything bad about this movie. Maybe a little sad, but you can expect that from a ransom.If you want drama and action, you should like it. Maybe not the best movie, but very satisfactory to watch. I watch it 3 times, and still plan watch it again in the future.

SnoopyStyle Tom Mullen (Mel Gibson) is a wealthy businessman who may have some darker methods. He has a loving wife Kate (Rene Russo) and a son who gets kidnapped. The kidnappers demand $2M. Tom calls in the FBI. Something goes wrong when the FBI crashes in on the money drop. The reporters are now following the story. When the kidnappers try again for the ransom, Tom changes the game plan. Instead of giving $2M to the criminals, he goes on TV to offer the money as bounty for the kidnappers' heads.This is a Ron Howard directed movie. It is functionally made. There is something about Mel Gibson and/or his character that makes him unlikeable. I don't know if it's the union bribe that is hinted at right from the start, or the intensity that he gives off even to his son. He's like a guy with a mean streak trying desperately to show that he's just a nice guy. There is something offputting with Mel Gibson's overwrought acting in this. Same thing goes for the story. There is just something wrong with it. The FBI is hanging out at his apartment and following him in those FBI jackets. There is a lack of intensity. The story is kinda of scattered. And there are things about the kidnapping, payoff, then plan change that doesn't make sense. Maybe crime drama is just not in Ron Howard's wheelhouse.