by phil curtolo mel gibson ( braveheart ) gave a gripping performance as the father of a young kidnapped boy in ron howard 's ransom .
gibson plays tom mullen , a wealthy business tycoon whose past actions are coming back to haunt him as a deranged psychopath , played by gary sinise ( forrest gump ) , and his band of low - life thugs kidnap his only son for $ 2 million .
tom and his wife , kate , played by rene russo ( tin cup ) were instructed not to inform the police , but they contacted the fbi .
minutes later , an elite team of agents led by delroy lindo ( broken arrow ) are in tom 's house and wiring every phone .
the plot sounds average , just like most other kidnap movies that you 've already seen , and it was nothing more than that .
that is until about half - way through the movie .
suddenly , tom goes to the fox 5 news room and makes a live broadcast saying , " this is your ransom .
but this is as close as you will ever get to it .
instead , i am offering this money as a reward on your head , dead or alive .
" at this point , the plot thickened , and the unusually slow start of the film turned into a suspense - filled action film with great stunts .
the last half of the film is very well done .
another thing that carries this film are the superb performances by gibson and sinise , as they collide in a game of wits over their cellular phones for most of the movie .
owen gleiberman of entertainment weekly commented on the subject : " it makes you wonder what kidnappers did before cell phones .
" before this movie , sinise played mostly " good guys , " first in of mice & men , then in forrest gump , and most recently , in apollo 13 . but he was surprisingly devilish and cold in his portrayal of a cop - gone - bad .
gibson , of course , was just being gibson , in an oscar - worthy performance .
although most of the scenes were quite predictable , ransom is a very entertaining and suspenseful film . ,
superb performances a very entertaining and suspenseful he was surprisingly devilish the plot thickened very well done an oscar - worthy performance a suspense - filled action great stunts a gripping performance