Ransom: Special Edition (1996)

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General		Extras
Category	Thriller	Main Menu Audio & Animation Audio Commentary-Ron Howard (Director) Deleted Scenes-4 Featurette-What Would You Do? Featurette-Between Takes Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1996
Running Time	116:32
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (71:28)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Ron Howard
Studio Distributor	Walt Disney Studios Home Ent.	Starring	Mel Gibson Rene Russo Gary Sinise Delroy Lindo Lili Taylor
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$29.95	Music	James Horner

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English Spanish Spanish Titling English for the Hearing Impaired Finnish Swedish Norwegian Danish Spanish Audio Commentary Swedish Audio Commentary Norwegian Audio Commentary Danish Audio Commentary Finnish Audio Commentary	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Ransom came out theatrically back in 1996 and enjoyed good success at the box office. Ron Howard directed Ransom and Mel Gibson starred. Ironically, Mel went on to win Best Director himself that year for his own movie, Braveheart. I like Ron Howard and believe that as a director, he is getting better with each movie he makes. Anyone who has seen his latest movie, A Beautiful Mind, will know just how much he has matured as a director.

    Ransom tells the story of business tycoon Tom Mullen (Mel Gibson), who goes through every parent's worst nightmare when his son is kidnapped. Mullen and his wife (Rene Russo) receive the dreaded call from the kidnappers demanding a two million dollar ransom for the safe return of their son. Mullen agrees to the demands of the kidnappers and has the money  sitting in two large briefcases awaiting delivery to the kidnappers. The kidnappers have given him strict instructions that there is to be no police involvement in this matter or otherwise they will kill his son. Mullen is then given step-by-step instructions by the kidnappers en route to the drop-off about where he is going to deliver the money, but little does he know that the police are also tailing him and when he is just about to deliver the money all goes horribly wrong with a hail of gunfire from the police killing one of the kidnappers. Mullen now believes that all is lost and his son will be killed. He then receives another call from the kidnappers, giving him one last chance to deliver the money. En route to the second drop-off, Mullen decides to turn the tables on the kidnappers and goes public with the money as a bounty on the head of the kidnappers - he offers the money to anyone who can bring them to justice and bring his son home.

    Ransom is an action-packed thriller also starring Gary Sinise (Apollo 13), Lili Taylor (The Haunting) and Delroy Lindo.

Video

    The transfer of this movie is very good, although it is not without a few minor problems.

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is also 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer is clear and sharp, although some portions of the movie, in particular the early outdoor shots, look a little grainy. Shadow detail is also good but I felt that some of the blacks looked more like a dark grey which gave the picture a washed-out look in some scenes. Low level noise was not a problem.

    The colours in this transfer varied a lot. For instance, a few of the indoor scenes were very saturated and looked a bit overdone whereas some of the outdoor scenes, in particular early on in the movie, looked a little washed-out. Whether this was the intended look the director wanted I am not quite sure - it is many years since I saw this theatrically but I can almost remember the pale colour scheme in the cinema as well.

    There were no MPEG artefacts seen in this transfer, and aliasing was not a problem. Film artefacts were seen early on in the movie, but they were quite rare and so should not distract too much from the movie.

    This disc is RSDL-formatted, with the layer change placed at 71.28, right after Mel finishes a conversation with his wife. This layer change is well-placed and is not a distraction to the movie.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio transfer of this movie is good although not perfect.

    There are three audio tracks on this DVD. The first is an English Dolby Digital 5.1 track. The second is a Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 track, and the last is a director's commentary track provided by Ron Howard. I listened to both the English Dolby Digital track and the audio commentary track.

    The dialogue quality on this DVD was clear and easy to understand at all times but the one criticism I have with the dialogue was that on some occasions it seemed to wander between the front three speakers instead of coming solidly from the centre speaker.

    Audio sync was not a problem with this transfer and looked spot-on.

    The musical score by James Horner was very good. The music was very dynamic and helped heighten the tension of the movie.

    The surround channels were used in very limited fashion by this soundtrack, which is very surprising given that a lot of action is taking place on-screen during a fair portion of this movie.

    The subwoofer was used to good effect during the movie's action sequences. The bass is clear and deep in these scenes.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Director's Commentary

    This director's commentary is provided by Ron Howard and runs for the full length of the movie. It is informative and definitely worth a listen to.

Deleted Scenes (3.51)

    This is a collection of four deleted scenes running for a total of nearly four minutes. They are of reasonable quality and are presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, not 16x9 enhanced and with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio.

Documentary (13.16) - What Would You Do?

    This documentary is your typical lightweight fluff piece with interviews with the cast and crew as well as some on-the-set footage. It is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and is of good quality. It is accompanied by a Dolby Digital 2.0 audio track.

Between Takes (3.59)

    This is a collection of very brief shots of goings-on between takes. A couple of them are actually quite funny and worth a look. This is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, is not 16x9 enhanced and comes with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio.

International Theatrical Trailer (1.04)

    The trailer for this movie is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and is not 16x9 enhanced. It is accompanied by Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded audio.

    The Region 4 version of this DVD misses out on;

• Nothing

    The Region 1 version of this DVD misses out on;

• 16x9 enhancement
• Director's Commentary
• Documentary - What Would You Do?
• Deleted Scenes
• Between Takes featurette
• Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack.

    Clearly the choice here is to stick with the Region 4 disc as it is markedly superior to the Region 1 equivalent.

    For me, Ransom is a very good movie, and although the movie is now six years old it does not show any signs of ageing.

    The video quality is very good.

    The audio quality is good.

    The extras are very good and certainly satisfactory.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall