Ransom

When airline magnate Tom Mullen's son is kidnapped, the film refuses the expected route. Instead of paying, Mullen goes on television and offers the ransom as a bounty on the kidnappers, dead or alive. From that point it stops being a rescue story and becomes a standoff neither side can back out of. Ron Howard directed. Mel Gibson leads, and Gary Sinise plays Jimmy Shaker, the corrupt New York detective running the kidnapping. The film's best idea is that the villain is the man on the inside. It is a remake of the 1956 film of the same name. Released on 8 November 1996, it grossed 309.5 million dollars worldwide against a 70 million budget, opened at number one with 34.2 million and finished as the seventh highest-grossing film of the year. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 73 percent with a consensus calling it a fiery thriller packed with hot-blooded performances and jolting twists. Roger Ebert gave it three stars and credited Gibson with an intelligent performance, and Gibson took a Golden Globe nomination. Who it is for: fans of nineties star thrillers and of moral gambles. Who it is not for: anyone who will find the last twenty minutes long. The film resolves its central conflict and then builds another one.