Tag Archives: Hostage

Ransom! Review

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With a title like this you know exactly what the movie is going to be about. It’s not trying to beat around the bush either and just gets you right into the action. The film revolves around a kid being held for ransom and how to deal with that. The writing is on point and the movie is engaging from start to finish so I certainly had no issues with it. It’s a compelling title all around.

The movie starts with Dave agreeing to help his son Andy out with this little fort he’s building. Dave will grab some supplies on the way home and will even be leaving work early to make sure it all works out. Well, he arrives home and Andy is late which Dave is a bit annoyed at. Gradually this grows into concern and when a call arrives saying that Andy was taken away to the doctor’s and the doctor denies this, Dave knows they have a problem on their hand. Sure enough, the thief calls in and demands a large sum of money for Andy’s return. Everyone quickly tells Dave to pay the ransom and he agrees that this makes sense but then he finds out from a local reporter and the police chief that paying the ransom may actually not help. In fact, it may just seal Andy’s death. So now what should Dave do?

I thought it was an interesting approach here about not paying the ransom and the logic made sense. Once the villain has the random money there is no reason for him to return the kid and until he gets it, there is more reason to keep the kid alive. Of course as the film makes sure to explain a lot, this can still go sideways no matter what you pick. So Dave has to be prepared for the consequences no matter what because if anything happens to Andy he will likely have a whole lot of regrets no matter what. If he doesn’t pay the ransom then everyone will pile on him afterwards and blame him for the full event.

Dave gives it a lot of thought in both options and the way he handled it was great. Basically he turns it around by using the money to threaten the kidnapper directly. If you’re not going to pay the ransom then this is absolutely the way to go about it. It would be difficult for the kidnapper not to get nervous after a point because that is a ton of money to throw around and naturally there are few people you can trust at that point in time. It was a way to turn the tables and considering that Dave had pretty much 0 support, it was a good testament to his character. He was ready to sacrifice everything in order to make the best pick for Andy’s safety.

His wife Edith wasn’t quite on board with this though. It’s a stressful time so you understand why she is panicking a lot but as a result she really does not look good at all here. Edith never takes time out to try and listen to the ideas or anything and just cracks immediately and has to be put under sedation a few times. It would have been nice if she was a little more supportive so Dave could have had someone backing him up. Ultimately she did him no favors here and ended up being the weakest character.

There’s also Jim who is the head of police and he seems reasonable up to a point before he chooses the wrong side. He was one of the first people to float the idea that providing ransom money isn’t a good idea but ultimately the politics of the whole thing gets to him and he tries to take that back. Ultimately he gets back on the saddle but it takes a little while.

As a result I was a much bigger fan of Charlie. Charlie’s a reporter and so he’s seen this play out many times before. He’s someone you would want to use as a reference for a huge decision like this. Nothing is 100% of course and he stresses this a lot but at least he is able to give Dave a fresh perspective. He doesn’t back out on him either. So Charlie has a solid character arc where he starts off as someone who is only interested in the story and gradually becomes someone that Dave can count on. Considering that he started off as someone that Dave nearly beat up, I’d say he did well for himself.

The movie keeps up the tension throughout the whole film really well. At no point is there a break in this and you can see the characters getting tired over time. After all the longer this goes on, the more time the characters have to keep on second guessing themselves. The villain never truly appears beyond a quick silhouette from time to time which worked out well enough. The villain isn’t really one of the main points of focus after all. This film is really about dealing with the kidnapping itself and the social pressure that is causes. So in a way the kidnapper himself is of a secondary concern.

The social aspect was also handled well like with how everyone said Dave should pay the ransom because that’s just how it’s done. They don’t talk about how this would be helpful and that’s why Dave starts to give this more thought. It’s always a good thing to do since you shouldn’t just do something because it’s always been done that way. I don’t doubt that the town may have fully attacked Dave at some point if things didn’t go over well. During the film we already started to see them get a little intense like throwing rocks through the window after all.

The film has a satisfying ending though and ultimately there’s a good amount of replay value here. It may sound like that wouldn’t be the case since the whole thing takes place pretty much inside the apartment with the characters talking a lot but the writing is very good from start to finish so it’s never an issue. It’s why good writing is so important since you need that to keep the movie interesting. If there are no big fight scenes or visuals then writing will suddenly become the most important aspect.

Overall, Ransom! is a very fresh take on the kidnapping plot. I can’t think of any other titles that went about it in this way where it focuses on how the parents handle this in terms of complying or choosing not too. A lot of the dynamics for the social plot would certainly be different in a modern setting and I’d be interested in seeing how that’s tackled as well. Naturally a kidnapping is a fairly dark plot in and of itself so you’ll need to be able to take that if you’re going to enjoy the film. It’s all handled in a classy manner though without getting too grim. It keeps up the tension but it’s all about the atmosphere which is the best way to do it. I would definitely recommend checking this film out, it was really quite interesting.

Overall 7/10

Buried Review

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This review is of the edited TV-14 version of the film. All thoughts below should be addressed as such as a review of the unedited version would be more negative
Being buried underground is definitely something that would be tough to deal with. In most situations if you’re stuck somewhere you figure that there has to be a way out. If you’re underground though then you’re really stuck. If you try punching your way out then the dirt will fall in and crush you. You have limited air so you can’t stay underground and going through the sides will have the same effect as going higher up. In a way your best bet is going down and hoping there’s some kind of tunnel but the odds of that are incredibly low. So…it’s a pretty tough situation to deal with.

The movie picks up with Paul waking up in a coffin underground. He is unable to escape and really has nowhere to go. The only items on him are a pen, glowstick, cell phone, knife, and a small carton of water. He will have to try and think of a way to get out here but it won’t be easy. He was a truck driver who went on a mission to Iraq in order to help people. Unfortunately his men were all shot and then he found himself here. The person holding him hostage says that he will only free Paul if he gets the guy millions of dollars by the end of the day. That’s going to be a hard sell but Paul will have to try and make some calls.

Now, usually in situations like this I say you can’t give in to the demands because they’re not going to save you anyway. Like in this film the guy tells Paul to make some videos and injure himself in the hopes of being let go. You feel like the guy is going to leave Paul to rot anyway so why give in to the demands right? If someone holds you at gun point and tells you to get into the car I’d say your best bet is to run. Worst thing that can happen is he shoots you like he was going to anyway after all.

This one is unique so Buried did a good job of limiting the options here. Paul is already buried when he wakes up so there is absolutely no escape for the reasons I mentioned in the intro. His only hope is making a phone call. To his credit, I can’t say that there are any things to really have been done differently. He calls a ton of people but he’s somewhere in Iraq and has no idea where. He’s underground as well so the odds of anyone finding him are pretty slim. His best chance is to keep on calling but that can get tiring.

The only thing I could call him out for was keeping his lighter on so much. That will definitely get rid of the air extremely quickly. It’s a high pressure situation of course but I’d like for him to have kept it off to at least buy himself some more time., He does tend to fly off the handle quite a bit as well. The people on the phone were usually not very helpful either.

This movie is very serious to be sure but there were a few callers that were so outlandish you almost felt like the film was trying to throw in a little humor. You had some people who couldn’t understand a fairly simple recount by Paul who was explaining how he got buried in here and then a lawyer calling him from Team Corporate with some bad news. There’s even a scene where as Paul is explaining things the screen keeps on zooming in on him. It felt like a parody moment but I suppose the idea was to show how many times he has to repeat the same exact story and each time nobody is very helpful. So that was definitely pretty intense.

Now, while I give the film points for originality and thinking of a new scenario, I have to take away points for almost the same reason. First of all, Paul is stuck in a coffin for the duration of the movie. That means there isn’t really anything happening for large portions of the story. It’s pitch black when he isn’t using the lighter or the phone. There’s a lot of time with him just rolling and trying to make a call to someone. As a result the film is very slow paced. It’s interesting but you can forget about it having any replay value.

Additionally, if I were the film I would have kept it as more of a suspense thriller and kept the hostage situation out of it. Things escalate once the calls start coming in and this becomes a much darker movie with the realization that Paul isn’t the only one in a predicament like this. The whole situation is out of his hands and just gets progressively worse and worse as the movie goes on.

Buried’s ending is also pretty awful. It was bad enough where the film nearly lost everything but I’ll keep it at a point for at least trying something new. I do think the idea is interesting but honestly it would be better with two people. They can be in separate coffins with walkie talkies or just a slightly bigger one but it would help for banter and dialogue. I don’t think you can really effectively have a film with just one person. The people on the phone help in terms of dialogue but it does get old very quickly.

With two people you can still have a whole lot of banter or at least the ability to bounce ideas off of each other. Otherwise you’re just too limited in what you can do and that’s something that happened to this film really quickly. If you threw Paul a bone like some kind of tangible hope he could grab onto that would be good but as you listen to the guys taking his calls you don’t expect he is in a great spot. If I were Paul I would have answered the corporate call very differently by the way. A bunch of well placed “No” answers would have really wrecked their plans at the very least.

As a main character Paul is good. He seems like a reasonable character who was just trying to do the right thing. Unfortunately he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and it ultimately ended up costing him big time. He really has to go through a lot during the movie and never really gets a chance to rest.

Overall, Buried has an interesting premise but I wasn’t a fan of the execution. The whole movie feels just like that…a slow execution. Paul is slowly watching as his time is running out with the air getting low and help always seeming so far away. Death by suffocation is definitely a really tough way to go. It’s not as bad as drowning in my list but it’s all relative once you get to the grisly deaths like that. He has to go through the whole movie with that fear in the back of his mind as he doesn’t know if he’ll live or not. Throw in the random snake, Terrorists, and having to watch other people die on the phone and you’ve pretty much got Paul under torture for the entire film. Buried isn’t a pleasant watch and I’d say to skip it until they announce some kind of reboot or remake which may be able to change things up and give you a better experience.

Overall 1/10