Full-throttle kidnapping thriller, with sufficiently neck-wrenching zigs and zags. The pivotal zig (or zag) is the underdiscussed decision to turn the two-million-dollar ransom into a two-million-dollar reward: a tempting carrot for the criminal turncoat. Mel Gibson, perhaps setting his sights on the Best Actor Oscar after salting away the Best Director (in other words, he cries), is allowed into too much of the action as the fat-cat father of the kidnappee, while the very cool and smooth Delroy Lindo, as the FBI man, is allowed into too little of it (in other words, the movie is strictly a star vehicle). Gary Sinise, as the bad cop, delivers a startling smash to the windpipe in addition to a poetic metaphor drawn from the Eloi and the Morlocks of H.G. Wells's The Time Machine. What he is getting at with that metaphor is a rough equivalent to the titular metaphor of Kurosawa's kidnapping thriller, High and Low: equally poetic but, in its visualization on screen, infinitely more cinematic. With Rene Russo and Lili Taylor; directed by Ron Howard. (1996) — Duncan Shepherd
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