Year:
2000
Studio: Warner Brothers/
Castle Rock Entertainment/
Bel Air Entertainment
Movie: 4/5
DVD:
4/5
Alice Bowman (Meg Ryan) and her husband Peter (David Morse) are in the
fictional South American country of Tecala where Peter is head engineer
at a dam project. One day Peter is kidnapped by ELF rebels who demand
$5 million for his release. Normally, companies have insurance for such
eventualities but Peter's company is in financial trouble and let their
insurance lapse.
Alice is in trouble and she turns to Terry Thorne (Russell Crowe) for
help. Actually, Terry works for a K&R company (Kidnap and Rescue)
and although he is told that he can't get involved because of the lack
of insurance, he is moved by Alice's situation and comes back to help
her.
It's a very long process of negotiation to get Alice's husband back.
Meanwhile Peter is experiencing a lot of bad things being moved around
and generally abused by the rebels. As for Alice, she and Terry may
have this attraction developing, mostly because it is a prolonged and
tense situation and people tend to cling to each other in such cases.
There is lots of drama leading to the climax of the movie as Terry and
other mercenaries raid the rebel camp to free Peter. This is my
favorite section of the movie because the whole infiltration and
exfiltration from the rebel camp is done well and is pretty realistic.
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Director/producer
Taylor Hackford does the commentary track. This film was made in
Ecuador using a lot of South American actors and Hackford made sure to
name each one and which country they were from (which is good since I
woudln't have guessed that so many actors where from Peru). Hackford
has a lot of enthusiasm for the movie, explains the backstory elements
that viewers may have missed, and is very knowledgeable about South
America and the whole K&R business.
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