Perfect cast and a good story

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The acting in this movie is really good.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

'The Terrorists' or also known as elsewhere in the world as 'Ransom' as i recall it being titled from the television showing i watched many years ago, Sean Connery stars in this Co-Production as a Scandinavian police chief(in typical Connery tradition has a Scottish accent!) who is called in to end the terrorists siege at an airport carried out by a gang of suit-clad Englismhmen led by the charismatic Ian McShane. His mission is complicated further when a second hostage situation arises at the nearby residence of the British Ambassador. 'Ransom' is an enjoyable and well acted potboiler which sadly remains underrated but fear not as it is readily available on DVD.

I thought the story flowed nicely and as I watched it I had the feeling it may be one of those good sleepers I had missed in the past. Really most of the actors were weak...but Connery and especially McShane were good. I have to say the ending made no sense at all...and when that happens you wonder why you watched the movie. Did I miss something or were both Connery and McShane(Deadwood) after the same guy. If so why did they fight in the plane....I may have missed something but weren't they basically on the same side? Were the hijackers on the plane all working for the Britsh? Just an absolutely bad ending to a movie that actually had some potential.

Many critics have called the Sean Connery thriller Ransom a stinker. It's not all that good, but to label it as bottom-of-the-barrel rubbish is possibly a bit harsh.The story is old hat. It concerns a plane hijacking in Scandinavia, carried out by a gang of suit-clad Englismhmen led by the charismatic Ian McShane. Connery is introduced as a Scandinavian police chief (still with the familiar Scottish accent, however) who is hired to end the siege. His mission is complicated further when a second hostage situation arises at the nearby residence of the British Ambassador.The snowy landscapes fit nicely with the cold, cynical plot. There are infrequent tense sequences, such as the bit where a team of counter-terrorist soldiers make a bungled attempt to seize the aircraft. Connery and McShane have a few well played scenes in which they taunt and torment each other over the readio transmitter. The reason that the film fails to take off is that it is too low key, and suffers from a bad twist ending which renders the entire film a bit pointless. Too many of the scenes are flat, and Caspar Wrede (the director) doesn't get interesting performances out of any of the secondary characters.Not a full-on catastrophe, then, but not a great film either.

This film is also called The ransom, not to be confused with the mild action film with Mel Gibson.The film set in the Scandinavian country (called Scandinavia in the movie, while it is shot in Norway), the snow atmosphere and the heavily dressed characters somehow dictated the slowness of the pace in the movie. Nevertheless, it's exciting. The whole look is not your conventional Hollywood actioner, while at the same time deserves the same class as that of the late sixties/early seventies crime/caper movies like Bullit, French Connection, Taking Pelham One, Two and Three and Dirty Harry. Connery is fun to watch. He really adds to the atmosphere of the movie and the relatively tame climax looks good with his presence. Good movie. 7/10