It was late Tuesday afternoon when I received a phone call from the partner saying she would be home late because after work she was going to visit members of her family. So I decided it would be a perfect opportunity for me to rent a couple of DVDs I knew she would never watch so off I trot to my local video store.

After searching around for a good Ten minutes I couldn’t seem to find anything I would even debate watching, I’m on very friendly terms with the staff at the store (Due to the fact I have worked there in the past) and asked for an opinion on something I should watch, to which the reply was “ Why don’t you give Proof Of Life a go”, having seen the trailers in the cinema just before its release I decided I may as well give it a shot. My lord how I wish I hadn’t.

Warning this Op is rather large.

Overview Of The Film

The film masquerades itself as an action/thriller but this is really not the case. The beginning of the film introduces us to Terry Thorne a K&R (Kidnap and Rescue) consultant who is just finishing up on a rescue mission, the opening fight scene actually showed some promise and also shows us the Terry is a tough intelligent ex SAS man who does what he has too to get the job done.

We then cut to the fictional city of Tecala, which is supposedly in South America; this is where we meet Peter and Alice Bowman a couple who are going through a real rough patch in their marriage and things go from bad to worse when while on his way to work Peter is mistakenly Kidnapped, the reason being that the terrorists believe he works for a large Oil company by the name of Octonel, who are in the process of building a large structure through the terrorists drug fields, when in reality he is working for a subdivision that is really building a dam to save the city folk from major flooding.

This of course brings Terry Thorne into play who is hired by Peters’ firm to oversee the ransom demands, but when the company discovers they are no longer insured for such events Terry has to leave the case much to Alice’s’ dismay. But of course this wouldn’t be Hollywood if the hero didn’t return out of the kindness of his heart to help the beautiful damsel in distress.

The rest of the film cuts between the whole negotiation process between Terry and the terrorists and Peters plight in the hostage camp, With the finale being a show down between the K&R forces and the terrorists. I could go into more detail but I feel that would spoil the ending.

My Qualms With The Film

The first real problem for me here is at the beginning of the film when we first meet Peter and Alice Bowman to be perfectly honest they just don’t seem like a couple at all, now I know this is what the director was trying to pull off, after all they even slipped the obligatory women loses baby relationship falls apart spiel in with the hope of adding depth to the characters, but to no avail.

Second is Peter himself, after being forced into a van with a bunch of other hostages and threatened with machine guns he still takes it upon himself to be the tough guy, shouting at terrorists demanding pictures of his wife among other things. Now I’m sorry but if you have just been kidnapped by a hoard of men wearing camo and wielding AK47s the last thing you would do is go “ No I won’t go in the hut until you give me my spoon”. This is an attempt to make it seem that Peter is a strong willed person when in fact it comes across as being completely unrealistic. This in turn makes you wish that the terrorists would just stick his damm spoon well I’ll let you finish that one :)

And then we have Alice this is something that really bugged me about the film, Alice has little to no characteristics other than she lost a child she seems bitter and she of course falls for the man who is helping her rescue her husband. Why Meg Ryan decided this would be a wise role for her is beyond me.

My forth was Peters sister Janis played appallingly by Pamela Reed; she is just a terrible character with which the only redeeming feature being that she only defiles the screen for about a third of the film.

Then comes David Caruso’s character Dino, he is just a typical sidekick kind of roll on his on mission that just happens to cross over with his old friends Terry’s mission. Again this is the kind of character you just wish would get shot within the first 2 minutes of meeting him.

And as for the way too obvious Meg and Russell attraction, the film has no structure, as it is so to throw that into the mix was a terrible decision. And don’t get me started on the kiss scene.

The fact that Terry Thorne has a son, this was a pointless piece of information that as with the whole attraction story really should have been binned. You don’t care that he has a son it just shows that they really tried to fit every cliché in the book into the film.

The fact that there is no real bad guy in the film we just have a group of men and women who you don’t grow to hate mainly because we hardly see them. This film really needed a villain maybe the head of the gang someone you could grow to dislike but instead they opt for bad guys who arose no emotions out of the audience at all.

It is way too long Taylor Hackford must have believed that making the film just over 2 hours would give him enough time to develop characters and make us really care about them. When the truth of the matter is that the characters are so bad you just don’t really care whether they get shot or win the lottery.

The Good Points

There is really only one and that is Russell Crowe, although his character is naff he still shines through and you do believe that he could handle himself in any situation. And when the end credits finally hit the screen.

The Main Players

Russell Crowe: Terry Thorne

Meg Ryan: Alice Bowman

David Morse: Peter Bowman

Pamela Reed: Janis Goodman

David Caruso: Dino

Written By Tony Gilroy

Music By Danny Elfman

Produced By Taylor Hockford And Charles Mulvehill

Directed By Taylor Hockford

The Disc

The disc is the region 2 format with the film being displayed in wide screen with the film duration being 129 minutes, it is also a 15 certificate.

DVD Features

Please Note: As I have explained above this was rented from my local store so retail extras may differ. If in doubt check the box before you buy.

Cast And Crew

This was a real disappointment for me it basically just lists all the actors and certain members of the crew and that’s it there is no other information on here, no in-depth biographies on anyone a real shame.

The Making Of Proof Of Life

This is a short 15 minute documentary about guess what yes that’s right the making of the film, there are interviews with all the main players of the film including director Taylor Hackford as well as real K&R consultants. Not a bad attempt but could have been better.

Director’s Commentary

As I have expressed in past opinions I really love it when films come with commentary on for me it really adds to the life of the disc. Here we have Taylor Hackford doing his best to describe what he was trying to achieve.

Trailer

This is again a very standard 2-minute trailer that you no doubt witnessed at your local cinema, nothing really new here but nice to have all the same.

Final Note

This is such a bad film I could hardly believe it, I can only compare it to the George Clooney film The Peacemaker, they both have a few good points but they are far outweighed by the bad. The acting by everyone other the Crowe is atrocious and with no character depth whatsoever this will certainly be in the bargain bin before long.

I would warn everyone out there who enjoys a good action/thriller to stay well clear of this as it will only frustrate and annoy. Not a good film at all.

I apologise about the length of this Op but there are so many bad points to this film I just had to vent my frustration, Thank You if you made it all the way through.