Rating: 
Summary: Splendid!
Review: I have seen this movie countless times and I expect to watch it countless times more. If you have the DVd edition then you also get a detailed commentary by the director which, in my opinion, really adds to one's understanding of the movie and why it was made. It is based on the real-life kidnap experience of a westerner in Colombia. It is a fascinating look into the life of kidnap and ransom experts. This film has something for everyone - drama, suspense, just enough action to stop it becoming a war-film, and even a little romance, or the hint of it. What I really like about this movie is that there is no sex scene. I am sure that a lot of reviewers would have condemned this film for not having one, but I commend the director for not putting one in (actually there was one made for it but due to the real life relationshop between Ryan and Russal at the time, it was thought that it was in bad taste). You don't need to have a sex scene to pander to the audience and, after all, what is so wonderful about adultery anyhow??? I'm no prude. If you want sex then go buy an XXX movie, but know that it doesn't haveto be there in a main stream movie to make it an all time great!
Rating: 
Summary: Proof of love please
Review: I won't sum up the plot for you as others have but just have a few comments. I enjoyed the action, the tension of the hostage situation and all the acting was great. But I wish in the beginning they had made Alice's husband a little nicer fellow. He was pretty much a jerk to her and then when he's gone we're supposed to feel like she's tragically missing him? I think Russell Crowe's character was a better man to her. Not to say a wife in that situation should dump her kidnapped husband, but I would have cheered their reunion at the end more if their relationship in the beginning had been more heartfelt.
The location of the movie, Ecuador, is amazing!! The photography was awesome and don't miss the closing credits with aerial views of the country and beautiful Van Morrison song. Breathtaking! Overall, really worth seeing this movie.
Rating:
Summary: The only thing that makes this movie worth seeing is Russell
Review: Russell Crowe is what I call a Velvita actor. Because just like the cheese, You can take something that isnt worth a sqwaut and put him in it and Viola! its suddenly edible. So as for this movie standing on its own two feet without Russ, well, lets not go there. The only reason I even watched this movie was to drool over his hot bod and lets not forget those sexy "come and seduce me" eyes!!! I know Im supposed to be reviewing this movie but lets face it.... Russell IS the movie. But I will give some details on it for the people who havnt seen it yet and might be over-expecting. Russell piays a hostage negotiater who is tring to help Meg Ryan (uncharacteristically bad acting on Ryans part)
get her husband out of the grasps of some rauther seedy terrorists and fight off the lust bug they have for each other at the same time. Its just not believible. she's willing to pay [$$$] for a hotdog when she could have a T-Bone for free. Now that's insanity!!! So, to sum it up: 20 south american thugs, 15 missed opportunities to get in russell's pants, 10 "come and get it" looks from Russ, 2 people who will be compleatly misurable unless they get it on, 1 bossy sis-in-law and 1 kiss + 0 sex = Proof of Life. And the ending is just too awful to mention. But other than that, Good Eye Candy for R.C. fans.
Rating: 
Summary: You may need to watch it twice...!!
Review: ...because I had to watch it twice to get the "proof" that is wasn't just a nightmare. Look, those of you who liked the movie, please don't get angry. I know how mad I get when someone lets the air out of a movie I love. But, this movie needs some opposition. I was content to keep my mouth shut... I pinched my lips together when otherwise I would have been up on a soap box petitioning this trash. Ouch, what a flick.BUT! A big but. I love nearly every actor in this movie. They have all managed to find their way's into my top favorite movies. (Ex. Green Mile, Beautiful Mind, City of Angels) Unfortunately though, this movie rubbed me the wrong way. Saying this movie is great is like saying opie doesn't have freckles. (Pardon, Mr. H) Meg Ryan plays a woman who is insecure about her marriage. Why this? Her husband (David Morse (Hearts in Atlantis) - a.k.a. awesome actor in everything he does) is a captured dam builder. The Latino army sees his dam operation as a nuisance. Russell Crowe (a.k.a. cool as peanut butter in everything he does) hop's on the scene to woo the unfortunate. That's about it. Some decent action is the only thing that makes this worth your time. The romance is not only shabby, it doesn't happen. There is only some minor friction. True Lies* would be a good substitute for this. Not even for the die-hard's. Your's respectfully. s.a.o.s.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Entertaining
Review: Meg Ryan's husband is working as an engineer in a ficticious Latin American Country. He is working on building a power plant out in the jungle, right in the middle of an area where cocaine is grown. He is kidnapped by gueirellas. Years ago the guerellas had a political agenda. They sold cocaine to finance their army. Now theire only agenda is to make money from selling cocaine. Russell Crowe plays a risk management consultant specializing in very high risk hostage negotioations. His job is to rescue Meg Ryan's husband. In the end, I wished for more resolution between Russell Crowe and Meg Ryan.
Rating:
Summary: what is the big deal about russell crowe?
Review: Proof of Life: Meg Ryan portrays the dutiful wife to David Morse, an engineer
assigned to build a dam in some South American province. Unfortunately the
company he works for is being bought up by some multi-national oil
conglomerate and people are being fired left and right. There is added
tension between the two because of something that keeps being brought up
concerning their time in Africa.
After a particularly nasty fight, Morse's character leaves early one morning
and is stopped in a traffic jam. Suddenly gun shots are heard and men
literally start running down the side of the mountain. People are being
thrown out of their cars and herded hastily across a bridge. It seems that
the local revolutionary group has just kidnapped themselves a bunch of
hostages. Upon investigation they discover who Morse's parent company is
and send him back up into the mountains as they feel they have a prime prize
now.
Back home, the parent company's insurance holder sends in their resident
Kidnap and Rescue negotiator, a stalwart ex-military type, played by Russell
Crowe. Crowe begins negotiations with the revolutionaries only to have his
card pulled when his company finds out that the parent company has dropped
the original company and nobody will be there to pay the bills. After a
particularly harsh exchange with Ryan, Crowe leaves the scene only to have a
change of heart and return to work the gig on his own. Apparently the looks
between them as he negotiated the release of her husband have perked some
interest.
Crowe recruits some old friends of his and they finally track down the
revolutionaries. The finale is a beautifully filmed rescue scene with some
high powered action kicked in to boot.
I have mixed feelings on this one. The action sequences are great.
Unfortunately they are few and far between. Crowe did a pretty good job but
Meg Ryan was horribly miscast. She is nowhere near as tough as her
character acted so some of the lines came across rather silly. The best
acting came from the husband, David Morse's character. He conveyed
brilliantly the intense desire to be free so that he could return to the
only thing keeping him going, his love for his wife.
Obviously there is a great deal of controversy associated with this film in
that it seems to have been behind the breakup of Ryan and Dennis Quaid.
Ryan and Crowe have long since broken up and it could be they discovered
what the movie so aptly showed, no chemistry whatsoever. I do have to admit
that I was also a bit ticked at her somehow falling for Crowe's character at
the same time they show her husband desperately struggling to stay alive for
her.
Still...all in all...it's a decent enough rental
Rating:
Summary: Great story line, not so great acting
Review: It pains me to write this,since I am a huge fan of Russell Crowe. His acting was great, as usual, but what is with Meg Ryan? She is so stiff and unrealistic! It looks like she was on a "Saturday Night Live" episode! The story line was good, but I just didn't get the attraction between the characters. One minute they're just kind of standing next to each other, the next minute they're kissing! It's almost as if there was no lead up to the feelings they felt for each other. I will watch it again because I could watch a movie with Russell Crowe just standing on a front porch or something, but I think Meg Ryan is better cast in her romantic comedy roles.
Rating:
Summary: Intense!
Review: I just had a brief comment. This is another great Russell Crowe movie, who just seems to get better (if possible) with each new flick. Crowe has to be one of the best actors currently working, in an era when we don't seem to have the same kind of great screen actors and actresses of past eras. Rather, in recent years we seem to have artificially hyped and pumped up celluloid pseudo-greats with no real substance, and often, no real acting ability. In the midst of this it's refreshing to have at least one actor of Crowe's ability around. Having said that, I must say I do like Meg Ryan, and she and Crowe make a great on-screen pair here, as she turns in a fine performance herself as the wife of the kidnapped engineer and dam builder. I won't go much into the plot, as others here have already done so, except to say that the movie, once it gets going (and it gets off to a quick start) is an intense, powerful, interesting, and believeable drama from beginning to end. All in all a fine movie. Big Steve says go see it and don't "Bogart" the popcorn.
Rating:
Summary: Commercialism wins out over reality...
Review: My Spanish students reccommended that I watch this movie because I used to live and teach in Colombia. I watched it and was enraged that the fictional "ELT" was said to have no politics except for earning money. Also, that the guerilla were portrayed as bad people. The guerilla, in general, are people who are against imperialism because it has destroyed their country. Colombia produces drugs because it is the only true cash crop that can be grown since the US has flooded the market with cheaper goods from the U.S. Subsistence farming in Colombia is nil.
A good movie to watch which is based in reality is Missing with Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek, based on facts surrounding the coup in Chile in the early 70s.
Proof of life is an ok movie for entertainment purposes, but I would not recommend it for anyone who wants to learn something about what is really happening in Colombia, which the fictional Tecala is clearly based on.
Rating:
Summary: Good Old Fashioned Entertainment! Intense!
Review: This movie was engrossing and fun to watch! The characters were totally believable and intense to watch - and I was ready to disbelieve it, and them, at each turn because of the wrong-headed critics. Very entertaining! If you're an average movie buff, you won't be disappointed by this flick. It's got believable bad guys, entertaining and flawed heros, gorgeous locales, and an interesting, multi-layered story. The love story isn't so much a love story as it is a character study of two people going through an intense and emotional period. It is completely believable how the situation dictates not love but, and I'll use the word again, very intense feelings. That kiss was such a release you could almost taste it yourself. Buy this movie - you won't be disappointed if you let it carry you away.
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