Hostage

[MacGuffin]

Trailer here.

Release Date: January 21, 2005 (wide)

Director: Florent Emilio Siri (English-language debut)

Cast: Bruce Willis, Kevin Pollack, Ben Foster, Jonathan Tucker, Serena Scott Thomas, Marshall Allman, Michelle Horn, Jimmy Bennett, Rumer Willis

Screenwriter: Robert Crais (from his novel), Doug Richardson

Premise: Jeff Talley, a former LAPD hostage negotiator, has moved himself away from his failed career outside of Los Angeles, and away from his wife and daughter. When a convenience store robbery goes wrong in his turf, the three perpetrators move in on an unsuspecting family. But the family's father has a secret which might compromise his kin, and one of the criminals is about to jump over the edge. Jeff Talley has to get everybody to survive the night... if he can.

[pete]

panic hard.

[Jeremy Blackman]

This is a good hostage movie...

NON-NEGOTIABLE SPOILERS

The plot is crap, and Kevin Pollak's character twist at the end is pretty stupid, but it's definitely well-made.

The tension is good, and the guy who plays Mars is sufficiently creepy.

It's too bad though... they really could have gone places with the redneck vs. rich guy thing. Especially because it has a "who's the real criminal?" revelation.

Bruce Willis was okay, but it's really obnoxious when he does that macho squinting smile thing.

[Tommy Both]

He was funny on Conan last night.. haha
that segment with chuck norris rules.

[modage]

apologies in advance for posting such trash...

MIXED-AGE GROPE
(from imdb)

March 10, 2005 -- ACTION hero Bruce Willis (above) got some action of a different kind after the screening of his new blood-and-guts flick, "Hostage." At an after-after-party at the Peninsula Hotel early yesterday, Willis, who turns 50 this month, and teen queen Lindsay Lohan, 18, enjoyed a mutual gropefest. "At one point, Bruce had Lindsay's pants down far enough to reveal a tattoo that said 'La Bella Vista' (The Beautiful View) on her right cheek," says our spywitness. Eventually, Willis and a few friends, including Lohan, took the party upstairs to his suite.

[Stefen]

they should make a shitty porno together. Hostage: The Love Bug.

[MacGuffin]

"Brilliantly combines Tarantino and Hitchcock!" - Andy Jones, AMC

[Ravi]

Sounds kind of like the first season of 24.

That grope-fest thing, if true, is extremely disturbing.

[Sleuth]

He was funny on Conan last night.. haha
that segment with chuck norris rules.

hey you're not the dude from WWW.CONOLOGUE.COM are you?

[NEON MERCURY]

i guess willis is trying to top demi and go younger.  thats kind of sick.  sometimes i take out trash at work and i have to take out the women's restroom trash wich is gross.  there was a maxi-pad filled with hard crusty red stuff.  it made me sick.  then it made we wanna puke.  thats gross.  i thought about picking it up and giving it to someone but.....

anyway, lohans hot but..shes also stupid and trashy b/c of her defunct music career and "le bella vista"

[Gamblour.]

i guess willis is trying to top demi and go younger.  thats kind of sick.  sometimes i take out trash at work and i have to take out the women's restroom trash wich is gross.  there was a maxi-pad filled with hard crusty red stuff.  it made me sick.  then it made we wanna puke.  thats gross.  i thought about picking it up and giving it to someone but.....

anyway, lohans hot but..shes also stupid and trashy b/c of her defunct music career and "le bella vista"

2+2=wtf?

Say wha?

[ono]

Gamblor, meet NEON.  NEON, Gamblor.  That is just the tip, it is.

[Gold Trumpet]

You know you're small town when a Bruce Willis action flick takes two months to get to your theater.

I'm the eternal Bruce Willis fan, plus this is the type of action film I love, so it was an easy purchase for me. These actions films are the most humble. Its the gradual build up to an explosian, an inch by inch progression of a situation that starts out simple but through complications gets entangled. Whats best, the cliche for this type of film is so identifiable. Most actions films are their own versions of melodramas. They have little to no reality anywhere that when proclamations of the profound are attempted, no one minds because no one believed anything in the movie anyways. Any talk of realism is mainly talk of the film's decor.

This type of action film, though, can be sincere. Not only is the set up usually simple, but the functional use of showing action gradually can have a decent sense of realism. But, the films usually fail in the end. Cliche will step in and too many plot twists are thrown into the fray that believability is in question. Hostage never really gets past those cliches. As I was watching the film, I was really was involved with the story's premise. I also loved the room Willis was given to bring a sense of decent acting to the role. Then the Hostage situation and structural problems like an emotional meltdown between Willis and the kid over the phone that came too early. Then the sense they were touching too many bases too quickly with the options of what the Hostage problem presented. Then too many plot twists and from that, a sense of the characters being too one dimensional. Really telling these stories is a juggling act of how to balance out so many elements in a story that really is very simple. I recommend everyone watch Kurosawa's High and Low for the rule book to this genre.

And yet with Hostage, I liked the film. With every fault it did have, it was really well made. The director allowed for more room than usual with the actors to improvise emotion. The camera tricks played well to progress the story without interferring. As good as Die Hard was for this type of movie, John McTiernan really botched a lot of the shots. The Hunt for The Red October is really his only exemplary film in having the film edited to a consistent and effective style. The tension is the film is well done that its only hindering really is the lackluster story.

I care enough about this film because the director and writer will likely reteam with Willis for Die Hard 4. Willis has enough in Hostage to be proud of, but when ideas are being thrown around that fourth version of Die Hard will involve a main role to be played by McClane's son, I have some major fears about the writing and it not getting too silly. We'll see.

[meatball]

Its the gradual build up to an explosion

I agree. Some movies are a lot like pornography. You shouldn't love 'em, but they just feel so good.

[AntiDumbFrogQuestion]

P.