HOSTAGE A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2005 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ** 1/2
HOSTAGE is a psychological crime drama told in an over-the-top but generally enjoyable fashion by director Florent Emilio Siri, who likes his music and his explosions loud and often. It stars that ever-present action hero, Bruce Willis, who repeats the same type of character he must have played a thousand times before.
This time Willis's name is Jeff Talley. Jeff is a legend in the L.A.P.D. after seven years as the chief hostage negotiator. After losing two people on his watch, a burned out Jeff leaves to become the chief of police in a small town in which every day is a "low crime day." Of course, this will all change, and Jeff will again have a family in jeopardy and their lives hanging precariously in his hands.
Three joy riding teens, who turn out really to be two mad dog killers and a brother very reluctantly along for the ride, take an ultra wealthy family hostage. The head of this motherless family is a father (Kevin Pollak) who turns out to be a bad guy himself. Most of the movie is deadly serious and pretty intriguing, although it suffers from the problem of one twist too many. There is one especially funny joke about eBay -- the source of much movie humor these days -- which really cracked me up. Up until the ending, I thought I would be able to give a mild recommendation to HOSTAGE. But the end, which manages to rip off ALIENS as well as every other cheesy crime drama ever made, was just too much for me.
HOSTAGE runs 1:42. It is rated R for "strong graphic violence, language and some drug use" and would be acceptable for teenagers.
The film is playing in nationwide release now in the United States. In the Silicon Valley, it is showing at the AMC theaters, the Century theaters and the Camera Cinemas.
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