The Negotiator (1998)

A lot of fun.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Blistering performances.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

This is a tense, exciting suspense thriller, one of those rare gems which turns up every few years or so to be forgotten by mainstream audiences and which is yet loved by all those who have seen it. This near-perfect film has a lengthy running time but never outstays its welcome, and comes across as a mixture of DIE HARD and DOG DAY AFTERNOON. In many scenes the tension is worked up to breaking point as things get more and more out of hand as time progresses.Excellent performances also help to add to the entertainment level here, especially from Samuel L. Jackson as the negotiator turned hostage taker. Jackson is charismatic and likable in this particular role and has the viewer rooting for him throughout. Likewise, Kevin Spacey turns up and lends his usual cool charm to the proceedings, delighting in opportunities for his character to lose his temper at intervals and go off his rocker. A nice supporting case also flesh out supporting roles, including the ever-dependable David Morse, and the fantastic J. T. Walsh, whose last film this was, unfortunately.There are a couple of hi-octane action sequences on occasion which appear to be a little cheesy, but this is mainly a thriller full of taut dialogue, loads and loads of plot twists, and characters who may or may not be as innocent as they first appear. I defy anybody to sit through this without getting engrossed in the expertly-crafted story and sucked into the situation. It's definitely one of my favourites of the decade.

(Un)spoiler #1 : hero is negotiator in a tense hostage situation. So it will be either cliché # 1a : it turns good, hero remains hero and will have serious problems afterward but still wins at the end cliché # 1b : it turns bad. ex-hero will need rest of the the movie to redeem himself, wins at the end, but perhaps dying in the processBingo! It's cliché 1a, at least first part(Un)spoiler #2 : hero is informed of some kind of conspiracy by his partner. So it will be either cliché # 2a: partner is going to die sooncliché # 2b: no cliché # 2b availableSurprise: It's cliché # 2a(Un)spoiler #3 : partner asks hero to rejoin him at some nowhere in the middle of the nightSo cliché 2a rejoins cliché 1a : hero will be framed for partner's killingNow hero becomes hostage taker, an other negotiator is called on and the movie can drag and drag and drag and drag and drag and drag and drag and drag and drag and drag, and include some stupid scene with the hero's annoying woman and drag and drag and drag and drag and drag and drag with more clichés on the way (faking an hostage killing for example and drag and drag and drag and dragand eventually come to a stereotyped happy end, including comeback on screen of that annoying womanBut when you look at recent movies, this one has at least some technical qualities. Competent actors, no CGI and no shaking cameras

The Negotiator is directed by F. Gary Gray who also directed Friday and Set It Off comes The Negotiator. Now unlike Friday and Set It Off which were deemed Box Office Sucsesses earning more than there budget back, The Negotiator was a Box Office Failure failing to bring back 6 million dollars from it's budget. The budget was $50,000,000 and it only brought back $44,000,000, which is a shame because this was a great film.The film tells the story of Danny Roman played by Samuel L. Jackson whose job is to be a hostage negotiator. One day he is framed by the police for embezzlement and murder. Upset with being wrongly framed Roman takes hostages to get to the bottom of what happened. He meets fellow hostage negotiator Chris Sabian played by Kevin Spacey who walks Danny through everything. Pretty soon the clock starts running out and Danny must choose a fate between Life and Death.This is a great movie that threw me for a loop even at times I didn't even see it coming. This movie does not use the same old tired formula, It decides to take a very different turn and thats a good thing. The acting is phenomenal, The story is well conceived and there is real chemistry between the two leads who play off each other very well. If you have not seen this I would recommend it for anybody that wants a taste of something different.Rated R For Violence And Language.2hrs 20min/140min.86 uses of the F-word.****/****

When this movie was brought to my attention a few days ago, I wondered how it could have passed me by, given that I am a voracious film-buff, and given the all-star cast.The review that alerted me was on a list of the best Kevin Spacey movies, and made mention of excellent performances by Spacey and L. Jackson.However, having sat through it, I can see why it passed me by, why none of my other movie-buff friends had ever mentioned it. I've never rated L. Jackson, so did not have high expectations of his role, but it was the most unbelievable OTT performance I think I've ever seen - sillier than Al Pacino at the end of The Recruit. Sillier than Phone Booth and every episode of 24 rolled into one unit. Hell, it's even sillier than the Ezekiel 25:17 nonsense that came from the pen of Quentin Tarantino.As for Spacey, it's easily the worst thing I've ever seen him do.All I'm left with is a stronger conviction not to listen to my whims when provoked by some random list on the internet.If you have taste in movies, avoid this one.