Hostage

Another dark drama that makes no pretense

Of having a plotline that makes any sense

With two hostage stories, it's double the action

Depending on violence to get your reaction

Bruce Willis does "anguish", the thing he does best

But the acting shouts "B" for most of the rest

He once lost a hostage and retired from the fray

Preferring to sit at his desk every day

But as fate would have it, some punks cross his path

And it blows up real quick when a cop feels their wrath

They hold the Smiths hostage, the alarm system sucks

The stakes get much higher when they find some big bucks

And wouldn't you know it, the Dad is a crook

By creative accounting, not quite by the book

He's hidden some files under "Heaven Can Wait"

And organized crime is now storming the gate

The punks are in shambles, they're out of their league

They're making mistakes out of greed and fatigue

But Bruce has no choice, he can't put it aside

His wife and his daughter are kidnapped and tied

The ending's predictable, violent and gory

A typical, everyday action-man story

With fiery effects and slow motion also

As a rental, this movie is packaged to go.

(Rated 3.5 stars)

Amanda Richards, October 10, 2005

Going into this film you should know that "Hostage" is an over the top sort of film. Based on the novel of the same name by Robert Crais, this 2005 release finds that one hostage drama is not enough, there needs to be two hostage dramas going on at the same time just to make things even more complicated. Then it decides that the hero should be burdened with guilt over a previous hostage situation that goes wrong. On the one hand this makes the scenario pretty unbelievable, but on the other hand you get to the point where you are wondering how they are going to get to the requisite happy ending so you will be hard pressed to call "Hostage" predictable. That being the greatest Hollywood sin, I am willing to forgive this film its faults.

The prologue finds Jeff Talley (Bruce Willis), with long hair and a long beard, dealing with a hostage situation in L.A. His goal is to make sure that nobody dies that die, but that does not happen. A year later Talley is the chief of police in Bristo Camino in Ventura County. His wife (Serena Scott Thomas) and daughter (Rumer Willis) are still living in the city and come out to visit on weekends. The daughter is not speaking to her father, apparently worried her parents are going to get divorced and unable to understand why daddy wants the relative peace and quiet of the sticks. But like Willis' most famous screen incarnation, John McClane of the "Die Hard" flicks, the rule of irony applies and his biggest nightmare shows up in town.

Three young punks are sitting in a stolen pick-up truck ogling a young girl who flips them off before getting back into her daddy's SUV. They decide to follow the family home and when they discover a beautiful home nestled in the hills outside of town they decide to break in and push the family around. The thing we know somebody is dead and Talley arrives on the scene to be greeted by a hail of bullets. The Smith family ends up being held hostage by these three punks and when the County Sheriff shows up Talley is perfectly happy to turn over command and walk away. However, there is an interested third party to the hostage situation who insists that Talley resume command and do everything in his power, not to make sure that everybody gets out alive, but that a certain computer disc is retrieved.

Again, this is a totally unbelievable situation, but it is not boring. You either buy into the scenario and go along for the ride or you do not. My only question is whether the red herring I picked up on to no good end whatsoever was intentional or an uncorrupted mistook. That and why the title credits look like a dry run for "Sin City" and also have no discernable payoff in the film. The most interesting character in the film ends up being Mars (Ben Foster), the trigger happy one of the punks who had be scared because I kept thinking at some point he would realize that the young girl he was holding hostage (Michelle Horn) was going to be the last female he was going to be near for the rest of his life. Earlier in the film her father (Kevin Pollak) tried to dissuade her from dressing like a tramp. Being eyeballed by punks with guns certainly seems to suggest that she might reconsider her clothing choices in the future (especially in terms of any words that might appear on her shirts).

Director Florent Siri comes up with some interesting camera shots and even managed to impress me with a slow motion shot (I have been wincing at those pretty much since I saw the end of "Rocky II"). If anything, Siri is fascinating by the cinematic style of violence he can depict and if you are looking for an action film with flair this might fit the bill. The only one liner Willis' character has in the film is an echo of something just said by one of the bad guys and most of the key moments for his character are inarticulate looks of fear, rage, and despair. That is why I thought the two hostage situations were motivation enough without needing to resort to the one that went wrong. The end game of "Hostage" requires a couple of reverses to help things along, but I actually found it quite interesting to suddenly be rooting for a character that I was hoping to see dead and although I did figure out the finale surprise twist it was not telegraphed that far in advance, so I was more pleased with myself than disappointed in the film.

When compared to the majority of films being released these days, HOSTAGE is about as good as it gets making this type of film...

Classic good honest cop thrown into a tough situation while trying to escape the burnout of a prior life is faced with some of society's worst criminals and human scum !

Bruce Willis does some of his best dramatic emotional acting in this tense hostage thriller.

Soundtrack helps build the moods and tensions.

This is not the mindless "cotton candy" formula fluff liberal Hollywood tends to toss out these days.. this is a real story with real world grit.

Sure there are some minor elements I may not have been 100% thrilled with regarding the kid's pat of the storyline, but no film can be 100% perfect in every regard for every viewer.

Like I said, this is about as good as it gets when making this type of film.

It's a shame it got such little attention when other lesser films are better known.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 142 reviews  3.7 out of 5 stars