Hostage
Tags: suspenseful, neo noir, violence

Plot synopsis:
Former SWAT officer Jeff Talley is a hostage negotiator in Los Angeles. One day, Talley negotiates with a man who has taken his wife and son hostage after learning his wife was cheating on him. Shortly after Talley denies a SWAT commander's request to give snipers the order to open fire, the despondent man kills his wife, son, and himself. Traumatized, Talley moves with his family and becomes police chief in Bristo Camino, a suburban hamlet in Ventura County, California.
A year later, Talley finds himself in another hostage situation. Two teenagers, Dennis and his brother Kevin, and their accomplice Marshall "Mars" Krupcheck take hostage Walter Smith and his two children, teenage Jennifer and young Tommy, in Smith's house after a failed robbery attempt. The first officer to respond is shot twice by Mars just before Talley arrives. Talley attempts to rescue the officer, but she dies in front of him. Traumatized and unwilling to put himself through another trauma, Talley hands authority over to the Ventura County Sheriff's Department and leaves.
Smith has been laundering money for a mysterious right-wing militia and criminal syndicate through offshore shell corporations. He was preparing to turn over a batch of important encrypted files recorded on a DVD when he was taken hostage. To prevent the incriminating evidence from being discovered, the syndicate orders someone known only as the Watchman to kidnap Talley's wife and daughter. Talley is instructed to return to the hostage scene, regain authority, and stall for time until the organization can launch its own attack against Smith's house.
Dennis forces Kevin and Mars to tie up the children, while he knocks out Smith and finds a large amount of cash. In an attempt to end the standoff and secure the DVDs himself, Talley meets with Dennis and agrees to provide a helicopter in exchange for half of the money. When the helicopter arrives, Dennis and Kevin bring the money to Talley and prepare to leave, but Mars refuses to leave without Jennifer, with whom he has become infatuated. Talley says the helicopter will only carry three additional people and insists that Jennifer stay behind, but the deal breaks down and the boys return to the house. Talley learns that Mars is a psychopathic killer who could turn on the hostages and his own accomplices at any moment. Mars does, in fact, kill Dennis and Kevin, just as Kevin is about to release the children.
The syndicate sends fake FBI agents to recover the DVD and they storm the house; Talley is instructed to not go near the house. Jennifer stabs Mars and locks herself and Thomas in the panic room. Hearing their screams, Talley breaches the house and is attacked by Mars, who then kills most of the fake agents using his pistol and multiple Molotov cocktails. Mars is then shot in the side by the only surviving agent. The agent tracks down Talley and the children, and demands the encrypted DVD. After Talley gives him the DVD, Mars reappears, distracting the agent long enough to be killed by Talley. Mars then prepares to throw his last Molotov, but collapses to his knees, weakened by his injuries. He makes eye contact with Jennifer, then drops the Molotov and immolates himself.
Talley escapes with the children by shooting the indoor glass waterfall, which extinguishes the fire. He and a recovered Smith then go to a rundown inn where Talley's wife and daughter are being held captive by the Watchman and his crew. Smith, feigning hatred for Talley, is freed in exchange for the family. While demanding that the Watchman kill Talley, Smith shoots the Watchman. This allows Talley to kill the other gunmen and rescue his family.

Review: It seems to have all the elements of the Bruce Willis action movie, so one might think it cannot surprise anymore.
It has the opening failure of the perfect cop, and the almost "post traumatic stress" side to the character who then moves into a smaller town, but carries his burden along with him.But this time, Bruce Willis doesn't seem all that perfect, he is scared, his voice is shaking in several situations and even cries.
There are also some unexpected resolutions and some even less expected symbolic shots.Bottom line is, Hostage is a good pick not only for the action/thriller fan, but also for any movie goer..
Thoroughly entertaining from start to finish, Hostage offered some great action, drama, emotion and most of all some fantastic acting, mainly by Bruce Willis and Ben Foster.
Things start off on an intense note as we see a grizzled-looking Bruce Willis attempting to negotiate with a psycho who has locked himself and his family in their house.
Revealing anything would be a disservice to your viewing enjoyment, so I'm not saying anymore except that the character is very well-developed.I know it's only March, but other than Million Dollar Baby, Hostage is the best movie I've seen this year.
With more Drama, much darker and less humor is Hostage one of the most adult (means grown up) Action Thriller I saw in Years.The story is great.
Artistically and dialogue wise this movie is lacking, except for the first scene, but this is to be expected from a Bruce Willis film.
But they also adequately describe Bruce Willis' latest movie Hostage.
The movie was darker than I expected, but I liked it better this way, it was more believable and scarier...a real thrill ride!!
The film focuses a previous LA hostage negotiator (Bruce Willis) who subsequently a failed negotiation goes away to a little town along with his wife (Serena Scott Thomas) and daughter , Amanda, (Bruce Willis's daughter in the movie, was played by his daughter Rumer Willis , she wanted the part, but Willis made her audition like everyone else and she got the part) .
Bruce Willis , as usual action hero , confronts perils and risks and he must battle till vanquish in this overly violent action film , his main enemy results to be a psychopathic young killer (an excessively nasty Ben Foster) .
The flick will appeal to Bruce Willis fans and action movies enthusiast .
like the way they did the hostage of Willis's family, although at times predicable, excellent throughout.
Herein lies the beautiful action of the movie so grab your seat and hang on for the ride.This is a film with superb acting from Bruce Willis to his own daughter Rumer Willis to Jimmy Bennett whose shrieks during the film rivaled my own.
That being the case, and given that the last Bruce Willis film that I saw was the weak-at-best Tears of the Sun, I went in with no expectations whatsoever.The opening titles were original and very well done, setting the tone for the film and making me think that maybe bringing the valium wouldn't be necessary.
Every time I felt that the plot was going to go down a cliché and predictable route, I was surprised, right up until the ending of the film, which had every bit as much tension and drama as the rest of the film, which is something of a departure from what I've come to expect from big budget Hollywood productions.This film is every bit worth the ever more outrageous price of a movie ticket, though since it was a preview screening, I was thankfully spared the usual torrent of "Director's cut" cola commercials, which I don't think I will ever be comfortable with - advertising is there to fund media which does not have another generous supply of revenue, and if I'm paying $12 to see a film, I really don't see why I should be subjected to commercials.Rant aside, see this film, I find it hard to picture the kind of person that it would disappoint, at least as someone I could take seriously.
And the fault lies with both director Florent Emilio Siri and screenwriter Doug Richardson, whose previous scripts, "Die Hard 2" (1990), "Bad Boys" (1995) and "Money Train" (1995), aren't exactly known for their subtlety or originality.The basic plot: The tranquility of Talley's small town gets disturbed when three young men (Ben Foster, Jonathan Tucker and Marshall Allman) break into a mansion equipped with state-of-the-art surveillance and security and hold its three occupants hostage.The film's big flaw is the lackadaisical storytelling.
Bruce Willis was excellent in this movie, the cinematography was amazing, the plot (as I said) was unpredictable and suspenseful ...
This film has some great suspense and it almost plays out as a horror film, but it doesn't quite reach that level.This film is about a former big-town cop who heads to small town and he soon faces a massive threat as a rich family is held hostage by three teens.
You have your cliché-ridden 'depressive cop rising from the ashes'-story, a unbelievably ridiculous plot of three teenagers taking a rich family as hostages that eventually turns into a soap opera and - later - a hilarious 'The Shining gone Scream gone Why The Hell Is This In The Script' teenage screamfest, and finally there's the really bad-ass guys who put the cop under pressure and are of course superior to anyone.It's not just that we have seen this a thousand times (only less ridiculous), the script is fleshed out in such a boring, and at the same time absurd manner that you cannot help but ask yourself where this movie is going.
This could have been a solid action thriller with a straight storyline, concentrating on one problem or situation, but in the end they try to put so much confusing stuff into this, completely forgetting the viewer in the end.I'll admit that Willis puts up a good performance, but it doesn't save this time-waster from being utter trash.
There's even a scene that is supposed to be dramatic and get you feeling for the characters when the little hostage boy asks Bruce Willis if he is Captian Xuemba (or something) and if it's like he's going to save the planet.
I like movies with powerful, believable content in the plot and "Hostage" certainly won't be taking a back seat to many other films in the years to come in this respect..
There's a scene where they face off with Willis and a chopper thats truly nail-biting, and it wouldn't work at all if they were bad actors.So i recommend this movie even if you think it looks generic from the trailers.
Bruce Willis was powerful and convincing, and the 113 minutes of the film rushed by like a 90-minutes movie.
Other than that the film was a great ride, an effective tour-de-force of edge of your seat movie-making, with lavish cinematography.
One of Brucey's best movies.This is Bruce Willis's best movie next to 'Die Hard' and 'The Fifth Element'.If you are a Bruce Willis fan or like a movie that gets you on the edge of your seat then this is the next movie you must see.Jeff Talley (Bruce) has been a Hostage negotiator for 7 years.
Bruce Willis is excellent in this movie (IMO his best performance next to 12 monkeys).
I like Bruce Willis and I think that he's a great action star, but this movie does nothing for him.
The foul language was at first, grating (EVERYBODY swears), then ultimately stultifying (and no, not everybody talks like that).Willis has an expression on his face that says he knows he's not in something as good as Die Hard (or even its sequels).
This is the WORST movie we have seen in at least 5 years And we were DIE-Hard fans (get-it?) Too over the top, predictable, and non-intellectual Wait 5 more days for it to be on video, if it makes it that far There was NO character depth Bruce was trying for an Oscar too many times with lots of crocodile tears It was a combo of that other loser movie where the rich people get trapped in their own house by criminals and a BAD version of die-hard or rambo ...
Personally, I thought it was the icing on the cake of badness that the little boy in the story somehow knew what to do in situations of being held hostage, if so he probably would have been smarter than me and not seen the film.
Bad acting by Willis (who is often good, but not here), plus a horribly clichéd and predictable plot filled with convenient contrivances throughout equals a 'no-need-to-see'movie.
For a good Willis movie, rewatch Die Hard, Pulp Fiction or Unbreakable..
I'm not sure these folks saw the same movie I did.Bruce Willis plays a former hostage negotiator, and one year after an abysmal tragedy, we find him riding out the end of his career as police chief in a quiet little town.
Go figure, something does.Three young adult wannabe hoodlums break into a family's home to steal a car, when things suddenly go wrong and turn into another hostage situation for Bruce.
Small-town sheriff (Bruce Willis, who was at one time a hostage negotiator) goes to the scene and tries to solve the problem -- a problem he learns later on to be bigger than he thought.Suspenseful, smart, and well-acted thriller is a lot of fun.
The ending almost looks like a cross between a soap opera and an action flick.Other than that, 'Hostage' delivered the goods one might expect from a thriller..
I kept thinking through the whole house burning scene ''I hope they manage to save the fish'' In fact I almost turned the TV off about 20 minutes before the end....don't know why I didn't.Don't get me wrong, it wasn't really, really awful, it was just an average B movie....and I want the last two hours of my life back please!.
Bruce Willis was likable in a character that would appear to recycle the hero of the "Die Hard" films.
Although it didn't stay true to the book in a number of key places (but what film does), it was still pretty close.Operning Credits were excellent, with the animation being representative of the live scene that it eventually transformed to, but that was kinda to be expected since the Director had mainly worked on Directing Video Games before (Splinter Cell Series).All in all, I can't really find fault with the film, its not going to win any big Oscars, but its definitely worth seeing..
In a small town in California, the chief of police Jeff Talley (Bruce Willis) is facing relationship problems with his teenager daughter.
The story is very well developed and the cast has great performances, highlighting Bruce Willis in the role of a suffered man living with the guilty of a wrong decision, and Ben Foster in the role of a sadistic and psychotic killer.
Two sets of bad guys really!Bruce Willis's character wasn't up to the usual Bruce Willis style which is a lot tougher.Really if I hadn't been doing something else worthwhile during the time I had this playing I might have just turned it off.I give it 4 stars out of 10 just because there was some action in the movie.
Bruce Willis turned in a pretty good performance as Jeff Talley.
As the movie opens, Talley is an LAPD hostage negotiator, whose job goes wrong when a negotiation he's leading fails, and several people - including a young boy - die.
But those who made this couldn't leave well enough alone.Adding the plot point about Talley's family being taken hostage by a gang of criminals wanting to get a DVD in the possession of the owner of the invaded home did nothing for me except confuse things.
So intense and such a good plot line.The first 1/4 of the movie explains the background of the characters, then after the action just starts without any notice and doesn't stop.
At other times your yelling at the screen for some of the idiotic things the characters do.If you have seen the trailers and haven't read any spoilers, you will have no idea how this movie is going to turn out.FANTASTIC - 9/10.
HOSTAGE should not be one of them.This film has lots of action, lots of tension and, for this thirty-something, it was nice to go see a movie that a) had actual surprises and clever twists b) didn't have characters doing stupid things because of lazy writers c) had a cast of characters with layers as opposed to cut-out cannon fodderAssault on Precinct 13 was fun, and slightly clever, although it didn't take a genius to see everything coming.
At first i didn't think i would enjoy this movie as I am not really into action films.
Even a trainee in Hollywood could make a better movie.I thought the action was too slow, everything was easy to guess, the playing was really bad, especially Mars.
This is one of the better action movies of 2005.Bruce Willis did a superb job of playing a negotiator turned sheriff.
I don't know where the DIE HARD comparisons are coming from because Bruce Willis is not John McClain in this movie.
Excellent.Bruce Willis is most definitely back on form here, it's a much more mature and restrained Die Hard, think of that role mixed with Unbreakable and you really do have his acting style here.
In particular the kids who lead the hostage taking are superb, confused, unsure, but pushed forward by the totally psychopathic Ben Foster, a wonderful performance there.There is little in the way of traditional Willis action sequences, albeit for the one main hostage ending sequence, but this does little to dull the movie, in fact it strengthens it.
Willis isn't too old for this kid of movie, he's just not been getting good enough roles..
After a forgivably-predictable compound ending, (( the malevolence of Ben Foster's character alone is worth the price of admission, which was actually handled with care by this movie's stylish filmmaker )) the edge of your seat will have released you from being held "Hostage." (( forgive me for the play on words I couldn't resist, even if I tried )) Butch Coolidge is back....
To be honest with you it seemed like the typical Bruce Willis movie.
Bruce Willis has overdone the action movie hero and should retire.
This movie starts out quite good (although cliché is written all over Bruce Willis character) and continues on a good roll.
Everyone is acting great (either in a normal or psycho way, depending on their character), which makes it harder to not like the movie.
The music, the acting, the way that the plot plays out and the script all contribute to making this film feel more like an opera than a thriller, with all the characters wearing their emotions on their sleeves and overacting to the point of sheer annoyance.
Also -Bruce Wilis is there as a policeman,so this is a sure fact for a good movie as usual.In the beginning starts with the presentation of the Bruce Wilis job - to convince a man to not kill his wife and child, but finally they are dead because he try to save everybody but the sniper guys can't shot in the way to save and the mother and the boy.There was a great scene with the dead boy with his mouth full of blood...read nice made!Oh, another impressing thing in the movie was that the doter of the rich man was surprising not pretty actress and generally there wasn't much beauty in the movie , i mean in the face of actors (except Bruce Wilis of course:))The house of the rich family is was cool...i watched the movie with few people and everybody was saying "wow, i want a house like this" I gave a point 10 but if there was 11 or up I'm giving it!!.
I think the creepiest bad guy on film in the character of Mars, played by Ben Foster.
Jeff Talley (Bruce Willis) is a former LAPD hostage negotiator.
Upon first glance, Hostage looks like one in the long line of Bruce Willis action flicks that are formulaic, and just a bit repetitive.
Bruce Willis plays Jeff Talley, a police hostage negotiator who gives it up when he blames himself for failing to prevent a tragedy.
a hostage situation.Bruce Willis is the negotiator, and that's about all you need to know about this sorry film, which manages to toss hardly any curveballs the viewer's way.
Oh, but then he's pulled back in, owing to a story contrivance meant to advance the plot and keep Bruce Willis on screen at all times.And that's a pretty good idea, all things considered.
Bruce Willis is a pro at the action movie hero character and doesn't fail us this time.
Throw in shoddy character development, horrible child acting, unresolved story lines, and Bruce Willis' real life coat-tails riding daughter, and you have "The Hostage." This film presents one conflict as the premise of the movie, only to have a larger conflict become the actual overall focus.
Jeff Talley(Bruce Willis,cool and collected for as long as possible),once an ace hostage negotiator for LAPD S.W.A.T.,is now a chief of police in a small,rural California town.
As a result, we care too little about the rest of the characters because we never really get to know them.The movie changes other elements like the location of the house and the circumstances leading to the original hostage taking.
You've seen these types in just about any other standard action thriller.I wanted to see more of the wisecracking Willis character, but Hostage really couldn't do that.
The premise of this overtly confusing offering is Bruce Willis who plays Jeff Talley, an experienced hostage negotiator who is hiding from himself.