The Negotiator

1998 "He frees hostages for a living. Now he's taking hostages to survive."
7.3| 2h20m| R| en| More Info
Released: 29 July 1998 Released
Producted By: Warner Bros. Pictures
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

The police try to arrest expert hostage negotiator Danny Roman, who insists he's being framed for his partner's murder in what he believes is an elaborate conspiracy. Thinking there's evidence in the Internal Affairs offices that might clear him, he takes everyone in the office hostage and demands that another well-known negotiator be brought in to handle the situation and secretly investigate the conspiracy.

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Reviews

Hellen I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much
Lawbolisted Powerful
TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.
Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.
Leofwine_draca 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.
Georgian Stanescu One word came out of this film. CORRUPTION. I wasn't actually gonna do a review, considering, I would only have one word. But the action and the scene, was just unreal. It tells a story of a cop Danny(Jackson), was being framed for a murder of another cop. Battles ensues between the cops and the Feds aka FBI get involved. Music score was quite good actually. Very suspenseful, no doubt. hahaah. Chris Sabier gets involved as Danny asked for him. Then during the film, the SWAT team and other police cops Chicago PDs, get involved by breaking what Chris had asked him to do. Then the lawyer or some other cop gets thrown into the ring, Frost. It has then been found that Frost was the one who did the framing. It just goes to show you who you can trust. "You can't trust anyone".
Thomas Drufke In the decade of exploding action films with plenty of clichéd characters and plot points, The Negotiator manages to avoid most of the predictable moments and keep you on the edge of your seat throughout the film. This was also the beginning of the endless Samuel L Jackson action flicks with an overwhelming amount of quotable lines. But as much as I liked Jackson, I loved the supporting cast. When you have people like David Morse, Paul Giamatti, and Kevin Spacey rounding out the cast, the film is in good hands.The film tells the story of a police negotiator who gets his world flipped on him when he is accused of murdering his best friend and corruption and is forced to take matters into his own hands. I like the idea of having what you try and stop everyday as a living, end up being the very thing you're doing to prove your innocence. It's an added bonus that the film takes place and is filmed mostly in Chicago, my hometown. There are the inevitable slow-motion shots and occasionally questionable one-liners, I think the film tends to stay away from the grain. The story definitely seemed fresh, and the back and forth between Spacey and Jackson was the best part of the movie.I will say I was pretty worried about how the film was going to end knowing the whole movie took place in one location. But I feel the movie tended to get a little bit obsessed with itself towards the climax. A few of the characters motives were questionable at best and it felt melodramatic at times. With that said, this is definitely one of those movies that if it comes on T.V., I probably wont want to turn it off as it has endlessly re-watchable scenes with classic Spacey and Jackson performances, not to mention just how funny Giamatti is here as he is the one and only source for comedic relief.+Spacey & Jackson dynamic +Chi-town +Giamatti is hilarious +Tends to stay away from the clichés -Melodramatic towards the end -Some character motives 7.6/10
bylwen (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