The Negotiator

Movie Title: The Negotiator	[Ads/google-ads3.htm]
Official Website (it might still work): The Negotiator
Rating (out of 10): 5
Reviewed By: Michael Stevens
Buy the: Video/DVD \| Soundtrack
The Review:

Once again I shall be Mike Stevens for this Out & About movie review of the Negotiator, which is the new Warner Brothers thriller starring Kevin Spacey and Sam Jackson. The Negotiator is a cop thriller set in the windy city of Chicago where both Spacey and Jackson play hostage negotiators. We start out in a hostage situation where Jackson's character Danny is trying to get a little girl away from her father, who is holding her at gunpoint and demanding the mother. The nut wants to kill himself in front of mommy. Danny gets the girl free with a gutsy move, makes the eleven o'clock news, and writes another chapter in his long history of good cop work. But soon after this the main plot is introduced when Danny talks to his partner, who is not Spacey, who informs him that he knows about some corrupt cops. Shortly thereafter Danny's partner is killed and Danny has been set up by corrupt cops to take the fall for the murder and the embezzling of pension funds. So Danny is on his way to spending the rest of his life in the big house when he decides to start take hostages and kicking some ass. This is where Spacey's character of Chris Sabian comes in. Sabian is requested by Danny to be the one who he negotiates with. Then the real action starts up with gunfire, percussion grenades, tear gas, and of course tense moments. And in the end we find out who has been doing what, and no one is really surprised. The only real surprise is that Spacey's character never says the line in the trailer about how the cops have to deal with both of them now. So the movie has decent action and even good acting by both Spacey and Jackson. But unfortunately the whole movie is rather predictable. There are no real twists in the plot and what few surprises there are, have minimal effect on the plot. One interesting thing about The Negotiator is that in the shooting scenes people are actually getting shot when there are dozens of bullets flying around. This may be Hollywood violence but at least it do e s show the consequences of being shot, unlike other Hollywood productions like the old A-Team on TV where few got shot and no one ever died. And speaking of which apparently someone actually thinks people will turn out to see a movie version of B-A, Murdock, Face, and Hannibal, the things studios will pay for these days. Well back on track and back to the Negotiator. In the end I did find the movie to be better than what I expected. You see since it was released on a Wednesday and it was on the previews before every movie I think I have seen for the last three months, I figured the studio felt it was a bomb, so they pulled out all the stops to try and turn a profit on the thing. Finally it's not a bomb, but at the same time it's not that great. So, too predictable but good acting total up to five couches out of ten for the Out & About rating. Better movies to see include Saving Private Ryan, Armageddon, and Lethal Weapon 4. To wrap things up I'd say it's worth the matinee price to get in. This has been M. O. Stevens for the Out & About movie review, now back to the teddy bear host that giggles when you squeeze.