Rating: 
Summary: Great suspense thriller
Review: Can you go wrong when you pair together Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey, two talented actors who just exude coolness? Only if you cast them as bushes.The movie begins with a negotiation that takes all of fifteen minutes, to set you up for the negotiation that will last the rest of the movie. Samuel L. Jackson is a wrongly accused negotiator (a top-notch one) who uncovers a corrupt cop ring, and in desperation, takes several people hostage to discover the truth. This is just one brilliantly ironic idea: a negotiator taking people hostage. Of course, then, there are the great scenes where Jackson mocks the negotiator trying to talk him down. There is also another great scene where he discusses how you can tell someone is lying. Well, eventually, we get Kevin Spacey, another top-notch negotiator who steals every scene he's in, unless he's in it with Jackson, in which case they tie. And then the movie really kicks off. You're in for some surprises. While the conspiracy is sometimes hard to follow, none of the tenseness is lost. Intermittently, we get some action sequences to liven things up a bit, which keeps the movie from becoming too slow-paced. Director Gray does a good job of giving the right views at the right time. Jackson and Spacey deliver convincing, exciting performances. Bottom line: Interesting, twisty script. Top-notch actors. Good direction. What more could you ask for?
Rating: 
Summary: Great Moving Movie
Review: This is a great action/suspense movie. Samuel L. Jackson is a police officer framed for the murder of his partner. In an attempt to clear his name, he takes hostage members of the Internal Affairs department who are accusing him of the crime. But, it is going to be hard to talk him down from the building, as he himself, is a hostage negotiator. As I have always believed. . . Kevin Spacey is brilliant. He doesn't disappoint here either. He is only a supporting role here, but that is how he won his first Oscar. He is called in to negotiate with the negotiator. . . This movie is compelling at every turn. The characters are well developed when needed to be. I do enjoy the fact that the stars of the movie have normal looking wives, not Hollywood Starlets. These are supposed to be cops, not big stars. They pull it off so well (at least what I would think a real police officer would be like, as I am not one). The suspense is good, never too extraneous. Overall, this movie is great. I love how it moves, and I love how it was shot. epc
Rating:
Summary: Kevin Spacey and Samuel Jackson are stunning!
Review: I've seen this one a couple of times -- the first time it was a little tough to follow (maybe I was just a little slow that day), but the second time it made much more sense. At points it gets a little tricky to keep the good guys and bad guys sorted out. Overall I would rate this as a highly enjoyable movie, primarily on the strength of the performances by Samuel Jackson and Kevin Spacey. Both of them do a bang-up job (no pun intended). Jackson plays Danny Roman, a good cop who is falsely accused of skimming from the police pension fund. When the frame-up looks too solid to escape, Roman resorts to taking some hostages at the police station to buy the two things he needs the most -- the time and the information to prove his innocence. He begins to interrogate some of the hostages, several of whom are close friends, and to pick information from some sensitive computer files. Gradually he begins to uncover an ugly conspiracy involving corruption at various levels of the police department, but every question he answers seems to lead to two more. In the meantime, the police respond to the hostage crisis and call in expert hostage negotiator Chris Sabian (played by Spacey) to "talk down" the apparently volatile Danny Roman. While Roman is predictably cast as a very sympathetic character, Sabian remains an unknown factor until the very end of the movie, a consummate professional whose loyalties and intentions can never quite be pinpointed. Roman is never sure from one moment to the next if Sabian is ally or enemy. As the movie progresses, there are a number of action sequences of increasing intensity as those behind the corruption conspiracy make one attempt after another to silence Roman while his credibility is still worthless and before his discoveries can be made public. These efforts are not lost on Sabian, who starts to think that there may be some fire behind Roman's smoke, but still never cuts Roman any slack. I don't want to spoil the ending for those who haven't seen it, but let it suffice to say that it had a suspenseful and unexpected twist that kept the with spirit of the rest of the movie. Needless to say, the good guys win, but I'm not going to drop any hints about how. You'll have to watch it for yourself, but I can say with some confidence that you'll be glad you did. Excellent flick.
Rating: 
Summary: Great acting and FX nearly save the day
Review: "The Negotiator" is unoriginal, and it's hampered by an implausible script. It is very nearly salvaged by a lot of intense action, excellent special effects, crisp dialog, a fine musical score and dynamite performances from Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey. Jackson and Spacey play Chicago cops whose special training is in negotiating with criminals in hostage situations. Such a job may actually exist, but I doubt many people are employed in it full time. Whatever the case, it's not a profession that I'd recommend. Jackson's precinct is full of corrupt officers who have been stealing money from the police pension fund. When his partner discovers the fraud, he is silenced before he can tell Jackson. Naturally, our hero is framed for the murder. Sound familiar? The cop's life, as well as the plot, quickly starts to fall apart. The evidence against him is circumstantial, and most of it would be inadmissible in court. Yet it's enough to make Jackson go off the deep end. He decides to hold two superior officers, a secretary and a petty thief hostage in a Federal office tower. When his demands are not met immediately, he insists that Spacey, who is a stranger to him, be called in. He feels dealing with someone who cannot pretend to be his friend is his only chance. At this point, the film takes off, thanks to a lot of action and to the cat and mouse game between the two negotiators. For about an hour, the faulty plot premise is forgotten. It comes back to haunt us at the end of the film, but that hour is worth a viewing. It's fast and suspenseful. Sometimes, using two extremely good actors in a badly constructed work creates a paradox. Their performances make the movie worth seeing, but they also serve to put a spotlight on the story's weaknesses. This is especially true for Jackson, whose character violently takes the law into his own hands. This happened to him in the absurd "A Time to Kill". At least in that case he played a farmer who knew nothing of the intricacies of the law. In "The Negotiator" he's a college-educated police officer. Even worse, we are expected to believe that such potentially lethal action can take someone back to where they were before all the bad things happened. That's a dangerous moral signal.
Rating:
Summary: An Smart Action/Thriller.
Review: One of the finest Police Hostage Negotiator:Danny Roman (Samuel L. Jackson) is framed for murdering his best friend (Paul Guilfoyle) and for embezzling money from his union`s pension fund. When nobody doesn`t want to believe him for not killing his partner & embezzling money. He decides to takes Hostages & try to clear his name. The only person, who could help him in this Situation is another Top Negotiator (Two Time Oscar-Winner:Kevin Spacey). Directed by F. Gary Gray (Friday, A Man Apart, Set It Off) made a entertaining, suspenseful, action-thriller made surprisingly believable, thanks to Jackson & Spacey terrific performances and especially the Supporting Cast are Strong. The film wasn`t a Hit, when it was release in the Summer of 1998, despite Good Reviews by Critics & Audiences, who seen the film. This film did much better on Video. The Script might have some logic lapses but it`s a gripping & well-made taut thriller. Gray`s Best Film to Date. Written by James DeMonaco & Kevin Fox. Super 35. Grade:A-.
Rating:
Summary: Script, direction hamper Jackson and Spacey
Review: [Add a half-star if, in your mind, acting can overcome a ludicrous script.] I couldn't wait to see this film. It has all the ingredients I could hope for, especially two of America's finest actors today: Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey. It has a fine supporting cast: David Morse, John Spencer, Ron Rifkin, Paul Giamatti, Regina Taylor and the late J.T. Walsh. And, it has a superb back-story. The film opens with a Chicago police precient dealing with a hostage situation. A man, a former Marine, is holding hostage his daughter (step-daughter?) with the aim of forcing his wife (ex-wife?) to come watch him blow his brains out. One of the men forced to deal with this explosive situation is police Lt. Danny Roman (Jackson) who is doing his best to take the man out before the SWAT team headed by Cmdr. Adam Beck (Morse) does it by storming the apartment. Eventually, Roman talks his way into the apartment and defuses the situation with a little assist from his SWAT buddies. This scene is excellent because it gives us an excellent overview of the abilities of Roman as one of Chicago's top hostage negotiators, the delicate and unstable balance between talking to a perpetrator and brute force tactics, and it sets up the relationship between Roman and his partner, Nate (Paul Guilfoyle). What follows is the inevitable publicity and celebration that another sticky situation was resolved without much bloodshed or loss of life and more development of the relationship between Roman and his colleagues. However, in the middle of the celebration, Nate has some important news for Danny... news he's been trying to tell Danny for a couple of days, it turns out. It seems Nate has stumbled onto a scam to bilk the policeman's disability fund of money. Nate has been investigating and he's learned that cops are behind the scam -- some of the same cops that Nate and Danny work with. Nate wants to tell Danny more, but they're interrupted so he defers the balance of the talk until later. Some hours later, Danny gets a page asking him to meet Nate and he rushes out for the meet. We then see Nate in his car waiting to meet Danny and then something happens. Nate looks at <em>HIS</em> pager to see what time Danny asked for the meet. This telegraphs to us that something is very wrong. Nate looks up and sees (obviously) a familiar face and starts to talk to him only to have his brains blown out in the driver's seat. The unknown figure leaves and Danny drives up and discovers his partner's body. OK. So far, so good. However, from here, the script starts to sink into oblivion. Screenwriters James DeMonaco and Kevin Fox would have us believe that Roman would blurt out the details of everything his partner told him to the now-suspect co-workers. Beyond that, we have Nate's funeral and a subsequent investigation where all evidence leads to Roman, who happens to be on the board of the disability fund. Roman is stripped of his badge, his gun and his dignity and he makes a last-ditch attempt to get his colleagues to investigate themselves. He gets no assistance and so he dispatches his wife and heads back upstairs because he "forgot" something. Upstairs, he walks in on Internal Affairs Insp. Terence Niebaum (Walsh) whom Nate implicated as involved in the scam. Eventually, Niebaum, his secretary, and a police informant (Giamatti) are taken hostage along with precient cmdr. Frost (Rifkin) who, as Danny's friend and colleague, tried to talk him out of the hostage situation and ends up being taken hostage himself. Notice that no where in the story so far have I mention Kevin Spacey's character. It's taken us about an hour to get to this point, which in and of itself is no problem. The problem is F. Gary Gray's (Set It Off) direction doesn't maintain the dramatic tension necessary to keep us squirming in our seats for the right reason. We should be squirming because of dramatic tension on the screen. Instead we're squirming because we're wondering if it's OK to go get another tub of popcorn before something starts happening. Roman, as hostage taker and as an ace negotiator, knows how to control the situation and that is shown to us in a hilarious but tense scene between he and Farley, the rookie negotiator brought in to deal with the situation. Roman ends up demanding that a negotiator from another precient be brought in to talk and it is then that we are finally introduced to Chris Sabien (Spacey). We're given a quick back-story on Sabien that gives us some insight into his character and then we're off to the races. The Negotiator is set up to be a thinking man's action film and it succeeds mostly because of its cast. It takes some incredulous material and makes the best of the situation. Kudos to Jackson and Spacey for doing what they always do well. They are two of the best actors on the planet and we are lucky to have them here. David Morse as Beck and Regina Taylor as Roman's newlywed wife, Karen, are also superb. Although I've been down on the film for most of this essay, there are some surprises: some dramatic, some silly, and others just plain ludicrous. However, when the movie works, it works because of the skill of the actors. As a matinee or a video, The Negotiator isn't a bad way to spend a couple of hours. [Originally rated 3 October 1998]
Rating:
Summary: Great Movie, Great Disc
Review: The Negotiator: Warner Home Video 2.35:1/Dolby Digital/Dual Layer The Negotiator In "The Negotiator", Samuel L Jackson, as a hostage negotiator accused of murder, takes hostages of his own at the police headquarters in Chicago.To backtrack, Jackson's character, Danny Roman, is accused of the murder of his partner. And he's accused a little too quickly and easily for me to believe, but, to move forward again, he finds himself taking hostages to prove his innocence.In steps the negotiator from the other part of town, Chris Sabian, played by Kevin Spacey. The two then begin their sparring match, a battle of wits that is such a pure joy to see. Spacey, working his way with words as good as he ever has, is simply fantastic here. Jackson is excellent as well, but I couldn't help but feel the slightest touch of overacting, possibly from some of the corny lines he has. And the entire movie is a little bit overblown. All the sets, a little of the acting, the cinematography, the production, is just a little bit too much. There is such an incredible dramatic core here, the fight of words and minds between two men, it's simply too bad that the filmmakers decided to have gunfire and explosions every so often. I would simply have liked to have seen these two men, talking, in a room for two hours. Because that's simply how good these two actors are. Knock about 20 million dollars out of the budget, keep it small, and this might have been an even better film. It's a credit to the writers that we are able to be kept fairly riveted, even though Jackson's character is obviously innocent. The balance of power is easily and excellently shifted back and forth between the men throughout the film. It's unfortunate that "The Negotiator" gets a few too many action scenes, but there is simply too many scenes of greatness between Kevin Spacey, who gives an outstanding performance, and Samuel L Jackson, who gives a performance filled with rage and anger, to be unhappy with the film's final product. Also, see this film for Russell Carpenter("Titanic")'s simply outstanding cinematography.Also, the film is a little too long. It could have benefited from about 15 minutes of chopping. The Disc: Picture: Excellent. 16x9 enhanced picture is without any compression artifacts and detail and clarity is first rate. There are a few scenes where the camera looks out into the streets of Chicago and one can see nearly every police car and building in the distance, something that was never possible on video. The steel greys of Chicago at night are punctuated by the flashing lights of a police force in the streets; everything is rendered well on this disc, even flesh tones. It seems a little darker overall than when I saw it in the theater, but it still is a very nice looking disc. Audio: Very good as well, with gunfire ringing out across the sound field, and helicopters seemingly flying overhead. Like the last disc I reviewed, "Good Will Hunting", dialogue is excellently and sharply recorded, and it seems like the actors are in the same room, excellent due to the quieter moments in the film where Spacey and Jackson talk back and forth. Menus:Very nice. Scenes from the trailer play behind the main menu. Extras:A very short documentary(about 8 minutes) that is an interview with a real-life hostage negotiator and a "Making Of" that focuses on the Chicago locations; why they used certain buildings and areas of the city. The commentary that was originally promised with Kevin Spacey and Samuel L. Jackson is nowhere to be found, left off of the disk for reasons unknown. The trailer, which was originally not going to be added, is here, along with trailers for "Midnight In The Garden of Good/Evil", "Sphere", "LA Confidential" and "A Time To Kill". We also get production notes about Chicago and text notes as well about the cast/crew. It's dissapointing, though, that the commentary is not here. Overview:A very good movie, and definitely still worthwhile, in my opinion, even though the commentary has been left out. Region:1 Languages:English/French Subtitles:English/French Chapters:39 Running Time:140 Min Rated:R Dual Layer:Yes. Grades: Picture:*** 1/2 Audio:*** 1/2 Extras:*** Film:*** 1/2 Menus:*** 1/2 A. Webmaster, A Guide To Current Film
This Review Originally Appeared On "A Guide TO Current Film"
Rating:
Summary: The Negotiator (1998)
Review: Director: F. Gary Gray
Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Kevin Spacey, Ron Rifkin, John Spencer, J.T. Walsh.
Running Time: 135 minutes.
Rated R for violence and language. When the director has the lucky chance to work with not just one, but TWO of the most exceptional modern actions of the past decade, he should have been licking his chops in anticipation. Director F. Gary Gray (whose previous work was with Ice Cube and Chris Tucker in "Friday") uses the likes of Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey to his advantage, creating a fast-paced action-drama that uses both actors as chess pieces that are intertwined in a suspenseful race against time. Jackson stars as an extremely successful hostage negotiatior who loses his partner in an accident. When he is framed for the accident as murder, he takes matters into his own hands by taking hostages himself. Kevin Spacey is the top-of-the-line officer assigned to assist the police department with consultations with Jackson, only to find himself in the most unique hostate situation he has ever encountered. Both must learn to trust each other, with Jackson attempting to find the true answers about his partner's death and Spacey trying to keep his incredible reputation in tact. Gray does a fine job using the intense script (which unfortunately does have a few logical lapses), producing a motion picture that possesses all the essential ingredients to be a successful and enteraining flick. Jackson is very good in the lead role, while Spacey is as his usual best. Although F. Gary Gray was lucky enough to have excellent people for support, he does a fine job pulling off one of the better action thrillers of the year.
Rating:
Summary: Action Jackson.
Review: Samuel L. Jackson has become quite adept at portraying intense characters who are both likeable and bothersome. His cop in "The Negotiator" is a desperate man, who although perhaps innocent of the charges against him is certainly capable of having done them. By taking hostages, he automatically guarantees himself prison time even if he is exonerated of the murder charges against him, and yet this character cannot help but be likeable and sympathetic in Jackson's hands. Kevin Spacey's negotiator is both arrogant and clever, and the climax of the film shows his expertise at both negotiation and deception. A good suspenseful action film, with Jackson at times over the top but always in charge.
Rating:
Summary: Negotiator is scary
Review: When I saw this I was thinking oh my goodnes what would I do in this situation? A cop takes people hostage?!? And you will wonder that too. In this movie the good guys and the bad guys are hard to tell apart. Whom can you trust? The guy who I realy thought is a great actor is the one who played in Big Fat Liar, remember him? He was the mean studio giuy who stole a script idea, remember? Anyway he's here in this one also. Oh by the way don't forget to make sure you have the right DVD code cause once I bought some in Europe and they never worked here in my house. I am Harold McInnes.
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