Posted: 03/12/2005

Hostage

(2005)

by Clint Fletcher

Can you believe that it’s been almost ten years since Bruce Willis has starred in an action movie? As soon as you hear the man’s name, guns and explosions are automatically what you think of, right? If The Story of Us is what you think of, then get the hell off this page right now. Believe it or not, his last action film was The Fifth Element in 1997. Sure, he’s made a pair of pointless Army movies since then with Tears of the Sun and Hart’s War, but those are hardly action pictures.

Nevertheless, Hostage sure isn’t a bad way to spend 2 hours.

Bruce Willis stars as former Los Angeles negotiator Jeff Talley. After a horrible accident involving the death of an entire family, Jack has now moved to a small and quiet neighborhood in California where he has become the chief of a small precinct. One afternoon, three teenagers decide to hijack a car from a big expensive house they spotted while on the road. Although once they enter the house for the keys, they find themselves taking the family hostage after shooting a cop when the police arrive. Talley is swift in handing the situation over to the city cops, but as he leaves the scene, some men reveal that they’ve kidnapped his family. They claim that there is a DVD inside that household of great importance. Apparently is has some type of decoded message on it. So Talley is forced to go back and assume command, with orders not to let anyone in or out until a team of baddies show up to sneak into the house posing as a team of FBI agents (or were they real?).

While Hostage opens with the most intense 10 minutes since Narc, somewhere along the line the plot just gets too complicated and then later on, downright weird. See, Hostage was written by Doug Richardson, who is responsible for Die Hard 2, Bad Boys and Money Train. While I think he has some talent, he does have a way of leaving too much fat on his scripts that just don’t need to be there. If Hostage were the simple story of a man who must negotiate for his own family’s lives, it would be a much more enjoyable watch. Instead, we have to deal with some very confusing villains, unexplainable decision-making on the part of our hero, and some pretty whacked-out visuals thanks to French director Florent Siri (who?). Bottom line- Hostage was a Bruce Willis Hollywood screenplay that was put into the hands of an artsy-fartsy director who tried to turn this puppy into a film noir piece. What he got instead was one bizarre movie involving people setting themselves on fire and cops stripping down to their boxers during supposed intense sequences. Along with the visuals comes the quirkiest, most offbeat musical score since John Q, and comes close to ruining to the movie altogether. These combined efforts create a very uneven mood, starting with the surreal opening credits (WTF?). In many instances, I didn’t know whether to laugh or try to take that given scene seriously.

While Hostage tries its best to stay on course, it just suffers from too many plot holes to be enjoyed to the full extent. What exactly is on this DVD everyone is after? Why can’t the baddies just wait until the situation with the three teenagers is resolved and then obtain what they want? Why doesn’t Bruce Willis negotiate more, since that’s what the movie is really supposed to be about? Sadly, too many questions are left unanswered.

But hey, it does have a few intense moments, a great Willis shoot-out, and the most diabolical villain (Ben Foster) since John Woo’s Face/Off. Hostage is no Die Hard, but it is guaranteed to cure your boredom on a Sunday afternoon when Striking Distance is out at the video store.

Clint Fletcher is a film critic living in beautiful and currently cold as Hell Chicago.

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