nan | 楠木

On the cover of the Hostage DVD the film is billed as Die Hard meets Panic Room, which from its sheer cheesiness is a somewhat ominous sign of a bad movie. And indeed it is a fairly average film, better at generating yawns rather than adrenaline.

The film, starring veteran action star Bruce Willis, portrays a former top police negotiator Jeff Talley (Willis) who leaves the big city because of a gruesome on-the-job ordeal, which left a permanent scar in his memory. However down in his small county where he’s police chief, another hostage situation arises, when three good-for-nothing kids break into a rich mansion, and things get out of hand very quickly after they take the whole family (father, daughter and younger son) as hostage.

As if things weren’t enough, there’s another angle to the story: Talley’s own family is also taken hostage, by some really nasty bad guys, who the owner of the mansion works for. The reason? They want something from the mansion, and they want it quickly, so they need Talley to quickly resolve the situation. And thus the basic premise for the whole film.

The plot is not very inspiring – basically recycled concepts from lots of prior films. However since it’s a proven formula, if the plot is well-tuned and the film well executed, it should provide a good two hours of Hollywood entertainment. Unfortunately this film fails to do so.  I feel the film, in its effort to compensate for the unoriginal premise, tries to throw in too much and ends up hard to believe. For example, one of the three hostage takers is portrayed as a psycho, who gives people creepy looks and does creepy things like tying up the girl and then resting in her arms. I felt this character setting was unnecessary and distracting.

But in general, the film has a big issue with the thrill and suspense it’s building – i.e. there’s none. And then there’s some quite unnecessary blood and gore, which seems to be trying to say something (that Talley is angry, maybe?) but just feels overdone. On the whole, the film lacks the elements of a solid thriller.

5/10