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Hostage (2005)
Rate:
6
Viewed:
8/21
8/21:
Hostage works well on the entertainment level but completely falls apart when I think about it a little bit.
The deeper Chief Talley is into the hostage situation, the more he works in a vacuum. Thus, where's everybody else? How can
he be doing it all alone and not be held accountable? It's impossible. After killing everybody, why is
Talley so sure that the problem will finally cease?
I don't know if anyone noticed, but racism is subtle throughout the film. At first, a black female cop is shot dead. Later,
Talley orders his black deputy to do a few simple things including going to the hospital to answer a routine phone call, and
he's never seen again who was also ordered earlier to do something about his inappropriate shoes. Dealing with Walter
Smith, Talley forces the black EMT to perform a dangerous medical procedure that can potentially cost the patient's life and
his job. In the middle of the second hostage situation, he tries to go for the black female's throat after she's upset about
how he was mishandling it and then relieved him of his command. Yet no white person is shown to have done anything similar
that pissed off Talley.
At first, I thought Hostage was going to suck because of the pretentious introduction that's overladen with CGI.
Then, my suspicion had been confirmed when Talley was being insulting by calmly laying down on the ground while dealing with
the volatile hostage situation that eventually cost the lives of a man, his wife, and their child.
However, the movie steadily improves when the next hostage situation is underway. Despite his constant crocodile tears, Bruce
Willis is the star; he's the singular reason why the movie works. Yet the acting by the youngsters is terrible. They happen to be
either world-class sharpshooters or amazing Molotov cocktail throwers, and one of them thinks he's the Crow. Nonetheless,
the action is gripping, and the little boy gets to be John McClane, Jr., crawling through the air ducts or whatever the fuck
they are.
I was curious if the sought-after DVD contained child pornography. But it turns out to be accounting junk. Uh,
okay...nobody desperately needs the information by going this way! What a waste of time. I find it hard to believe
that the girl wasn't raped. Of course, it's nice to spend so much time with the bad guys that none of their faces is ever
revealed.
All in all, trying to be the next success after The Negotiator was made,
Hostage is ultimately ruined by the unintelligent fanboy filmmaking.