Rating of
2.5/4
"Hostage" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 04/16/12
A burnt out cop sick of the violence in Los Angeles takes a job as police chief in a quiet smalltown community when three petty thieves take a rich family hostage. To describe this film as Die Hard with an annoying kid and no laughs would be a little unfair, but not a million miles from the truth. It's nicely shot, and Willis brings his usual star presence but it's just so generic. The characters and plot are all so predictable that you know how it's going to end right from the very start ie. the usual cocktail of SWAT teams, hostage negotiation, and brave kids sticking together through adversity leading up to the inevitable slo-mo shoot out. The action is well handled and it's hard to fault technically, but there's little here to mark it out from such an overcrowded marketplace of extremely similar Hollywood thrillers. In fact easily the most memorable part of the film is it's particularly nice title sequence...
