Negotiator

ISBN 10: 0790739739 ISBN 13: 9780790739731

Publisher: Warner Studios

Synopsis

The Negotiator

About this title

Synopsis

Maverick hostage negotiaror Danny Roman (Samuel L. Jackson) is framed for embezzlement and murder. Just married and unjustly faced with prison, Roman turns hostage-taker to smoke out the guilty ones. Squaring off against him is respected, methodical negotiator Chris Sabian (Kevin Spacey). F. Gary Gray (The Italian Job, Be Cool) directs a top ensemble cast (including David Morse and J.T. Walsh) in a story honed with spiralling tension and volatile action – and unfolding via a dazzling series of twists and gambits.

From Amazon.co.uk

Although it eventually runs out of smart ideas and resorts to a typically explosive finale, this above-average thriller rises above its formulaic limitations on the strength of powerful performances by Samuel L Jackson and Kevin Spacey. Both play Chicago police negotiators with hotshot reputations, but when Jackson's character finds himself falsely accused of embezzling funds from a police pension fund, he's so thoroughly framed that he must take extreme measures to prove his innocence. He takes hostages in police headquarters to buy time and plan his strategy, demanding that Spacey be brought in to mediate with him as an army of cops threatens to attack, and a media circus ensues. Both negotiators know how to get into the other man's thoughts, and this intellectual showdown allows both Spacey and Jackson to ignite the screen with a burst of volatile intensity. Director F Gary Gray is disadvantaged by an otherwise predictable screenplay, but he has a knack for building suspense and is generous to a fine supporting cast, including Paul Giamatti as one of Jackson's high-strung hostages, and the late JT Walsh in what would sadly be his final big-screen role. The Negotiator should have trusted its compelling characters a little more, probing their psyches more intensely to give the suspense a deeper dramatic foundation, but it's good enough to give two great actors a chance to strut their stuff. --Jeff Shannon

Edition details

• Publisher: Warner Studios
• ISBN 10: 0790739739
• ISBN 13: 9780790739731
• Binding: DVD