Plot: What’s it about?
If there’s one thing that can be said about Bruce Willis is that he’s one of the more consistent actors out there. His “Die Hard” was essentially the blueprint for every action/thriller movie in the last 15 years and it’s no surprise that it catapulted him to superstardom. He’s had very few downs in his some twenty year career (Ok, “Hudson Hawk”), but he always seems to rebound with another movie. What’s more is that he hasn’t limited himself to just action movies. Take “Pulp Fiction”, “Sin City” and “The Sixth Sense” ” all commercially and critically hailed. On the other hand there’s “The Last Boy Scout”, “Tears of the Sun” and his latest: “Hostage”. The key to a good movie is to give the audience something they haven’t seen before and something that certainly provokes thought. “Hostage” actually manages to do that on a few levels, and even though the concept and the title of the movie are a clich” ” I found it interesting and fun to watch.
Willis plays Jeff Talley, a former hostage negotiator for the LAPD. A negotiation went wrong and everyone, including a young boy, was all killed. Talley took it personally and has since retreated to the suburbs where he’s the chief of police in a small town. As luck would have it, three teenage boys take it upon themselves to steal a car owned by local eccentric, Walter Smith (Kevin Pollack). We never really know what he’s into, but he burns encrypted information on DVD’s and makes a good living at it. The teenagers: Mars (Ben Foster), Dennis (Jonathan Tucker) and Kevin (Marshall Allman) kill a cop and in the panic, a carjacking turns into a hostage situation. What adds a little more depth to the story (and tension) is that Talley’s family has been kidnapped and he’s being held responsible for their lives if he doesn’t recover a certain DVD with the encrypted information on it. So the question is asked: Can Talley diffuse two hostage situations and get him and his family out of it alive?
“Hostage” didn’t exactly light up the box office, but got generally good reviews. The plot has been done a number of times, but I really enjoyed the extra twist with the second hostage situation. In the “small world” department, Willis” real-life daughter, Rumer (Willis) stars as his daughter ” and in the featurette Willis says that she auditioned like everyone else and won the part (yeah, right). While “Hostage” is certainly no “Die Hard”, it’s not really a bad movie. If nothing else, the plot is strong as is the acting and the Smith house is among the coolest I’ve seen in a movie ” I wish I have a house like that at some point in the future. Really, you could do a lot worse and I recommend “Hostage” for a rental at the very least.
Video: How does it look?
“Hostage” is shown in a 2.35:1 AVC HD transfer that looks to be a bit of an improvement over the previous DVD. Some of the interior scenes did seem a bit soft and had the slightest bit of grain in the shadows. Flesh tones seemed warm and natural, the detail has been improved and gives a more clean and smooth look. This is about what you’d expect for a film that’s only 5 years old.
Audio: How does it sound?
More impressive than the video is the DTS HD Master Audio soundtrack. This uncompressed mix is very engrossing. By the end of the film, the house is on fire (fire always sounds great in surround sound), bullets whiz by and the ambiance is there for sure. Dialogue is strong and consistent throughout. “Hostage” delivers a good, action-packed mix and one that brings the film to life.
Supplements: What are the extras?
This new Blu-ray edition features the exact same extras found on the DVD from 2005. We start off with the standard “Behind the Scenes” featurette that runs about 15 minutes. It has the standard fare of cast and crew all talking about the script and such. There are some interesting tidbits here and there, but it’s your standard offering. There are some deleted scenes with optional commentary as well as two extended scenes. Siris’ comments are a bit hard to understand at times (this is the case with the commentary track as well), but he offers up some pretty realistic reasons why the scenes were cut or shortened. The commentary track is filled with little tidbits, but again his thick French accent makes it a bit hard to understand.
