The Negotiator (1998)

The Negotiator

Someone is embezzling money from the police department, and when Danny Roman is accused of the deed, he ends up taking several hostages within the department when things escalate and get out of hand. Danny has lost confidence in everyone in his own department, so he requests hostage negotiator Chris Sabian to help negotiate, and help prove his innocence. As the situation gets to a critical level, pieces of the puzzle start to fall into place. This is a very intense emotional suspense movie. Samuel Jackson and Kevin Spacey turn in phenomenal performances. This thrill a minute film is a definite must see.
April 5, 2008

In any business transaction there is a process

To do well you must learn how to negotiate. As we all know we don't negotiate with hostages. December 24, 2007

Solid Jackson and Spacey

This is by a far one of my favorites to pop in when I want some great acting and action. Good suspense and good story make this well worth your time. By far one of the greatest cop movies. When a few cops go bad, they try to cover up by casting dirt on a hostage negotiator portrayed by Samuel Jackson. When he realizes he is in over his head he takes hostages and calls for an outside negotiator, played by Kevin Spacey, he thinks is clean. He must then figure out a way to let Spacey in on what is going on without getting anyone killed in the process. I highly recommend purchasing this if you like police or detective movies. August 14, 2007

Excellent movie with realistic negotiation tactics

I had seen this movie many times over the past few years, but decided to buy it to incorporate into a presentation I recently did on Crisis/Hostage Negotiation. It was the first time that I watched the movie with the intent of evaluating the accuracy of the movie's portrayal of actual negotiations. I was surprised how accurate the negotiation processes were portrayed in the movie...it matched many of the conflict communication theories I studied.

On the entertainment side, getting Kevin Spacey and Samuel L. Jackson together in the movie surely didn't hurt. Good cast, decent story line, well put together and enjoyable to watch. June 8, 2007

One of the best action-thrillers

The Negotiator is an excellent action/thriller with 2 great performances from Kevin Spacey and Samuel Jackson. Despite being billed as an action film, this isn't your standard brainless Van Damme flick. The impression throughout the movie is tense. The best thing about the movie is the dialogue.

Both Spacey and Jackson are negotiators. Jackson is accused of murdering his partner and is determined to prove his innocence. He does a good job acting as an on the edge, almost out of control guy to the negotiators but also does a good job convincing his hostages and the audience that he is innocent. Spacey arrives almost half way thru the movie but is outstanding in his scenes. He immediately takes over the negotiations with Jackson's character from a helpless, nervous negotiator who Jackson made a complete fool of in a couple of especially good scenes.

This film made sense, and provided a good, logical ending. I wish more movies were half as good as this one. The plot twists are interesting, and not as shallow as the average film in the genre. The story is very original, and Gary Gray is in my opinion one of the most underrated directors today and deserves credit for putting this together. Fans of the genre should admire this movie, while many others can probably appreciate what it has to offer. Solid entertainment for 140 minutes.
May 29, 2007

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