Critic Reviews
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Andrew Sarris, New York Observer
Visually stylish but highly improbable.
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Rex Reed, New York Observer
Hostage is all the pulp thriller Bruce Willis movies you've seen before.
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Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper
I thought, this is going to be a first-rate thriller, nobody plays that kind of character better than Bruce Willis, he's great at that. And then it just gets more and more complicated and more and more ridiculous.
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Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
A tired formula.
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David Edelstein, Slate
Speaking of torture, if you dig it, by all means lock yourself up for two hours with Hostage, which begins by administering electric shocks to your viscera and keeps upping the voltage.
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Michael Booth, Denver Post
For action movie fans who require just a touch of depth and mystery between gunshots, Hostage could make for a satisfying night at the movies.
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John A. Nesbit, Old School Reviews
you've seen this movie before
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Nell Minow, Common Sense Media
Very violent hostage drama.
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Cole Smithey, ColeSmithey.com
This is one movie that would be incomplete without a soda, some popcorn, and a box of chocolate covered something.
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Rob Gonsalves, eFilmCritic.com
Reasonably competent and breathlessly paced.
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Prairie Miller, Long Island Press
Mostly a nerve jangling thriller, but you know there's something not quite right about a movie when you're wondering more about why such a plush mansion on fire doesn't have a better sprinkler system.
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Peter T. Chattaway, Christianity Today
It revels in a sort of operatic vulgarity. And once the story exhausts its over-the-top cheesiness, there are still a few loose ends to tie up, and so the film drags on.
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Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
It's about as meaningful as a pile of clichés.
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Jorge Avila Andrade, Moviola
Estamos ante una historia interesante, en la que los personajes dejan de ser las caricaturas habituales de siempre para convertirse en seres humanos reales.
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David Levine, Filmcritic.com
chaotic and clichéd
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John J. Puccio, Movie Metropolis
Willis manages to be the best thing in the picture, and largely because of him I was willing to overlook the plot's ridiculous loopholes and exaggerations.
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Pablo Villaca, Cinema em Cena
O tipo de filme que deveria ter sido estrelado por Steven Seagal ou Dolph Lundgren e lançado diretamente em vídeo e DVD.
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Shay Casey, FilmFocus
Much like Jeff Talley himself, Hostage badly needed a shave.
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Karina Montgomery, Cinerina
Movies can be smart movies, masquerading as stupid ones - this may be the smartest stupid movie you see all year. Either way, it's just what you're looking for.
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Vince Koehler, Entertainment Spectrum
If you enjoyed the die-hard films of earlier years, this should be a big winner for you.
Read all 26 critic reviews
Featured Audience Ratings
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Willis plays a worn out big city cop (his career cliche) negotiator who scales back his life and tries to go country to relax ... guess what happens? Ben Foster actually plays the psycho killer cliche with praiseworthy empathy in this rote action/thriller exercise with no surprises.
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Run of the mill Bruce Willis action flick and I love me some Bruce Willis so it was definitely a good time. I did feel like this was an older movie, not sure if that's a good thing or not.
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Not as bad as I thought it would be but it suffers from having annoying kids in it and a very overused storyline.
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"I'm your brother! So you gotta choose. Me, or Mars?
- I choose the money."
"Hostage" was Bruce Willis' rise back to the A-class of action movie stars. Directed by Florent Siri, this movie was one of the better action movies of 2005.
The cast in… More
"I'm your brother! So you gotta choose. Me, or Mars?
- I choose the money."
"Hostage" was Bruce Willis' rise back to the A-class of action movie stars. Directed by Florent Siri, this movie was one of the better action movies of 2005.
The cast in "Hostage" features a lot of talented young actors. Ben Foster and Jonathan Tucker have done, during the last few years, some good work, so I expect good performances from them in the future.
"Hostage" is a good acted, exciting film with some explicit violent scenes. The actions of the kids are brutal and unplanned. Bruce Willis' small town cop, formerly employed as a negotiator, has to save the hostages also because his familys lifes are at stake...
Good to see Willis do that what he's best at. "Hostage" is one of Willis' most notable performances. A pure adrenaline rush with some twists that will keep you on the edge.
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Great movie with many complex twists to the plot. Tally (Bruce Willis) is a former hostage negotiator who has changed jobs to get away from the guilt of losing two hostages in his last job. He is now chief of police in a small town. He gets a call to an accountant's house, where… More
Great movie with many complex twists to the plot. Tally (Bruce Willis) is a former hostage negotiator who has changed jobs to get away from the guilt of losing two hostages in his last job. He is now chief of police in a small town. He gets a call to an accountant's house, where three teenagers are holding his family hostage. The accountant is dodgy and the criminals want a DVD that is in the house. Tally's own family are held hostage to ensure they get the DVD. Will Tally risk another family to save his own?
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Willis isn't so much Die Hard as he is Try Hard. A cop who no longer wants all the action that comes with a job. Shame then that his peaceful existence is shattered by a hostage situation gone bad. The film's core is then interestingly split by the arrival of a second plot.… More
Willis isn't so much Die Hard as he is Try Hard. A cop who no longer wants all the action that comes with a job. Shame then that his peaceful existence is shattered by a hostage situation gone bad. The film's core is then interestingly split by the arrival of a second plot. Bruce is stuck in the middle of a very unpredictable situation. The three hostage takers are excellent, Tucker as the one who thinks he is in charge and the underrated Foster as the unpredictable psychopath. The second plot that comes forth does make for an interesting action movie but also elevates the occurrence of preposterous sequences. Still it's an engaging plot with fairly well fleshed out characters.
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Bruce Willis is at his best. A tension-loaded, suspense-filled and action-packed psyhcological thriller. Chilling and totally exhilerating. Brilliant and ingenious. It's as exciting and thrilling as movies get. Packs plenty of surprises. Stylish, smart and blisteringly… More
Bruce Willis is at his best. A tension-loaded, suspense-filled and action-packed psyhcological thriller. Chilling and totally exhilerating. Brilliant and ingenious. It's as exciting and thrilling as movies get. Packs plenty of surprises. Stylish, smart and blisteringly entertaining. A barrels blasting edge of your seat thrill-machine. Hostage totally rocks. Quentin Tarantino meets Alfred Hitchcock. More exhilerating than Die Hard. Well-crafted, well-performed and terifficlly skilled. Loads of white-knucle tension and explosive action.
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This was a pretty good thriller, and a few twists and turns along the way to keep you guessing. Bruce Willis is one of my all time favorite action thriller stars, you can never ignore one of his movies, and this is one lots of people can enjoy.
I guess it follows in the tradition of… More
This was a pretty good thriller, and a few twists and turns along the way to keep you guessing. Bruce Willis is one of my all time favorite action thriller stars, you can never ignore one of his movies, and this is one lots of people can enjoy.
I guess it follows in the tradition of many cop thrillers such as The Negotiator and Speed, a great thrill ride with a great climactic moment till the end.... the as such with these movies, destined to fade away into obscurity... :-(
Though not much in high voltage action scenes, its thrilling was okay... not the best but passable enough. Willis manages to keep it moving so i guess his star power is still going good. Though I believe The Negotiator is still the better movie, of course with double the star power with Sam Jackson and Kevin Spacey and more twists and turns than a Pac Man maze.
Anyways, as it is, a one off cop movie which is great the first time, good the next, alright the third, forgotten in the fourth.
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Another Bruce Willis as a cop who saves the day movie? Yes and No. The film starts with a really cool looking title sequence and gets right in the middle of things. The cinematography is really pretty to look at the and the house of the hostage situation really unique. The situation… More
Another Bruce Willis as a cop who saves the day movie? Yes and No. The film starts with a really cool looking title sequence and gets right in the middle of things. The cinematography is really pretty to look at the and the house of the hostage situation really unique. The situation is quite interesting, even if somewhat over the top, the movie is quite bloody too. The thrilller is entertaining at every point yet somehow the showdown feels bit forced and isn't entirely satisfying. That's still decent entertainment for fans of Willis or the genre, but somehow I can't put my finger on what's been missing. I just know something has.
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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… More
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...
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"Hostage" was very well done. Of course, underneath it all, Bruce Willis plays the reluctant hero that is dragged into a crisis situation because of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But the story and suspense soon make you forget how Bruce Willis' character… More
"Hostage" was very well done. Of course, underneath it all, Bruce Willis plays the reluctant hero that is dragged into a crisis situation because of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But the story and suspense soon make you forget how Bruce Willis' character was forced into the story. The movie was allowed to thrive and continue primarily because of the house that everything went down in and its massive size. Very rarely do you see movies cohesively deal with two hostage situations that are linked together. There is just enough action and suspense to keep the tempo up, and the ending was rather good.
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i really reeally enjoyed it i thought it was a really great film and bruce willis is funy and excellant in it its a great action packed gun shooting film and worth the watch
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This was an interesting film. Lots of action but definitely a different point of view then the audience is used to.
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Nothing to write home about with this one, just a very average film
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A great crime thriller as a mafia accountant is taken hostage at his state of the art home. Bruce has to play negotiater while the mafia have his family. Great build up in tension as the clock starts ticking down for Bruce to do his bit and the stakes are raised.
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Fantastic thriller with Bruce Willis makes a wonderful performance as a former negotiator who reassume his command on three deliquents who take a family hostage after his own family is also hostage by the mob.
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If you enjoyed the die-hard films of earlier years, this should be a big winner for you.
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The movie tries to be a lot of things, but ends up having too much. Still, Willis is putting up a good performance and up until the end there is a passable film here with lots of style. As for the end, too much with the teenagers and everything really goes to hell once the fire… More
The movie tries to be a lot of things, but ends up having too much. Still, Willis is putting up a good performance and up until the end there is a passable film here with lots of style. As for the end, too much with the teenagers and everything really goes to hell once the fire starts.
Read all 20 featured audience ratings
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