The Negotiator is a brilliant movie with a really well developed storyline and a fantastic cast.The movie is very intense,mainly because of the outstanding dramatic performances delivered by Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey,the films plot easily could have been given to any well known action star who would bring in the money but not a great performance,but instead they got Jackson and Spacey,who aren't necessarily action stars,and we get to enjoy this movie much more and feel even more for these characters.I was having trouble finding Jackson's character likable,which he was obviously suppose to be,but he held a bunch of people hostage in order to prove his own innocence,but was committing a crime in the meantime,although I did like seeing him use both personalities as he is great at being both a good and evil character.Action packed and very intense,I would definitely recommend the Negotiator to anyone looking for a good crime drama or action. A hostage negotiator who is framed for the murder of his partner decides to take some hostages of his own.Best Performance: Samuel L. Jackson

This may have been highly rated by many in the 1998 but seen again in 2013 it fails to convince.The premise is good - two negotiators on opposing sides set up like two chess masters, each trying to out maneuver the other. This set up is not exploited to the full, if at all. The dialogue is never sharp and there is little by way of maneuvering. A missed opportunity with a cerebral actor such as Kevin Spacey on the books.The direction is claustrophobic, confused and never slick and if you didn't know better you might think it was filmed in the 80's. The Usual Suspects filmed in 1995 could pass for a recent release so I'm not sure how the production of this movie three years later could be so unpolished and dated.And then there is the Samuel L Jackson character who, having appeared to execute a hostage, stands in a blown out full length window taunting the police. They have at least six snipers with red laser sights traced on his chest and not one of them takes a shot. He has four more hostages to execute and they decline the opportunity to end the siege and save the remaining hostages. That is a suspension of disbelief too far and there are plenty of others.Hopefully someone will rewrite the script and give this premise the treatment it deserves well inside the 2 hour mark.

The Negotiator is directed by F. Gary Gray who also directed Friday and Set It Off comes The Negotiator. Now unlike Friday and Set It Off which were deemed Box Office Sucsesses earning more than there budget back, The Negotiator was a Box Office Failure failing to bring back 6 million dollars from it's budget. The budget was $50,000,000 and it only brought back $44,000,000, which is a shame because this was a great film.The film tells the story of Danny Roman played by Samuel L. Jackson whose job is to be a hostage negotiator. One day he is framed by the police for embezzlement and murder. Upset with being wrongly framed Roman takes hostages to get to the bottom of what happened. He meets fellow hostage negotiator Chris Sabian played by Kevin Spacey who walks Danny through everything. Pretty soon the clock starts running out and Danny must choose a fate between Life and Death.This is a great movie that threw me for a loop even at times I didn't even see it coming. This movie does not use the same old tired formula, It decides to take a very different turn and thats a good thing. The acting is phenomenal, The story is well conceived and there is real chemistry between the two leads who play off each other very well. If you have not seen this I would recommend it for anybody that wants a taste of something different.Rated R For Violence And Language.2hrs 20min/140min.86 uses of the F-word.****/****

When this movie was brought to my attention a few days ago, I wondered how it could have passed me by, given that I am a voracious film-buff, and given the all-star cast.The review that alerted me was on a list of the best Kevin Spacey movies, and made mention of excellent performances by Spacey and L. Jackson.However, having sat through it, I can see why it passed me by, why none of my other movie-buff friends had ever mentioned it. I've never rated L. Jackson, so did not have high expectations of his role, but it was the most unbelievable OTT performance I think I've ever seen - sillier than Al Pacino at the end of The Recruit. Sillier than Phone Booth and every episode of 24 rolled into one unit. Hell, it's even sillier than the Ezekiel 25:17 nonsense that came from the pen of Quentin Tarantino.As for Spacey, it's easily the worst thing I've ever seen him do.All I'm left with is a stronger conviction not to listen to my whims when provoked by some random list on the internet.If you have taste in movies, avoid this one.