gavin6942 A failed police negotiator turned small town cop, must save the lives of a family held hostage, which draws him into a much more dangerous situation.The film's plot is roughly the same as the novel; the main difference is that a complicated subplot involving the Mafia was removed and the ages of the first group of hostage-takers was lowered slightly.Although reviews on the film seem to be mixed or even negative, Ebert wrote of the plot twists, "This is ingenious, and adds an intriguing complexity to what could have been a one-level story." And he is right. The film is complex, but never in a way that seems contrived. Impossible, maybe, but without the reality of film quite sensible.Bruce Willis is a great action star, and while action films may have faded since the 1980s, Willis never faded with them. He continues to bring a certain level of excitement to his pictures and it is no surprise the "Die Hard" franchise has been successful long after other franchises have fallen off.

jdonalds-5 This just wasn't a very good story line to begin with. It seemed like the main point of the director was to scare the audience and to show a lot of people getting killed. Two sets of bad guys really!Bruce Willis's character wasn't up to the usual Bruce Willis style which is a lot tougher.Really if I hadn't been doing something else worthwhile during the time I had this playing I might have just turned it off.I give it 4 stars out of 10 just because there was some action in the movie. I think the story should have been rejected but the director made an even bigger mess out of the story.

Ben Larson If you haven't seen Hostage, a 2005 film staring Bruce Willis, you have to watch. Man I had to go to the bathroom, but could not leave my seat! I could not miss a moment of this film no matter how painful it was to stay.This film had all the action and excitement of Die Hard and Willis was fantastic as a hostage negotiator that was trying to - well I won't tell you because that it part of the excitement that makes this movie what it is. Just look for it on cable and enjoy, but please go to the bathroom before it starts. You'll thank me later.

sddavis63 There was an exceptionally good movie here. Bruce Willis turned in a pretty good performance as Jeff Talley. As the movie opens, Talley is an LAPD hostage negotiator, whose job goes wrong when a negotiation he's leading fails, and several people - including a young boy - die. Fast forward a year and Talley has given up as a hostage negotiator and settled in as chief of police in a small California town. Unexpectedly, though, a family is taken hostage after a home invasion by a gang of young thugs, and Talley has to deal with the situation. That could have made a very good movie in itself. It had more than enough suspense and excitement to sustain itself, and it even had a perfectly sinister villain in the off the wall Mars, played by Ben Foster. The movie would have been much stronger had it simply revolved around that story, with Talley dealing with the type of situation he thought he had left behind, and battling inner demons while doing so. But those who made this couldn't leave well enough alone.Adding the plot point about Talley's family being taken hostage by a gang of criminals wanting to get a DVD in the possession of the owner of the invaded home did nothing for me except confuse things. I have no objection to good plot twists, but this seemed an unnecessary add-on to what was a good movie, and it only served to create chaos in the story."Hostage" is exciting. There's no doubt at all about that. But it's also far too chaotic for my taste. (4/10)