Never Say No To A Hostage Taker
Samuel L. plays Danny Roman, a successful police officer of Chicago police who’s primary role is crisis negotiator. He’s cooled down many situations over his career and the film opens up with an example of one such situation. At a departmental party that evening, Danny’s good friend and fellow officer confides in him that he believes some major embezzling of funds is taking place from within the force, from corrupt cops they might normally call friends. The following night, the two plan to meet, but his friend is murdered just before Danny arrives. Danny is being framed, but only he knows it.
Within forty-eight hours, things quickly escalate as planted evidence implicates Danny. He realizes he won’t be
heard and takes several hostages in a downtown Chicago building including a police inspector that Danny’s friend named as being involved. This inspector, his assistant, a small time crook who Danny arrested years before, and another high ranking officer of the police force are all hostage now. Danny makes it clear that he only wants to deal with an outside negotiator, Chris Sabian, who is played by Kevin Spacey.
Sabian is another excellent negotiator that comes into this emergency with one clear objective: get the hostages safe. In the meantime, his own suspicions and the facts that Danny is able to present throughout the night convince Sabian that Danny is being framed. By this time, the FBI has taken over and ordered a full breach with orders to shoot on sight. Is Sabian too late to help Danny? Will the real bad guys get away?
The Negotiator is one of those films that never got around to seeing, but had always had an interest in. Now eleven years after its theatrical release, I just saw it for my first time on this Blu-ray. It’s a very captivating film. Not surprisingly the two lead stars turn in excellent performances as it typical for Jackson and Spacey. Meanwhile the supporting roles include a lot of familiar and veteran actors like David Morse, Ron Rifkin, and John Spencer, who also do a great job. The pacing of the film is great, and the mix of negotiating tension and tactical action are very well blended.
On Blu-ray
Warner’s done a nice job with this Blu-ray. The image and sound quality are solid throughout. Video is presented in a 16:9 2.4:1 ratio while the audio is Dolby TrueHD 5.1. French, Spanish, and Italian 5.1 tracks are also included, and subtitle tracks for nearly a dozen languages, too. I was impressed by the consistency of the image quality that is vibrant and sharp throughout. I didn’t notice any artifacting or grain at all, even during the darker scenes.
As for extra features, there are only two, and neither of these are new for this Blu-ray. You get:
-The 11th Hour: Stories From Real Negotiators (7m, SD) – This sounds really exciting, and it is interesting, but it’s also very short. An LAPD SWAT officer who is also a crisis negotiator tells a few interesting stories and just some general tactics and goals of being a negotiator.
-On Location: Making of Featurette (17m, SD) – The primary purpose of this documentary is for the crew, including Director F. Gary Gray, to talk about why they chose Chicago as the location of the film as opposed to New York or LA. Plenty of other details about the production are divulged including pictures.
-Theatrical Trailer – The two and a half minute trailer that is presented in SD is included.
The Negotiator Blu-ray release almost gets it completely right. For one, it’s a great film. Secondly, the presentation is very well done with a consistently impressive image and sound quality. Where this release lacks the most is in the extra features, and while what’s included isn’t bad, adding something new to this Blu-ray release would have been sweet. Ultimately, this is a solid release that DVD owners of the film should strongly considering upgrading to and newcomers should check out.