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- Cert:
- Cat.no: EDV 9315
- Running time: 109 minutes
- Year: 2005
- Pressing: 2005
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 16 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English
- Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Anamorphic Panavision)
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras: Behind the Scenes, Deleted and Extended Scenes, Audio Commentary
Director:
- Florent Siri
(Hostage, The Nest, Une minute de silence, Game: Splinter Cell)
Producers:
- Mark Gordon, Arnold Rifkin, Bruce Willis and Bob Yari
Screenplay:
- Doug Richardson
(from a novel by Robert Crais)
Cast:
- Jeff Talley: Bruce Willis
Walter Smith: Kevin Pollak
Tommy Smith: Jimmy Bennett
Jennifer Smith: Michelle Horn
Mars Krupcheck: Ben Foster
Dennis Kelly: Jonathan Tucker
Kevin Kelly: Marshall Allman
Jane Talley: Serena Scott Thomas
Amanda Talley: Rumer Willis
The Watchman: Kim Coates
Wil Bechler: Robert Knepper
Laura Shoemaker: Tina Lifford
Hostage came out on DVD in the summer of last year so it’s taken me a fair time to get round to watching it, but as one or two decent films and games can come out each week it’s inevitable that some stuff will get missed, but it’s nice to be rewarded with a solid two hours of entertainment by the end of that wait.
After some fantastic, and decidedly unique opening titles with brilliant and atmospheric theme music, we see Bruce Willis as Jeff Talley (right), a rather tired hostage negotiator who has been around the block too many times and is starting to make mistakes, such as with this movie’s opener where he delays when the chance to take down a man, holed up in a house with his wife and child, presents itself. They lose the shot and… you can work out the rest.
Shattered, one year on he takes a job as Chief of Police in smalltown Bristo Camino in Ventura County, California. There’s very little crime around but things are about to change as three youths break into the elaborate and security-conscious house of businessman Walter Smith (Kevin Pollak) and his children Tommy (Jimmy Bennett) and Jennifer (the very hot Michelle Horn, bottom-right) which is where things start to get rather like Panic Room because the house is like Fort Knox, although (a) this one’s lived-in and (b) how could anyone break in so easily, realistically?
Talley shows up, now looking rather different in his new job (right), responding to a call, to find things out-of-control as he arrives, with one cop down already and he has to take charge, but it’s starting to feel all too familiar and, worrying that a similar situation might ensue as happened a year before he puts control of the situation into the hands of another officer. However, something happens and things are brought very close to home for him. To go into further deal would spoil any surprises within.
In Hostage, Willis veers sharply quite often between sleepwalking through the film and showing flashes of Die Hard-style genius when it counts. He just doesn’t seem to be firing on all cylinders inbetween, but there’s still enough going on to keep it entertaining during those times. Kevin Pollak gets a high billing, but he’s the Dad of the terrorised family and is knocked out early on so it’s the kids who are left to do far more. That said, the adults further on in the cast list are used very sparsely.
The three lads who break in are led by Mars (Ben Foster, who I last saw playing Russell the experimental teenager and boyfriend of Claire in the wonderful Six Feet Under), Dennis (Jonathan Tucker, who also appeared in SFU but had a very brief appearance in the first episode of season 4 at the start as the teenager Bruno who died after throwing himself off the top of a building back in the early ’70s… the only death that springs to mind which happened in the past in that show) and his brother Kevin (Marshall Allman, currently on our screens as the timid LJ in Five’s superb Prison Break, and behaving in a similar fashion here since he’s the reluctant one of the three).
Of the rest of the cast, Robert Knepper will also be known to viewers of the aforementioned prison drama as sick paedophile T-Bag, but sadly he shows absolutely none of that flair here when taking the role of hostage negotiator Wil Bechler. Similarly, Serena Scott Thomas does absolutely nothing for the acting world by appearing as Talley’s wife, Jane. She really can’t act to save her life and, talking of which, when bullets start flying you just wish that one would be directed to her location. One of Willis’ kids, Rumer, appears as his daughter Amanda, but she only seems to get one line and that appears in the deleted scenes(!)
On the downside, whatever goes on in this film you don’t really care about whether the lads will make it out with the money stolen from the house ($4m in cash) or whether Smith’s offspring will live because kids in movies can be annoying brats.
However, the movie does deliver a few knock-out shock moments, some of which I haven’t seen done before and as such I’d like to see this director expand on those in future films including – apparently – next year’s Die Hard 4.0 if the rumours are to be believed. Obviously, I can’t say what the shock moments are but you’ll see them when they appear out of nowhere.
All that said, be assured it’s one trip very well worth taking by the time the film comes to the end and it redeems a lot of its faults, although on a similar note it is all about Talley’s redemption as he tries to right the wrongs of his past from a year before.
There’s not a single glitch to be found on the 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen image, which will not lend itself to being cropped to 16:9 for eventual TV broadcast (when will TV execs learn that the general public are used to such an image now and won’t complain about “black bars”, given the abundance of DVDs in the same ratio as well as the same effect being applied to many music promos.
Soundwise, there’s just Dolby Digital 5.1 here even though a DTS soundtrack was created for the film. That said, it still has many scenes in which to prove its worth and your neighbours will get suitably annoyed with the volume turned up high for the many explosions and gunshots throughout.
The extras below are all presented in 4:3 with all film clips in a letterboxed 2.35:1 ratio, but there’s not a huge amount to get excited about:
Deleted and Extended Scenes (6:53) which all have an optional director’s commentary. There’s 8 altogether, but of them all I’d only put back the last two into the film. Without giving anything away, the penultimate one might actually give a reason to why they bothered to give Willis’ character a daughter, as there she has something to say, as well have giving things more relevance reflecting back to the first part of the film.
Behind the Scenes (12:37): Clips of the film mixed in with back-patting soundbites from key cast and crew personel. Nothing to get particularly excited about here as there’s nothing out of the ordinary that you wouldn’t expect.
Audio Commentary: From director Florent Siri
The DVD menu has some brief motion and audio in keeping with film’s opening titles, there are 16 chapters which isn’t enough for a film almost two hours in length and subtitles are in English only.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL 
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.