Hostage

Review by Richard Lee

Buena Vista Home Entertainment / 2005 / 113 Minutes / Rated R
Street Date: June 21, 2005

Specifications:
-DVD-Video
-DVD-9
-Region 1

Aspect Ratio:
-2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen

Audio:
-English 5.1
-French 5.1

Subtitles:
-Spanish
-English(for the hearing impaired)
-None

Main Menu:
-Play Movie
-Set Up
-Scene Selection
-Special Features
-Sneak Peeks

Special Features:
-Taking Hostage Behind The Scenes
-Deleted Scenes
-Extended Scenes
-Feature Commentary

After a ten year stint doing science-fiction, talking to a kid who sees dead people, battling guerillas in Nigeria, or doing really bad comedies, Bruce Willis is back in his element as a cop who must contend with some really bad people. Bruce plays Jeff Talley, a hostage negotiator who, at the start of the movie, sees a hostage situation go horribly awry due to his decision. This prompts him to quit the negotiating business and retreat to the safe confines of a Ventura County suburb where we find him a year later as police chief. Unfortunately for Talley, trouble yields its ugly head again for him in the form of three young men who decide to commandeer a rich family’s SUV for the hell of it. This escalates into another hostage situation as the men imprison the family in their own heavily-fortified home and to complicate matters even more, the loose cannon of the three, Mars, played by Ben Foster, impulsively kills one of Talley’s on-duty officers. The plot gets thicker as we learn that the father of the family, played by Kevin Pollack, has ties to people of even worse moral fiber who were expecting the delivery of an encrypted DVD at the time the incident took place. As a means of obtaining the DVD, these people take Talley’s own family hostage and demand that he himself recover the item or suffer the consequences. Faced with a moral dilemma of his own, Talley must decide whether to put his own interests in front of his duty as a police officer.

Frankly, it’s good to see Bruce back in the kind of role best suited for him; believe it or not, it’s been ten years since he played a cop in “Die Hard With A Vengeance”. “Hostage”, in my opinion, marks a welcome return of Willis in top form along with another 2005 release “Sin City”. French director Florent Siri, known for directing the “Splinter Cell” video games, brings his vision to his first American made motion picture and it’s an auspicious debut. The suspense is well-staged and kudos go to the production design team for constructing the home that is the center-piece of this movie; it essentially plays out like one of the characters of the story as we see it unfold its security systems and nifty crawl spaces. The characterizations are clear cut; we know who is good, who is bad, and who is caught in the middle, so to speak. Although the youngest of the three men suffers an attack of conscience, it is to no avail as Mars, played with creepy conviction by Foster proves to be the most merciless of the trio; his and Willis’ performances are the standouts of this movie.

Picture Quality:

Given the director’s video game background, the artistic design of the main titles appear more like a video game than a live action movie; in fact, with the deep black and red color scheme, I was reminded of the look of “Sin City”. The rest of the movie plays out with indoor and nighttime shots so there are plenty of deep blacks and shadows; daytime has a profound high temperature feel like the sun was beating down in the arid summer season; it may not have been summer but that’s what it looked like. The overall color scheme was limited to dark hues and flesh tones save for the scenes in the girl’s bedroom which had noticeable reds and neons; many characters wore black in the form of shirts, leather jackets, or black masks. Detail was sharp and crisp with no apparent edge enhancement.

Audio Quality:

The dolby digital 5.1 mix was aggressive when it needed to be; in scenes where fire and gunplay were taking place, the soundfield and music score enveloped the listener; the familiar helicopter flybys made sweeping use of the rears; only complaint – the LFE channel could have been more evident; in the scenes with gunshots and flames, the bass levels were almost completely devoid of the rumble factor. Turning up the subwoofer volume could remedy this but one shouldn’t have to. 

Scenes for Demonstration Purposes: (91:26) – Rescue of the hostages and burning of the house.

Special Features:

On start up, the DVD gives you previews of “Sin City”, “Scary Movie 3.5” – an exclusive DVD release, and “Cursed”. “Taking Hostage Behind The Scenes” is a 13 minute featurette with cast and crew interviews relating the movie’s story and character motivations. Everyone spews admiration for Willis and Willis himself states how his daughter Rumer had to audition for the role of his daughter in the movie. Next, we have six deleted scenes which can be played individually or all at once, with or without director commentary; although two of them add more to story development, all were cut to maintain the movie’s pacing. Extended scenes give us two very slight extensions; one with more Rumer and one with more gore during a self-immolation scene; both can be viewed with or without director commentary. Feature commentary is provided by director Florent Siri who has a heavy French accent and may be difficult to understand. Finally, Sneak Peeks give us trailers for the afore-mentioned movies plus “Dracula 3”, “Hellraiser: Hellworld”, and “The Prophecy”.