Hostage

One movie critic suggested in their review that if you like "Diehard" you will like "Hostage". Don't be fooled thinking that these two movies are at the same level. Just because Bruce Willis is the good-guy action hero in both does not make them the same.

Willis stars as Jeff Taley, a burned out Los Angeles hostage negotiator. Having moved to a smaller town to get away from the violence of LA, Taley and his family struggle to adjust to the simple life. Ah, but if life could be so simple for them. After spotting a very classy Escalade, three teens decide they need to make it their own ride. They follow the very wealthy Smith family home, break into the house and demand the keys. Alas, life can't be simple for them either. Turns out the Smith house has an amazing security system, which has been activated by little Tommy (Jimmy Bennett). From here things go very wrong for everyone involved. The Smiths become hostages as the police surround the house after one cop is killed. This is when hostage-taker brothers Dennis and Kevin realize that their buddy Mars (Ben Foster) is pretty messed up.

But wait, there's more! It turns out that Mr. Smith (Kevin Pollack) launders money for even badder guys, who end up taking the Taley family hostage demanding that Jeff retrieve an encrypted computer disc from the Smith house. It's a hostage situation inside a hostage situation. Fortunately for Taley, little Tommy has access to the entire house through a labyrinth of crawl spaces and air ducts.

Honestly, the story starts to go downhill from there. The drama that unfolds in the house is intense, with Ben Foster only getting creepier with every scene. It's the other hostage situation that is unbelievable, overdone and quite distracting. Eventually you just have to stop the reality machine in your mind and take it for what it's worth. Also disturbing and surprising is the extreme amount of violence throughout the entire movie. By the end, you'll feel just as much of a "Hostage" as the victims in the film. I give it a B-.

"Hostage" is rated R with a running time of 102 minutes.