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List Price: $12.98 | | Label: Warner Home Video
Salesrank: 6466
Released: December 15, 1998 |
| Our Price: $2.87 |
| Used Price: $1.34 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
This film centers on a former FBI hostage negotiator who, after being framed for murder, tries to clear his name by taking several people hostage in order to uncover the guilty party.
Description of The Negotiator:
Although it eventually runs out of smart ideas and resorts to a typically explosive finale, this above-average thriller rises above its formulaic limitations on the strength of powerful performances by Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey. Both play Chicago police negotiators with hotshot reputations, but when Jackson's character finds himself falsely accused of embezzling funds from a police pension fund, he's so thoroughly framed that he must take extreme measures to prove his innocence. He takes hostages in police headquarters to buy time and plan his strategy, demanding that Spacey be brought in to mediate with him as an army of cops threatens to attack, and a media circus ensues. Both negotiators know how to get into the other man's thoughts, and this intellectual showdown allows both Spacey and Jackson to ignite the screen with a burst of volatile intensity. Director F. Gary Gray is disadvantaged by an otherwise predictable screenplay, but he has a knack for building suspense and is generous to a fine supporting cast, including Paul Giamatti as one of Jackson's high-strung hostages, and the late J.T. Walsh in what would sadly be his final big-screen role. The movie should have trusted its compelling characters a little more, probing their psyches more intensely to give the suspense a deeper dramatic foundation, but it's good enough to give two great actors a chance to strut their stuff. --Jeff Shannon
The Negotiator Reviews:
Classic 
2009-08-27 - Great action films are like great actors, just as bad ones are like bad actors. Great action films are not about good and bad guys, but complex charactors who both want something.
The Negotiator is perfect for both Kevin Spacey and Samual L Jackson, two of our best actors. Every great actor has to answer one question about his charactor: what do I want? Here, Jackson wants to clear his name, and Spacey wants to retrieve hostages Jackson holds. This sets the conflict in bare bones terms as only the action genre can. The actors have room to develop their charactors.
Both charactors are decent, smart men, put in unthinkable circumstances, two hostage experts matching the sharpest of minds. There is plenty of action, but most of the tension comes from the mental game Spacey and Jackson are playing. The mental game played with A LOT of guns around. It is what MIGHT go wrong that makes the film so frightening. How far will these guys go? Are they going to outsmart the other into a bloodbath?
Jackson's motives are obvious, but the movie does not explain why Spacey allies with him by films end and goes to the lengths he does.
Still, this is a great film from a genre bad actors exploit too much and great actors don't exploit enough.
A well done product 
2009-05-16 - A Hostage negotiator is set up by other cops.
He uses his skills and knowledge to bring out the crooks
by taking hostages and using the police system:
sort of Russian roulette with a swat team.
Not really believable in a practical sense, but
the plot makes for great drama, suspense and solves a mystery
at the same time. The acting is very good,
I liked the movie.
No let up in this action-thriller
2009-04-27 - Ever start to watch a movie and don't get up until it's done? That's essentially what happens when you watch "The Negotiator."
You start with Lt. Danny Roman (Samuel L. Jackson) in a hostage situation. A convenience store robber's taken a young woman and he's face to face with the taker...
Next, Roman's partner tells him that he's onto a scam in the department. Some of their closest buddies are ripping off the Police Disability Fund. He'll tell him more later. When Roman meets his partner, he finds him dead.
And, of course, the police swoop in to arrest him for the murder. He escapes and takes hostages of his own because he knows he's not going to get a fair shake when his fellow cops set him up.
When it comes to negotiation, Roman insists on Lt. Chris Sabian (Kevin Spacey) from another precinct. Spacey arrives, having unsuccessfully negotiated a fight between his wife and daughter and his back is immediately against the wall. Roman's precinct commander wants to shoot and take statements later...Something's suspicious and the more he learns, the more he's siding with Roman, but can he help before the crooked cops get rid of all the evidence?
Literally had me glued to my seat throughout the whole film. Well done and one of Jackson and Spacey's best. I also enjoyed Siobhan Fallon as Maggie, one of the hostages Roman took.
Rebecca Kyle, April 2009
Good Cast; Intense Story 
2009-03-26 - The movie sports an interesting cast, actors who usually entertain, such as Kevin Spacey, Samuel L. Jackson, J.T. Walsh, David Morse and Paul Giamatti. Spacey, as "The Negotiator," has the best role.
The story is interesting and very intense in spots and keeps you involved without the need for a lot of violence. There is just the right amount in here and the film looks very good on DVD.
At 138 minutes, the film would have been better being trimmed 10-15 minutes. It could also been less profane. Over 70 f-words is too many. I get tired of seeing cops portrayed as dirty most of the time or just trigger-happy. It ain't so, at least as often as Hollywood likes to show you. Finally, the end stretches credibility just a little too much.
Overall, however, this is definitely worth seeing but with a big caution light with the language. for those wondering about family viewing.
The Negotiator
2008-12-12 - Samuel L. Jackson does a fantastic job in this thriller. It trigered many different emotions for me when I saw it in the theater. I then saw it on tv again and enjoyed it even more the second time. Now I own it for future enjoyment.
