Film 4 [Astra 28°E]

goes wrong and they take hostages, Bruce Willis takes control as the hostage negotiator whose family are at risk.

Hostage is a thriller with the odd moment of old school stand and deliver action. Bruce Willis stars as Jeff Tally, a Los Angeles hostage negotiator who quits his job after failing to save a child from a suicidal loon. Relocating away from his wife (Scott Thomas) and daughter (Rumur Willis), Tally takes up a police position in the quiet town of Bristo Camino in rural California. His peace, however, is soon shattered when three tearaway teens (Tucker, Foster and Bennett) take a family hostage following a botched theft.

With the siege quickly escalating, Tally finds himself in a situation he hoped never to face again. But as he addresses the problem at hand, it soon becomes apparent that this is unlike any dilemma he's ever faced before - one in which the future of his own family is at stake.

Adapted from Robert Crais' novel by Doug Richardson (screenwriter on Die Hard 2 and the upcoming Die Hard 4.0), Hostage owes debts to all manner of other kidnap thrillers. In particular, it draws rather too heavily on the tone of Ron Howard's Ransom. Proceedings are also hampered by the stylistic flourishes of French director Florent Emilio Siri, who's too keen to impart what he learned from making two hit 'Splinter Cell' videogames. That said, Hostage does have a number of decent thrills. And there are moments of real menace too, many of them coming courtesy of Kevin Pollak's enigmatic Mr Smith.