Hostage (2005)

This is, quite frankly, not a very good film. It squanders most of the potential inherent in its damned-either-way scenario in favor of gunfights and things that go boom. It gets irreparably silly in its final quarter. It explicitizes the class-warfare angle of its situation early on only to completely ignore it later. It's shamelessly manipulative and just generally filled with not-goodness. But we can only be honest to ourselves and others, and I must honestly say that I was generally impressed with the level of entertainment offered despite all the negatives the film bears. Part of this is due to the effective, moody direction by newcomer Florent Siri -- he manages to keep the tone under control most of the way, and even when it slips away he still shows a propensity for striking images (the way, for instance, one character scuttles through an air duct like an insectoid predator). But the film's ace in the sleeve is Bruce Willis, who even at his most gung-ho never seems to fit the unstoppable-action-hero mold. (That's the reason Die Hard is so successful: The hero is a sweaty, bloody Reg'lar Guy rather than a godlike ubermensch.) Surprisingly taut and engaging, played with a minimum of bombast; don't say you heard that from me, though.

Grade: B-