Hostage

Hostage, a 2005 action flick starring Bruce Willis is purely a tale of redemption. The film opens with Jeff Talley (Willis) negotiating with a frantic and disturbed father who has taken his wife and son hostage. Talley attempts to play it cool with the armed man over the phone. Presented with an opportunity  to kill the madman as he appears in an open window, Talley refuses, scrawling on a whiteboard: No one is going to die today. This proves a disastrous decision in Talley's life as the gunman abruptly hangs up the phone and proceeds to kill his family and then himself. One wrong decision and Talley breaks down. He must grapple with the choice he made that day, he must come to terms with the innocent blood on his hands.

Several years later, Talley finds himself working as a small town cop. His relationship with his wife and children is distant and he finds himself a sad and troubled man. He needs a chance to redeem himself. All he needs is an opportunity - lucky for him (lucky?) just such an opportunity presents itself.

Three local scumbags decide to move on up in the criminal world. Sick of just pickpocketing and holding up convenience store clerks for petty cash, they get the notion to break into a wealthy family's house with loot on their mind. Willis is called into action as the home invasion turns sour and a peering local cop loses her life. As the three invaders are trapped in the house, Talley must find a way to fix this situation and fix it quickly through his specialty, negotiation, and if that fails, he'll just have to blast his way in. I mean, it's Bruce Willis after all.

The acting is good with strong performances out of Willis, Kevin Pollak (The Usual Suspects) as the father of the family with something to hide, Jonathan Tucker (Chainsaw Massacre 2004) as the dimwitted home invader, and a truly disturbed performance by Ben Foster as the sadistic and truly evil one of the group with a eye for the father's daughter.

Overall, I give it four Roger Eberts. It was a solid action flick, one that keeps you interested and guessing. The director knew what kind of movie he was making and what the audience expected and delivered.

Trailer:

















Btw, here's an awesome mugshot with the full article:

http://perezhilton.com/2010-11-11-mark-siebenmorgen-arrested-for-criminal-mischief

And...some music:

The Beatles - Yellow Submarine.   Just because.