The 1980s and 1990s may be deemed as the glory days of the straightforward action movie, but additional unsung favorites like The Negotiator are the living embodiment of “they just don’t make ’em like they used to.”
Of course, the genre is in as rude health as ever, but big budget productions boasting an array of A-list stars and recognizable character actors that make no bones about maintaining an R-rating to appeal to an older audience are growing frustratingly few and far between in an era where it’s regularly only franchise fare and IP-driven content that gets given the freedom to play by its own rules.
Samuel L. Jackson heads up the stellar cast in electrifyingly charismatic form as famed hostage negotiator Danny Roman, who gets a tip that there’s corruption and embezzlement afoot in the department. Before you know it, that person winds up dead, and an unscrupulous internal affairs investigation has coincidentally named our intrepid hero as the prime suspect.
As a result, he weaponizes his own expertise to orchestrate a hostage scenario of his own to expose his innocence to the world, with his intimate knowledge of every situation and their respective resolution methods keeping him one step ahead. Tense, taut, and undeniably exciting, The Negotiator is additionally elevated by a murderer’s row of talent from the “That Guy from That Movie” hall of fame.
25 years later, and F. Gary Gray’s nail-biting popcorn crowd-pleaser remains as popular as ever, with Redditors out in force to shower The Negotiator in praise. A relic of a bygone era, it’s clear that a lot of people would love nothing more than to see an increase in original projects cut from the same cloth in the era of identikit sequels, reboots, and remakes.
Published: Mar 3, 2023 03:08 am