Hostage ***
Cast: Bruce Willis, Kevin Pollak, Jonathan Tucker, Ben Foster, Jimmy Bennett, Michelle Horn, Marshall Allman, Serena Scott Thomas, Rumer Willis
Director: Florent Siri
Running Length: 1:53
MPAA Classification: R

Jeff Talley (Willis) is the chief of police in Bristo Counta, a small town in Ventura County, California. He used to be a hostage negotiator in the LAPD, but after a disasterous negotiation that led to the deaths of two people, he fled the big city. Now, nothing much happens, and Talley is content. On the perosnal front, his wife and daughter do not like the new JEff or his lifestyle.
When an accountant (Pollack) and his son and daughter are taken hostage after a botched robbery attempt, Talley must get the situation under control until those higher in the chain of command arrive. Once they do, he heads out, grateful to be out of the situation. Talley quickly finds out that there is more going on than meets the eye, and is forcefully thrown back into the midst of things with added incentive to resolve the situation.

With the kids working against the hostages on the inside, and Talley working against them from the outside, things quickly spiral out of control, and it soon looks like another crisis will befall Talley.

I went into "Hostage" knowing very little about it (a rare thing), and was pleasantly surprised. While there are some leaps of logic that you must accept, once you do, you are in for a wild ride. Suspenseful and more layered than it might seem at first, "Hostage" is a really entertaining movie. None of the performances are terribly outstanding, but everyone does a decent job bringing the characters to life. There is enough action and suspence to keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end. "Hostage" was an unexpected surprise in the doldrums of the early-year movies.