makes it one of the best thrillers ever!!! GUARANTEE...THIS FILM WILL NOT DISAPPOINT!!!

probably the best thriller I have seen this year and I recommend it to anyone who is looking for a good thriller with a few action moments thrown in intelligently for good measure. All credit must go to Samuel L Jackson for a great performance in playing a specialist police officer who finds himself an innocent fall guy, supported very well by the late J. T. Walsh, who seemed to always play dislikable characters. Jackson makes his character an actor himself, as a psychopath to the cops he holds at bay and a careful family man to his new wife whilst slowly but surely convincing his hostages of his innocence. Similar credit for great performances go to Kevin Spacey as the neutral respected negotiator dropped into a tense situation completely blind to events, and I have yet to see a poor performance by David Morse, who followed up this film with another good performance in "The Green Mile". My work as a real police officer in England seems so ordinary and boring by comparison!

the place. David Morse, Cmdr. Adam Beck ,"Hack",TV Series,'02, gave a great supporting role and really gave Danny Roman a very hard time. If you love Samuel L. Jackson and his great acting ability, this is the film for you.

he's innocent. Chicago is taken hostage along with the few people he retains as bargaining chips, and we are taken along for the ride. This was a masterful job of film-making from beginning to end. The characters and story were flawlessly developed. We don't precisely know who's guilty or who's innocent. Roman conducts his interrogation and trial while he negotiates with the police outside, some of whom are working overtime to eliminate Roman before he figures it all out. This all occurs right under the noses of the FBI who are in way over their heads and don't have a clue who's guilty or innocent, just like the rest of us watching. Along the way, we get to witness Roman lecture his underlings about the finer points of negotiations while he himself has just become a hostage taker. "Never say no!" he barks with effective zeal. And he tests his bewildered pupils continuously, who fail continuously. Only Sabian is smart enough to understand what's going on in Roman's mind. The strategy is shared by two men who think alike, who are under stress, and have an innate instinct for lie detection. The screenplay was terrific. The cinematography was effective. The acting of Jackson and Spacey exceptional. And the supporting cast, particularly bad-guy-turned-good-guy Paul Giamatti who provides great comic relief, was outstanding. If you're in the mood for an intelligent, taut thriller, The Negotiator delivers... 9/10.

get it, of course, but he's given the difficult role here of playing a guy who has to convince the guys downstairs that he's a psycho, while convincing the guys he's kidnapped that he's innocent, and he does a flawless job of it. No easy task, especially when you consider the fact that he's got to throw in the occasional gunfight. At least he'll probably win the MTV award : What results is a skillfully made film. I enjoyed it. It made sense but kept me guessing, the action was intense but still followed logical patterns, and the ending was not a disappointment. An altogether fun experience.

best films, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN and THE TRUMAN SHOW. The film even had a fresh spin on the "bad guy kills himself rather than face prosecution" cliche.

Over 70 f-words is too many. I get tired of seeing cops portrayed as dirty most of the time or just trigger-happy. It ain't so, at least as often as Hollywood likes to show you. Finally, the end stretches credibility just a little too much.Overall, worth seeing but with a big caution light with the language.

L Jackson plays police negotiator Lt. Danny Roman, a hostage negotiator with the Chicago PD who's a nice guy and all-round good bloke. After discovering corrupt cops helping themselves to the department's disability fund, Danny's world comes crumbling down after his partner is gunned down with all evidence pointing to him. Believing himself to be set up by Internal Affairs, led by Inspector Niebaum J.T. Walsh and Commander Frost Ron Rifkin , Danny decides to take some hostages of his own in a desperate attempt to prove his innocence. Facing fellow negotiator Chris Sabian Kevin Spacey , can Danny discover the truth before his one-time colleagues put a premature end to the siege? Featuring quality at every level of the casting, "The Negotiator" shrugs off it's far-fetched scenario and becomes one of the most compulsive thrillers I've seen in ages. With the outcome never really certain until the credits roll, this is as good an example that I can think of of a film that has all the traditional elements of a classic summer blockbuster but remains taunt, thrilling and exciting throughout. Acting is a real strength of the film as Jackson, Walsh, Paul Giamatti and David Morse offer real depth to their characters and hold the film together with ease. Spacey looks a little out of place - he's too nice to play the stone-faced good guy with a mean streak - but his performance supports Jackson's wild-eyed paranoia perfectly. The biggest problems I found was that the story took a while to get going and when it did, it was actually rather obvious who the villains are.I was actually a little tired of hostage movies after watching the equally brilliant "Inside Man" a little while ago but while that was a little on the slow side, this kept up a cracking pace until the very end. But both are exceptionally well-written, well-acted pieces of cinema and I don't think I could pick between the two. Even my Better Half enjoyed it, making me stay up late to watch it in spite of my early start the next day. I wouldn't describe "The Negotiator" as exceptional because it doesn't offer anything new in terms of action films or thrillers and the premise, as I've said, is too far-fetched for me personally. But "The Negotiator" is still a highly enjoyable film in its own right and to ignore it would be criminal. Feel free to ignore "The Italian Job" rehash, though...

starts helping him uncover the truth.The Negotiator is a very interesting film that sets up a very interesting plot very well. Acting performances are great from both leads and the supporting cast as well. This is definitely not a stupid or predictable film, and even the action is quite good. The only problem this film has is that it becomes a little boring waiting for the next thing to happen to Danny or the hostages. But with a suspenseful finale, The Negotiator is an intelligent thriller that I would recommend.Australian Classification: MA 15+: Medium Level Violence, Medium Level Coarse LanguageRating: 74 out of 100