“You hurt one of them, you burn up any currency you have with me. They’re all I care about. Getting you out of here alive… a distant second.”

Justin’s rating: But can you negotiate with snakes on a plane?

Justin’s review: As I write this, it’s summer 2024, and we are going through one of the dullest, most disappointing summer movie seasons I’ve ever experienced. Hollywood’s obscenely priced films are flopping, and there’s practically nothing else being released that can offer a diversion from those bombs.

We didn’t realize how good we had it a couple decades back when the mid-budget film was still a thing, and the cinemas were packed with all sorts of interesting options — such as seeing Samuel L. Jackson face off against Kevin Spacey as dueling negotiators in a July 1998 release. The Negotiator may not have been that summer’s marquee attraction, but it held up even as the week previous’ Saving Private Ryan was setting records. Oh, and that same week? You could also go see the newly released Parent Trap remake or the cult favorite BASEketball. There was a little something for everyone.

Anyway, let’s talk about the film itself, because it’s a pretty good idea. The whole concept is that you have two guys who are experts in the rules of hostage negotiation going head-to-head in a tense situation. You know they’ll work against each other for a while and then together, and it’ll be glorious both ways.

Jackson is Lt. Danny Roman, a smooth-talking police negotiator who gets set up by some dirty cops who’ve been embezzling funds. Framed for murder and with his back to the wall, the negotiator becomes a hostage taker himself. Among his requests is the assignment of a near-stranger — his counterpart from a different part of the city, Lt. Chris Sabien (Spacey).

Hope you enjoy a whole lot of tension, because this film is primed to make you bite your nails. Danny needs time and resources to clear his name, but the FBI and all of these dirty cops are trying to put him down. Chris is the wild card, not willing to be pushed in either direction. Cue a chess game between two masters who maybe don’t understand all of the rules.

In a way, this feels a bit like The Fugitive with two smart guys on opposite sides of the law, albeit with fewer elaborate stunts and jokes. What it may lack in those departments, The Negotiator comes out blazing with a strong roster of supporting actors, including John Spencer, JT Walsh, David Morse, Ron Rifkin, Regina Taylor, and Paul Giamatti.

But it’s really the Spacey vs. Jackson title bout that’s the main draw. These two actors and characters both have their own style, and I liked seeing how they were emphasizing brains, psychology, and instinct over raw brutal force to resolve the situation.

I do feel that it’s a pretty long film — 2 hours 20 minutes — and takes a while until things ramp up to becoming truly interesting. The actual mystery being uncovered is a lot more elaborate than it needed to be, too. I mean, at the end of the day, this is a story of a cop who accidentally stepped into a puddle of corruption, got framed for it, and struggled like hell to clear his name with the help of his new best friend/enemy.

It was certainly great to see Jackson come into his own as a leading man around this time. Remember that just a few years back, he was a side character in Jurassic Park. Then Pulp Fiction happened, and he leveraged that for all it was worth and never looked back.

While a somewhat bloated and convoluted film, The Negotiator is a fine thriller with strong performances and a couple heroes you root for to come out on top.