The Negotiator (1998/Warner Blu-ray)
Picture: B
Sound: B Extras: D Film: D
Music Video directors graduating to feature films and
doing it well is about as rare (not rare enough?) as child actors extending
their careers to adulthood. After an
impressive showing with Set It Off
(1996), it looked like F. Gary Gray could be one of the rare director’s to
break out. Unfortunately, it has been an
inconsistent mess with duds (A Man Apart),
commercial remakes with limited substance (The
Italian Job) and horrid sequels (Be
Cool) that should have never been made.
The downturn all began with his 1998 disappointment The Negotiator.
The great Samuel L. Jackson plays a hostage negotiator
framed for crimes he did not commit and when things become so intense that he
starts to take hostages himself until he gets an admission of the set-up. Enter another ace negotiator played by Kevin
Spacey. Once all goes down, the film has
them sparring verbally and otherwise, but the awful script by James DeMonaco (who
penned the gutted remake of Assault On
Precinct 13) and Kevin Fox manages to ruin an amazing series of
opportunities, wastes the leads and also wastes a fine supporting cast
including J.T. Walsh, David Morse, Paul Giamatti, Ron Rifkin and Regina
Taylor. However, it is Gray who must
accept ultimate responsibility by directing with little energy and the film
ultimately has no point.
It is not that the actors are not trying either, so it was
not like Gray had trouble there. It is
just that he cannot handle a long-term narrative (or does not care to) and the
result has been another career unrealized.
The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image was shot in
Super 35mm film by Russell Carpenter, A.S.C., and has some detail and color issues
throughout. This looked better on film,
but not by much. Carpenter was coming
off of working on several James Cameron films and even that could not help the
lack of energy. The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix
is a little compressed, is more dialogue-based than you might expect and was
never the best sound mix around to begin with.
The higher definition audio here exposes more of the flaws. Extras include two making of featurettes and
the original theatrical trailer.
- Nicholas Sheffo
