Well, it's the month of May and we're officially in the month of blockbuster movies, and this latest recommendation is somewhat of a reminder that late nineties movies where again the best time to go to the movies, as I've proved a year ago and The Negotiator was strangely a movie that first introduced me to legendary actor Samuel L. Jackson, and this was going back to when we had satellite cable TV and we've always had this channel where they always had shown previews of movies that came out and The Negotiator was always on all the time and this one actor that always came up for which was Samuel L. Jackson, and granted this has been a long time since I've watched the movie but finding it on Netflix I was like well dang I have to watch it since it's been quite a long time since I've seen it, and without a doubt a movie worthy of a monthly recommendation it's defiantly up there in one of the best cop movies of all time.
Danny Roman (Samuel L. Jackson) is considered the best police hostage negotiator in Chicago. After a friend warns him that someone is embezzling from a disability fund, the person is found dead. Internal Affairs investigator Niebaum (J.T. Walsh) discovers the gun used had been handled by Roman. When no one believes his innocence, Roman takes Niebaum hostage. When Chris Sabian (Keven Spacey) arrives to hear Roman's demands, the two skilled negotiators begin a tense stand-off.
After watching the film twice in case I missed anything moreover looking at where it ranks in the best Cop movies ever made, I was shocked to find that this amazing well-crafted movie is not ranked in any of the best cop movies from IMBD to Looper-Endless Entertainment, that is just something I cannot accept especially when humanity is a mistake, I mean how the hell is this not praised by any film buffs out there? You have two of the best actors of our generation (yes, I'm mentioning Kevin Spacey because I'm only praising his career from his early years to right after Baby Driver was released, since he's now fallen from grace) a great and unique story, so again I don't understand why this movie has been forgotten by everyone. Well, of course I guess I must be the only one to say that this was defiantly one of the best cop movies I've ever seen in a long, long time. For a billion reasons, this was defiantly one of these films that I've never seen like in terms of taking the movie seriously, as a result of this was one of the first times you ever, where you feel for the protagonist from thirty minutes into the movie to the end of the movie, also when I began to see all of Jacksons friends turn against him I really felt for the guy especially when it comes to betrayal moreover having to take the law into his own hands by taking people hostage. What I like most about the movie is that it focuses more on hostage negotiators for which we've never got to understand how they work or how they operate, especially when they're rare few times a hostage situation happens. An interesting note I found out of the film was that the film was originally written to star Sylvester Stallone in the title role, and I wouldn't believe in a million years that would ever work for this film’s success and don't get me wrong Stallone will always be Rocky to me but I wouldn't take this movie seriously if Stallone was the Negotiator, so it was a wise choice to cast Samuel L. Jackson in the title role because he's exceptionally good when it comes to showing his emotions from being scared to angry at the same time and really after watching this movie I have to say that he's defiantly up there in the one of the top ten greatest actors of all time, and the same goes to Kevin Spacey by reason of he can do a great job play both a protagonist in one movie and makes a great movie villain in the next moreover the nineties were good for spacey because if you look at his filmography from 1990 to 1999 he made hit after hit when it came to movies. The film was largely based on a pension fund scandal in the St. Louis Police Department in the late 1980's and early 1990's, which really doesn't surprise me much but is fascinating when you think about it. Of course Sam Jackson and Kevin Spacey made this film work, but the supporting cast helped out as well a great example was the late J.T. Walsh who plays the Internal Affairs who accuses Jackson's character, furthermore does a great job being a smug a-hole who you just want to punch in the face because all Internal Affairs officers when it comes to movies are always the douche bags who never get fresh air because their always in the offices investigating cops. Another great actor in the supporting realm that needs to be praised was Ron Rifkin who was also in my December Recommendation of L.A. Confidential and who portrays a cop that you'd think would be Jackson's alley but through the course of the movie shows that nothing is what it seems, and he does a great job at that. The movie has a surprise guest star for which I was kind of surprised Dean Norris who’s known for Hank in Breaking Bad plays one of the SWAT officers for which I thought was cool even though this was made in 98. This is a great Cop movie from start to finish and has been forgotten for a long time, and thanks to Netflix I'm now bringing this movie out into the light because this was one of the best Cop movies I've seen in a while moreover way better than The Departed, and as for all of you that have or don't have a Netflix account I would highly recommend watching this movie, with its great acting chops of Jackson and Spacey as well as a tremendously well-crafted whodunit story. Also, how can you not watch a movie that has Samuel L. Jackson?
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