The Negotiator has two major assets: Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey. Yet even these two giants, impressive as they are, have difficulty bringing enough interest to the labored plot they have to contend with.

        Indeed, this plot is so predictable that I think we have seen it at least a million times before. I wonder that writers James DeMonaco and Kevin Fox are not arrested for criminal plagarism, or maybe for being just plain boring.

        The film begins by establishing Danny Roman (aka Samuel L. Jackson) is the greatest law-enforcer since Hoppalong Cassidy. He's bold, he's brave, and as a single-handed maverick he can leap tall buildings, catch speeding bullets in his teeth and who knows what else.

        What he really does best, actually, is negotiate with raving lunatic criminals as we see with great nailbiting drama in the first scene. And, as this week's wonderboy we can guess with absolute certainty that something bad is headed his way. Sure enough, and almost like clockwork, intrigue is introduced through Danny's partner, who has uncovered police corruption. Straight away you just know that this guy has only minutes to live, and sure enough, he gets close and personal with a bullet, and you'll never guess, Danny is blamed for the crime. I warned you about the originality of this thing, didn't I?

        But Danny doesn't want to take it any more, they have to bring in another negotiator to talk him down. Enter Kevin Spacey as Chris Sabian, and the battle of the giants begins. Lurking the shadows like reluctant villians is a mixture of cops who all frown and look sinister, so you know that one is corrupt and all the others are all red herrings. If you've read any Agatha Christie you know for sure which one is the bad guy. But that's okay.

        But the film is not a total yawn, since there are really nice performances from Jackson, Spacey, and David Morse is one of his many stoic supporting roles. I also really like the scene when the ultimate villain shoots the computer. Way to go bad guy. I'd like to shoot my computer just to see which error message would pop up. But I digress.

        Negotiator is a dull amalgum of every dirty cop thriller you've ever seen. Sure it's entertaining, but only for the actors, whose internal groans offer an interesting subplot to the movie.

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