Hostage

Herald rating: * * *

Three teenagers gun their pickup truck behind a Cadillac. In the limo is Jennifer Smith (Michelle Horon), a rich girl being driven to her securely guarded mansion in the Ventura County mountains outside LA. The thuggish leader of the teens, Mars (Ben Foster), has coerced two brothers, Dennis and Kevin Kelly (Jonathan Tucker and Marshall Allman), into a thrill-seeking ride to steal the car.

The trio get into the house, they're trapped, the police are called. They take Jennifer, her father (Kevin Pollak) and her brother, Tommy (Jimmy Bennett), as hostages. Enter the police chief to sort out the siege: this is Talley (Bruce Willis), who had a bad experience with a hostage negotiation in LA and has opted for a quieter life in the mountains.

He hands the matter over to the local sheriff's department. But wait, there's more. For some reason he comes back and demands to take over the operation.

It will not hurt viewers to know that another group of kidnappers are holding Talley's wife and child hostage because they want the police chief to get a DVD from the mansion. No, not a movie for the weekend: the DVD will reveal some embarrassing financial deals. Talley must negotiate not one but two hostage situations, though his fellow officers don't know about the second.

Director Florent Emilio Siri, who has created two video games from Tom Clancy's concepts, has provided an intriguing set-up but doesn't deliver, preferring to allow Willis to hog the screen, which results in a nasty, violent movie.

The star makes a brief appearance in the behind-the-scenes feature to deflect criticism of the use of his daughter, Rumer, in the movie. Eight deleted and extended scenes are interesting because they chart how Siri altered the final version following bad comments at test screenings. The director also offers a lightweight commentary track.

* DVD, Video Rental Today