HOSTAGES ON CHRISTMAS

Five of us were on a mission which was to go to GSC Midvalley and secure tickets to watch Avatar 3D on Christmas. We should have known better than to not book tickets. We were insane for believing that we can actually get tickets two hours before the movie. Our mission failed and so instead of flying through Pandora (the planet of the Omaticaya tribe in Avatar), we sort of ended up in Sg. Long (my cousins' house) watching DVDs.

Our pick was "Hostage" featuring Bruce Willis. It's a movie in which I wanted to watch once upon a time but never really got a chance to. I heard it was a great movie and kinda scary. Well, it wasn't really a psycho-analytical movie, if that's what you expect. I thought it was going to be gory and bloody and all but really, it wasn't that bad.

"Hostage" is about Bruce Willis, once a successful negotiator but after a failed mission blamed himself for the death of a woman and her son. One year after the incident, he retired from his negotiating days, though still part of the police force.

However, he was coerced into the job when his family was held hostage by a bunch of people doing illegal business. In order to save his family, he has to redeem a CD from an accountant (and his family), who is held hostage by three teenage boys. So basically, Bruce Willis has to juggle the responsibility of saving two families.

Though I feel that the storyline is not super engaging or super interesting, there were moments that kept you in suspense that you might grip on to whatever you have around you - your pillow, the mattress or maybe your hair. There we were, me and my cousins were hanging on to the edges of our seats, guessing the fate of the little son of the accountant. No spoilers here on whether he survived or not.

If the movie is actually supposed to be a freaky psycho-thriller, it definitely didn't blew me away. The only scary, but actually, not exactly that scary character is Mars. But I guess it is not a psycho-thriller because it really didn't work for me there.

Overall, it really isn't one of the best action-thriller movies I've watched. The storyline is quite normal, no twists that awed me. At points, I just wished that there were more things that would unfold but there wasn't any. I think in some ways, it is somewhat predictable.

If you are into action and all, watch this to get a medium high boost of adrenaline running. The good thing is, due to certain exciting scenes, the movie wasn't draggy; in fact pretty face paced, so it won't bore you to death.

TC-My Rating: