Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.
View MoreThere is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.
View MoreA lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.
View MoreThe film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
View MoreHaving seen Hostages billed as 'an edge-of-your-seat conspiracy thriller' I sat down to watch it with my hopes high. Sadly, it was a major disappointment and by the end of the series I was screaming at my television.It's difficult to pinpoint exactly who is to blame. The basic premise is intriguing, if more than a little far-fetched, but the execution is lazy and treats the audience like idiots. Whether it is down to poor writing or bad editing it's hard to say but time and time again we had characters acting in a logic-defying manner purely to get us from one scene to another and constantly (and conveniently) jumping to the right conclusion as and when required. Another huge problem is that there simply isn't enough material to last 15 episodes and so we had what was essentially variations on the same scenes playing out over and over again. Ellen does so many U-turns in the course of the show her head must have been spinning by the end. I know mine was.I'm a fan of Toni Collette but, to be honest, she looked hopelessly out of her depth in this and didn't phone in her performance so much as text it. If ever you need someone who can stare in disbelief for fifteen hours straight, she's your gal. Stick to comedy in future, Toni. Dylan McDermot was equally one-dimensional as the rogue FBI agent - his expressions covering the entire range of emotions from angry to irritated. Again, not his finest hour.There will be many who were able to check their brains at the door and enjoy Hostages for what it is but, having seen what can be achieved in television thanks to shows like The Wire, Deadwood and Breaking Bad, I prefer my television to treat me with a little respect.
View MoreThe trailer for this television series made it look gripping, I recognised the lead actress and one or two supporting cast, and critics were calling it the new Homeland, so I was hoping it would live up to my expectations. Basically the series centres around Dr. Ellen Sanders (The Sixth Sense's Toni Collette), who is due to perform surgery on the President of the United States, President Paul Kincaid (James Naughton), but the day before it happens, her family are taken hostage. She, her husband Brian (Hercules' Tate Donovan) and their teenage children, daughter Morgan (Grounded's Quinn Shephard) and son Jake (Mateus Ward) are being threatened by rogue FBI agent Duncan Carlisle (Miracle on 34th Street's Dylan McDermott) who is working for a higher power, along with a small team of assistants, Archer Petit (The Lost World: Jurassic Park's Billy Brown), Sandrine Renault (Sandrine Holt) and Kramer Daly (Rhys Coiro). The kidnappers want her to kill the President during surgery, and only then will the family be released, but the day of the operation Ellen deliberately sabotages it, so it is rescheduled for a later date, so the family will remain hostages until the surgery is completed. As the series goes on we find out more about the problems within the family, the personal problems of the kidnappers, and the conspiracies and corruption within the presidential headquarters, and of course the family try to find ways to get out of their situation, and the kidnappers find ways of stopping them from doing so. This includes Ellen trying anything to find a way out and getting to know more about Duncan and his wife, Duncan himself trying to stop authorities finding out about his scheme and most of all trying to find a cure for his sick wife, Brian trying to find ways out also and found out to be having an affair with his assistant Samantha (Hilarie Burton), the children going to school and trying to act normal during the situation at home, and the team members having their own individual troubles with family and money. It is unclear if there will be a continuation, but in the final episode the operation was completed on the President, his bone marrow was stolen and given to Nina, the President is warned by his wife, First Lady Mary Kincaid (Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves' Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), that he will pay for his crimes, who is his secret daughter and is an almost perfect blood match, the dangerous people are eliminated, and Duncan releases the family and hands himself in to the police. Also starring Paul Calderon as Secret Service Agent Stan Hoffman, Jim True- Frost as Secret Service Agent Logan, Brian White as Colonel Thomas Blair, Joanne Kelly as Vanessa Moore, Jeremy Bobb as Quentin Creasy, Chief of Staff, Lola Cook as Sawyer Carlisle and Larry Pine as Burton Delaney. The acting of the programme is really good, especially from the always reliable Collette and a good choice with McDermott who I have usually seen playing nice guys, the scripting is well written, and the tension in many of the episodes really works with the atmospheric music and occasional violence, I don't think there is to be any more, so in the fifteen episodes it lasted it was a great drama. Very good!
View MoreIt says a lot to me when I dislike every character on a show yet eagerly tune in each week to see what happens. I dislike every character on this show, especially the female lead (the doctor). I can't stand her. Yet I have no problem admitting that I love this show and can't wait to see what happens. When it first started I wondered how this is a TV show. Surely it would be better as a movie. How long can we keep watching these hostages week after week? As I watched more and more unfolded. It turns out to be much more complicated than you would originally think. Now that the first season is over I wonder how in the world they will keep this up. I still don't understand how they made an entire season revolving around 1 single event (the president's surgery). Somehow they did it though, and they made an excellent first season. I will eagerly tune into season 2 and see if they can keep the magic going.
View MoreThis show is truly the best comedy of the year. The writing is so laugh-out-loud funny, my household has turned guessing what ridiculous plot twist will occur next into a game. Each week, the action becomes more embarrassing, the dialog more mundane, and the plot more unbelievable; from the Dr. arriving just in time to prevent her husband from injecting the lead kidnapper with his own poison, to the Dr. and her husband attempting to kill the lead kidnapper thinking that this will end their family's terror (even though they are aware that at least a dozen other people are in on this). The acting is horrible (especially the kids and Toni Collett). There is no suspense left in the plot because, after five episodes, each family character has been revealed to be incredibly stupid, yet the writers continue to move them through ever more stupid scenarios.On the bright side, the show is so bad that it does provide some comedy relief. During the times when you don't want to strangle the cast members due to their stupidity, you have to laugh at how stupid their world must be that they could achieve such lofty positions in life.
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