Danny Roman (Samuel L. Jackson) of the Chicago Police Department is known for his individualistic style in negotiating for hostages. But after he is setup for the murder of his partner, Roman is forced to reverse the roles and take hostages himself to find out who the real killers are. Methodical negotiator Chris Sabian (Kevin Spacey) is called in to try and talk Roman out. Both characters have separate missions and are on a truncated timetable, but will end up having to trust each other in the end to both come ahead. For Roman, he must find out who is behind the sabotage before he either goes to prison or gets killed. Meanwhile, Sabian is forced into negotiating, while his own team doesn't think he can talk Roman down. The great thing about the script for The Negotiator is that you won't know who truly is behind the murder until the end.

Besides containing two of the biggest stars in Hollywood, The Negotiator also contains a great supporting cast. David Morse, Ron Rifkin, John Spencer and J.T. Walsh are just some of the many who play key roles in the film, and all do it masterfully. The Negotiator doesn't have much for special effects, i.e. huge explosions or computer generated characters, but it doesn't need it. The acting is so superb, you'll forget about special effects completely. One reason for this is the attention to detail put into each officer's mannerisms. You'll never just see a bunch of actors up on the screen, you'll see the Chicago Police Department struggling with one of their own.

Not a whole lot was put in to the Bonus Feature section for The Negotiator. I think the big reason for this is because its DVD release was around the time when DVD's were still very new, so not much thought was put into adding in Deleted Scenes, or other extras. You generally will find that with older movies, so there is no one you can blame. However, the few features that are included on the disc are very interesting. Two different documentaries were incorporated: with the first, an actual officer of the LAPD talks about real-life experiences in negotiating. The second is a behind-the-scenes look at the movie with interviews from director F. Gary Gray.

I loved The Negotiator, plain and simple. I saw the movie prior to its release on DVD, so things only got better with the bonus features. Granted there isn't much to offer, but this is a must have for your DVD collection.