This is one finely crafted and well oiled machine of a thriller movie!

I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the main character - Bruce Willis' burnt-out ace hostage negotiator, Jeff Talley. With this key central character, the screenwriter turned what would otherwise have been a pedestrian hostage drama into a tightly wound clockwork plot powered by the viewer's empathy for Talley's tightrope plight. The overlapping bad guy characters and the two families provided an emotional background upon which to contrast Talley's calm improvisation and implementation of his logical and psycho-logical plan(s). The level of ultra-violence portrayed, to me, sells the authenticity of the scenario - {SPOILER... this is not a happy story}.

One of the best movies I've seen so far this year.

5 out of 5.