Hostage / The Banquet - movie review

Hostage - starring Bruce Willis & Kevin Pollak. Bruce, a trained police negotiator in deadlock situation where it involves hostage. In one of his assignments, two young children were killed as he couldn't obtain the crazy man's trust. As a result of this, he quit the force. As his wounds have heal, he re-joined as a county sheriff in an outskirt area much to the dismay of his only daugther.

Meantime, three young chaps broke into a millionaire accountant's mansion within Bruce's county. A silent alarm linked to a security office was activated and when a policewoman went to check on the situation, she was shot to dead. From there onwards, it was like the whole police force was stationed outside the mansion. It was a simple robbery turned awry. It was too late to escape. Meanwhile, a group of unknown people was very concerned with the on-going situation. Bruce's wife/daugther were kidnapped to force Bruce to enter the mansion to obtain certain information kept by the accountant.

In trying to obtain the info, ensuring his family and the hostages' safety and getting the 3 young guys to surrender, Bruce had the help of the young kid in the mansion via a mobile. Through good planning, he was able to enter the mansion. At the same time, the FBI has also arrived, with the same link to the mystery kidnappers of Bruce's family. After ensuring the hostages' safety, Bruce together with the accountant went straight to handover the information requested. Quite intense towards the 2nd half of the movie and you have to wait till the before you know whether Bruce could save his family members or not.

The Banquet - starring Zhang Ziyi, You Ge, Zhou Xun, Daniel Wu, Ma Jingwu. With the Crown Prince away in the forest, learning about music, literature and art, the Emperor's brother killed took advantage of the situation by killing the Emperor. He gained the throne by virtue that the Crown Prince has left the kingdom. At the same time, the former Empress has to marry the new Emperor to safe her own life. Even though she married him, she was plotting for his death one day. The wicked new Emperor sent his best guards to kill off the Crown Prince once and for all but failed to do so.

The Crown Prince returned eventually but the new Emperor cannot kill him in front of the public. The Chief Minister's daugther has fell in love with the Crown Prince in which they have grown up together. The Chief Minister and his son were also plotting their own plan to take over the dynasty.

The movie is quite slow and it was said to be adapted to Hamlet's style. But great orchestra music accompanied the movie's tempo. The Crown Prince tried to expose the wicked new Emperor's scheme that killed his father. Worried about being exposed, the new Emperor, his uncle, sent him to another country for training (with bad motives). The Crown Prince's life was spared and came back to the palace to unknowingly. The Empress somehow managed to coerce the Chief Minister to take over the dynasty. Somehow, the whole plot failed and led to total chaos where many people died just for the sake of the Emperor's title..................want to know who will be the Emperor at the end? .......................... watch the movie and tell me your answer.
Tags: Movie, Review, Cinema, Hostage, The Banquet, Bruce Willis, Kevin Pollak, Zhang Ziyi, Daniel Wu, Negotiator, Emperor, Empress, Chief Minister