Hostage is a dark, gritty action picture that benefits from a relentless pace and a solid performance by star Bruce Willis. Hostage comes at you with both barrels blazing - let's just say that nobody's waiting to see the whites of anybody's eyes, as there is no shortage of bullets. There's also plenty of things catching fire, and I don't have to tell you that this is a state of affairs that often leads to things blowing up. Lost in the maelstrom and pyrotechnic stylings are the explanations as to why many of these characters are so hell bent on the shooting and the blowing things up.

The set-up in Hostage is a familiar one as we are introduced to the hard-boiled and irascible Jeff Talley (a veteran hostage negotiator played by Willis). We pick up the story not long after a tragic day at the office, that has resulted in a punitive dressing down for Talley. Presently, he is running the Bristo Camino Police Department trying to put the past behind him and awaiting the day when he might redeem himself. It isn't long before the opportunity presents itself when a wealthy business man (played by Kevin Pollak) and his two kids are taken hostage in their massive home. The culprits are a couple of unpredictable (and extremely volatile) teenagers played by Ben Foster and Jonathan Tucker.

Hostage opens with a flashy and creative, credit sequence which fooled me into thinking that I had somehow stumbled into a surprise screening of Robert Rodriguez's soon-to-be-released Sin City. I was a little disappointed when this didn't turn out to be the case (I really can't wait to see this comic-noire classic-to-be.) Alas, I was in fact at a screening of Hostage, so I made the best of it.

Hostage is slick to be sure. It was directed by Florent Emilio Siri, a video game creator by trade, and he certainly brings a video-game style and mentality to the proceedings. The movie starts out bleak and intense and never really lets up. Siri displays a natural flair for pacing, and once the two troubled teens take Pollak and family hostage it's straight into the pressure cooker for a nail-biter that resembles David Fincher's Panic Room and the recent Assault on Precinct 13.

Before long the already intense situation escalates considerably when an anonymous party forces Willis (the hero with a tragic past) into making some agonizing decisions that involve the safety of his own family. The setting is a good one. The house where most of the action takes place is huge and features several nooks and crannies tailor made for some very elaborate, sweat-inducing chase sequences.

Bruce Willis is strong in another variation of the old "burned-out cop gets one last chance to redeem himself" formula, and brings depth and emotion to the role. The rest of the cast are pretty stock. For example, we know from the get-go that the teenagers who are the catalyst for all the havoc, are bad apples. Unfortunately they are one-dimensionally drawn and far too callous. The film would have profited immeasurably had these two kids been written with a little more character and humanity. The brooding Ben Foster spends most of the picture looking as though he's seen The Crow one too many times, while his partner-in-crime is more the loose cannon who'll stop at nothing to get what he wants. Much of what these two thugs do, they do simply because they can, and the whole scenario reminded me of a similar one in the less-than-stellar Sandra Bullock thriller, Murder By Numbers. And one of those kids was the brilliant newcomer Ryan Gosling

There isn't much motivation behind their actions offered here. These are simply bad kids in a post "Trench Coat Mafia" world, who take what they want no matter what they cost. And as the film progresses, it becomes all-too-clear that Foster's Mars Krupcheck has more than one screw loose.

Hostage is one of those movies that piles tension upon tension - rarely giving the audience time to catch their breath, and in that regard it's a very efficient movie. Ultimately though, Hostage is much too pat and hollow. I cared about Willis' Jeff Talley I suppose, but I sure didn't care much for anyone else in the picture. Towards the end of the movie, the film makers throw in some weird religious undertones that suggest that maybe we're supposed to feel sorry for Foster's unstoppable monster, but I didn't buy into it at all.

As a thrill ride, Hostage delivers with a strong sense of style. It's a fast paced shoot-em-up to be sure, with plenty of chaos and carnage along the way. I could have done without the numerous slow motion shots, but overall, the action is well executed and photographed. In terms of drama, Willis is the only actor who really brings anything to the table, which is fine I suppose given that Hostage is really about his journey.