My Favorite Hostage Movies

  

Yea I’m working on the title. Give me some time. Anyway, with this week’s opening of The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, and the fact that I’m gonna be leaving in a about an hour to go check it out, I started to think about what some of the best hostage movies are. I realized that I’m pretty attracted to what is kind of a formulaic movie genre. So, I figured I’d slap on a new title and give this a test run. These are a few of my picks of some of the best hostage movies out there today that you totally should give a rent to. 

• Inside Man-This time around Clive Owen plays an incredibly smart bank robber pitted against William Defoe and of course, who else but Denzel Washington. He basically takes over the bank in a very indistinguisable disguise and has everyone in the bank dress alike. The story really unfolded well, and even though it took on a really big plot unfold in the very final 5 minutes and was a tad ambiguous, I really enjoyed it. 
• John Q-Probably my favorite hostage movie of all time, John Q stars Denzel Washington (Even his name is cool) as the actually hostage taker trying to get a donor for his son dying of a bad heart and in need of a transplant. This movie will put you to tears, it’s that great. 
• Hostage-To be honest I only caught the last 30 minutes of this on USA Network the other day, but it was still pretty choice. Bruce Willis is forced to save a group of children stuck in a house with a bunch of carjackers. Sure it’s by-the-book, but it was fun. 
• Bandits-This might not be considered a “hostage film” per say, however it’s about bank robbers. Billy Bob Thornton and Bruce Willis star as two bank robbers that get tied up in a love triangle in some of their biggest heists. May not be Pelham 123, but it’s close. 
• That Opening Scene from The Dark Knight-Enough said.
• Any Movie with Denzel Washington-I’m not saying this negatively, but he is in a lot of hostage movies AS the negotiator. He does an awesome job at doing that. He does do some other stuff to, so why not keep doing something that you’re great at?