1998 thriller ‘The Negotiator’ was a classic from the later 90s, packed with a great cast, excellent direction and smartly written. To hear that there was to be a Hong Kong remake of it some twenty-five years later was intriguing; it doesn’t really need a remake, but with Lau Ching-Wan and Francis Ng on board, my interest was piqued.
Cheuk (Ching-Wan) and Tse (Ng) are hostage negotiators who are called to the scene where a distraught father (Andy Lau with a cameo) and mother whose child has placed in care have taken over a government building. The result is disastrous and Tse leaves the Force to become a social worker. Years pass and the two are brought together when Cheuk is framed for the murder of a colleague who informed him of corruption involving the pension fund. Cheuk takes hostages and will only talk to his former colleague, but the uneasy alliance is under threat from the police and SDU team who may or may not include those involved in the crime.
‘Crisis Negotiators’ starts slightly differently to its inspiration but soon settles into the familiar story of the original. Herman Yau includes a few scenes that are exactly the same as in ‘The Negotiator’ and, if you haven’t seen the F. Gary Gray film, these are effective and combine to make a slick Hong Kong thriller. The action set-pieces are limited as this is all about the dynamic between the two leads and, as you expect, they are excellent. The characters are not as developed as in the original though and the clever interplay between Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey is sorely missed.
Herman Yau’s remake is, to be honest, unnecessary. It doesn’t add much to the source material and, when compared side-by-side, comes off poorly. ‘The Negotiator’ was a superb thriller because it built the tension through the writing, tight direction and ominous soundtrack; ‘Crisis Negotiators’ loses the edge and while the original was shot in a way to give you a feeling of claustrophobia, this is dimly filmed. Jackson and Spacey were at the top of their respective games in ‘The Negotiator’ and it made for something special while the supporting cast was exceptional: the late great J.T. Walsh, Paul Giamatti, David Morse, Siobhan Fallon – this was a production stacked with quality throughout. While Herman Yau’s remake has some fine Hong Kong actors involved, they are given much less to work with and almost fade away in the background, something you definitely cannot say about the original. It’s always encouraging to see a new Hong Kong action thriller released and we know that there is still the local talent to create something special. While ‘Crisis Negotiators’ is watchable, especially if you haven’t seen the Jackson/Spacey hit, it isn’t memorable.
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