The Negotiator - ep85

YOU WANT MY BLOOD?! TAKE IT! TAKE MY BLOOD!

Samuel L. Jackson delivers a bunch of great lines in “The Negotiator,” one of the surprisingly few mainstream movies where the Man gets true top billing. Sam Jackson is a national treasure, and come to think of it, we’d love to see Nic Cage and Sammy J. run around a “National Treasure” sequel.

In most ways, “The Negotiator” is a pretty standard hostage stand-off movie, though Jackson and the deep supporting cast elevates the action at every turn. We’re talking John Spencer (RIP LEO!), Ron “Alias is a show about a spy” Rifkin, David Morse (as a red herring and THE reason why people protest police hyper-aggression and brutality), Paul Giamatti at his most Giamatti and Christopher Plummer… wait, oh, we haven’t yet digitally switched in Chris Plummer for this movie?! Time to get on that, F. Gary Gray.

Enough dancing around the subject: “The Negotiator” is the first Old Millennials Remember Movies feature with Kevin Spacey, and it’s one of the first things we’ve seen with him since the fallout of his deserved exile from Hollywood. How does Spacey the person recontextualize Spacey the actor? The Old Millennials try to figure out if his “good guy” character in “The Negotiator” gets tarnished by the real world.

Old Millennials Remember The Negotiator

Tyler and Angela also talk about the noticeable avoidance of racial conflict in “The Negotiator.” Could this movie be made the same way in 2020? Did it miss opportunities in 1998 to explore more complex themes? The Old Millennials discuss it all, as well as the baffling scene where Sam Jackson and the rest of the cast dance to that awful “Cotton Eye Joe” song.

All that, plus popular segments, “What Did Roger Say?,” “Angela Explains It All,” “Tea Time with Tyler,” and a new Secret Word game we totally ripped off from a Minnesota Twins baseball podcast. Oh, and we finally watched HBO’s acclaimed “Watchmen” series.

Phew. So much entertainment, right? Don’t say no. You never say no to a hostage taker!

Also discussed on this episode:

Watchmen (2019 TV series)
First Cow (2020)
The Assistant (2020)
The Last Full Measure (2020)

Check out this related past content from Old Millennials Remember Movies

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:31:28 — 41.9MB) | Embed