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Crisis Negotiators is a serviceable formulaic action thriller that's elevated by Sean Lau Ching Wan and Francis Ng's lead performances and supporting cast. The film's biggest hamper is its paint-by-numbers unambitious approach to its material.

A remake of 1998's The Negotiator starring Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey, the story follows senior negotiator Cheuk Man Wai who has been framed for murder and holds a police station hostage to clear his name, with the help of a former negotiator- turned-social worker Tse Ka Chun.

Looking over Herman Yau's filmography, he's quite the survivor of the Hong Kong industry. Reputable for bringing his films on budget and on time, Yau has worked consistently across a widespread of genres, releasing B movies quick enough to catch what's trending, such as undercover police thrillers or Ip Man follow-ups.

Now as the go-to guy for Hong Kong-Mainland co-production action films, Yau's paint-by-numbers, veering towards televisual style is a commercial choice to create easy entertainment that everybody can follow-and probably puts the investors at ease. And Yau achieves that.

However, it leaves a lot to be desired. We are all so familiar with cop films already. There's little attempt to deliver anything new or challenge its audience.

The film constantly over-explains itself. Every line of dialogue either explains, reminds or plans out what needs to be done. There are flashbacks to scenes we have just seen. You could follow the entire story from listening while making dinner in the kitchen.

Lau Ching Wan and Francis Ng deserve better material. That said, it's impressive watching the two veteran actors rise above the written material. They masterfully maneuver around their lines, adding nuances and gravitas in the silences.

Producer Andy Lau disappears in a memorable cameo as a mentally unstable father who starts a crisis in the Social Welfare Department office with his wife. It's Lau's best recent performance.

Yeung Wai Lun from The Sparring Partner is also funny as a police informant who becomes one of the hostages.

The most memorable scene is Sean Lau taunting a novice police negotiator on the phone and it's the closest the film gets to letting loose and allowing the actors to play with the material. My theater erupted in laughter from the fresh and immediate energy.

Everybody seems to be delivering these stale lines as written. How often can an actor and director explore a scene until it's right in these productions?

Imagine if the production let Herman Yau, Sean Lau and Francis Ng chisel and tweak their scenes to create something more magical and exciting.

At the bare minimum, I need to see that attempt.

This movie was clearly made for the China market. From the opening scenes, it's obvious that the filmmakers had a specific audience in mind-an audience that expects a certain kind of morality, a certain visual polish, and most definitely, a particular narrative structure. One of the more telling signs is the depiction of the police force. Judging by the uniforms and attitudes, the officers portrayed must be the pre-1997 Royal Hong Kong Police. Why? Because post-handover police, at least in the cinematic world approved for mainland distribution, have no bad apples. Every officer is a paragon of discipline and virtue, without a hint of corruption or moral ambiguity. It's almost as if someone scrubbed the script clean with ideological disinfectant.

Of course, I'm being facetious-but only slightly.

We get cardboard-cutout heroes: two male leads who appear to have been genetically engineered for moral uprightness. They never make the wrong call, they never lose their cool, and they always say the right thing. It's not that they're unlikable-they're just too perfect to be interesting. They lack the internal conflict or character flaws that would make them feel real. These aren't men with haunted pasts or complex motivations; they're avatars of state-approved justice.

Then there's the acting, which is wildly uneven. The actresses, in particular, seem to have been instructed to dial everything up to eleven. Every emotion is exaggerated, every reaction laced with melodrama. It's the kind of over-acting that was common in stage acting, and it feels out of place in what's supposed to be a modern action-thriller. Whether it was a directorial choice or an attempt to appeal to certain dramatic sensibilities, it ends up being distracting more than anything else.

The storyline is about a negotiator (Lau Cheng Wan) becomes the prime suspect in a murder case, and he demands the help of a retired negotiator (Francis Ng) to clear his name! The juice is in the tense negotiations between the two men!

The pace is good, it starts fast with a high-stake hostage situation for charter development, followed by the main hostage situation!

Basically, it is a big gathering of all seniors' actors in Hong Kong! It's nice to see all the familiar faces in a movie, but it's also sad to see where the new actors are? After this, what's more from HK movie industry?

Of the two, Francis Ng appeared to perform so much better, with suspenseful dialogue, psychological manipulation, and veiled threats. Lau Ching Wan's acting, on the other hand, is rather flat and emotionally reserved. Jiang Hao-Wen's aggressive acting is forever the same in all movies! Sigh...

The SWAT actions called by the Chief Police Officer are rather questionable given the condition with so many hostages! In fact, the frequent actions disrupt the flow of the primarily dialogue-based narrative.

It's good, but not great! The core negotiation is not tense and suspenseful enough, and the uneven acting and action sequences somehow prevent the movie from reaching its full potential. It's definitely worth your money to watch it in the cinema! Go for it!!!! DON'T miss it!!

Overall enjoyable movie, good action with some interesting action, however bit predictable with certain action and also who are hidden villains of the movie. It's an interesting movie when you haven't watch the original hollywood movie or already forgot how that one goes.

Lau Ching Wan doing his misunderstood cop roll, has currently kinda become his character in the last several films he has been in. Francis Ng for me felt out of place as a crisis negotiation as he is also known for mostly being a bad guy in triad movies as also he speaks in a certain way it quite hard to believe it goes well in negotiations.

Personally would rather seen Lau Ching Wan as the retired Negotiator instead and either Nicholas Tse or some younger Male actor being the framed cop. As there was a parkour / free running stuff happening which felt out of place for Lau Ching Wan to do at his age.

Disclaimer: I have not seen the original 1990s American film which this one is a remake of. Thus, I cannot directly compare the two, nor can attest in one way or another to, say, the claims that the lead performance here is less interesting than that of Samuel L. Jackson in the original.

However, to me this film is valuable in its own right due to one common thread in PRC filmmaking - and that is the deep undercurrent of social realism. Well before the story of police corruption this film is remaking begins to unfold, we are shown not one, but two tense hostage cases. Beyond simply showcasing the skills of our main characters and the emotionally draining reality of their work, those scenes unmistakably convey a message you don't see in police-oriented films all that often - that it is a clear failure of the state if a person has become so desperate to force the police to get involved in the first place.

Hence, the other negotiator leaves the service after the prologue to become a social worker and thus address the grievances which may lead to hostage cases at their root - and it is very much shown as being the right thing to do, while our villains are specifically the career police more in love with their uniforms and privileges than any of the people they are serving.

Beyond that, the film is a perfectly good genre entry, with fine performances, good direction, great pacing, etc. I did find it a little grating with how long it's taken for the computer in the office to get unlocked (presumably one of the first things the hostage-taker should have gone for), but it's not much of an issue for this genre. Yet, it is specifically the social context which, to me, elevates this film beyond merely being a good genre entry.