Dead Silence - Ostaggi del silenzio

The film started off pretty ordinary with the hijacking of a bus full of deaf students and their teacher. But as it progresses it turns into quite an enjoyable and dramatic thriller.

I have not read the book this film is based on but from what I saw I would say the film is above the average for a "made for TV" movie.

Only one complaint here and that was why they felt the need to throw in swear words every few minutes just to make the film feel somewhat contemporary. At least that's the impression I got. From my POV it felt like they had just thrown in one two many of those special magic words and this ruined part of the enjoyment of this film for me.

Having said all this I would definitely recommend this film to anyone who likes drama/thriller kind of movies. On the whole it's not a bad experience at all. Plus you have classic actors like James Garner and Marlee Matlin, what more could you want?

6/10

Pretty good Matlock'ish movie. James Garner is a missed gem. Awesome to also see Scott Speedman in a very early role prior to Underworld. Nice twist at the end!

Dead Silence is one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. It has all the elements necessary for a quality film. Drama, suspense, action, and even the occasionally witty comment by the all-star cast are present. Drama and action, specifically, are present in spades. James Garner truly shines in his role as the conflicted FBI agent John Potter, as does James Villemaire, who portrays the character Sonny, one of the kidnappers of the deaf children. Dead Silence is a one of a kind, edge of your seat movie, sure to keep you guessing till the climatic finale. I recommend this film to all, as everyone should see this exemplar of modern film-making.

"Dead Silence" was something of an unexpected pleasure for me. As far as TV movies go, this is pretty impressive. James Garner offers up an exceptionally engaging characterization, and it was a pleasure to see actors like Charles Martin Smith and Lolita Davidovich. Kim Coates is appropriately menacing as the bad guy.

The story is fairly standard, sure, but it doesn't quite get ridiculous until the final act. It was as if a more hands-off crime story wasn't enough for the screenwriters and they decided that it needed a good deal more action to spice things up. That move was largely a mistake. Daniel Petrie Jr. does good enough as director. I like the general look and feel of the film.

I enjoyed "Dead Silence". It's a hard film to dislike, one of the rare sort of action films that are neither especially challenging nor insultingly bad. Anyone should be able to get some entertainment out of this.

I think Dead Silence is a better story, then the book ( A maiden's Grave ) on which it was based. This is rare indeed, for usually a story looses depth, when it is turned into a movie. In this case, the plot is more compact, with less unnecessary details, which contributes to the tension.