Menace Explosive: Hostage Hotel

In the third movie of the TNT series, Burt Reynolds is still angry with Charles Durning. When Congressman David Rasche's wife and daughter are held hostage by Viet Nam vet Keith Carradine, the nearly immobile Durning is called on by the cops to negotiate with him. He gets trapped in the booby-traps rigged by Carradine. Reynolds goes in to rescue him while FBI agent Ted McGinley argues with with cop Captain Richard Riehle.

It's old home week for Reynolds, with Hal Needham directing, which keeps the quipping to a minimum. Also to be thanked, although Reynolds does a bit of action stuff, it does not approach the comic-book levels of Willis and Schwarzenegger. Instead the movie relies on a sense of suspense based on the lighting levels and the echo-laden score... which, alas, did not work for me.

"Reynolds should have hung up his boots after Smokey and the Bandit II" - Fiction

"Reynolds has still got what it takes as an action hero" - Fact

What a movie! Mindblowing! To see an actor of Burts calibre still diving about (performing his own Slow-mo stunts, no less) really brings a tear to my eye.

Keith Carradine is the perfect foil to our hero as Reynolds' toughest movie opponent since Jackie Gleason (may god rest his soul) last chased him 'eastbound and down' Charles Durning puts in a wonderful turn as burts seemingly inept former partner but looks can be deceiving there's life in the old boy yet! All in all a wonderful film that i can highly recommend to anyone Go Burt!

I have just watched the 1998 movie "Hard Time", but haven't watched the 1999 sequel "Hard Time: The Premonition", but had the chance to sit down and watch the third and final movie in the franchise, the 1999 movie "Hard Time: Hostage Hotel" immediately after watching the first movie. And of course I opted to do so, because I thoroughly enjoyed the first movie quite a lot.

The storyline in this third movie was enjoyable, sure, but it just wasn't as good or entertaining as it was in the first movie. Writer Steven H. Berman put together a fair enough script and storyline, but seemed to have had aimed a bit too high as director Hal Needham didn't really deliver on the same level.

Burt Reynolds still carries the movie quite well with his performance. And this third movie definitely also has an impressive cast ensemble, with the likes of Charles Durning, Keith Carradine, David Rasche, Ted McGinley, Richard Riehle, Danielle Harris, Spencer Garrett, Tony Plana, Ja'net DuBois and Kevin Durand. The acting performances in the movie are good.

There is a fair amount of action in the movie, which definitely helps lift up the movie a bit.

Watchable, sure, but hardly an outstanding movie. The movie sort of comes off as being rather bland, if you will.

My rating of "Hard Time: Hostage Hotel", from director Hal Needham, lands on a five out of ten stars.

Hostage hotel was a very enjoyable movie, as im sure you all know from my previus comments that I am a huge Burt Reynolds fan, which is the main reason I liked this film, but not the only reason, it still had a good story with a great dialog, this movie was really well done for a film with such a small budget.

I would suggest you watch this film if you are a Burt Reynolds fan.

8/10

I guess I`m on a winning streak this week. Last night I had the pleasure of watching the hysterical "Airborne" starring Steve Guttenberg, and tonight I found myself in the company of Burt Reynolds and Sledge Hammer. This is appearently the ending of some TV-series but nobody, and that includes Smokey himself, seems to care at all.

The only good thing here is Mr.Sledge Hammer himself. David Rasche knows too well this is utter crap and instead decides to camp up his worried congressman with pretty hilarious results.The equivalent of dancing around while working at McDonalds...