This '90s Crime Thriller Has One Of Samuel L. Jackson's Most Underrated Performances

Samuel L. Jackson stars in F. Gary Gray's 1998 police thriller "The Negotiator" as Danny Roman, a Chicago police negotiator said to be the finest in his district. He's clearly very good at his job, and right from the jump, audiences get to see Danny's charisma and confidence at work as he talks down a desperate situation. Indeed, Jackson is such a forceful and badass actor that it's quite easy to believe that he'd be a good police negotiator.

The plot of "The Negotiator" involves a twisty scheme perpetrated by a hidden cadre of dirty cops to frame Danny for embezzling money from a police disability fund. As a result, Danny comes under the scrutiny of a potentially shifty Internal Affairs officer named Niebaum, played by the great J.T. Walsh. When Danny begins to discover that he is being set up, he storms into Niebaum's office and takes him, along with three other people, hostage. He wants justice.

Of course, being a police negotiator, Danny knows exactly how hostage situations work, and he insists on talking to another crackerjack negotiator named Chris Sabian, played by Kevin Spacey. (I know, I know.) At the time, seeing Spacey and Jackson play opposite one another was very exciting, and the best scenes in "The Negotiator" are when Danny and Sabian interact. The two of them have to somehow find the truth about the embezzlement scheme while under the scrutiny of the Chicago PD. There are many moments of characters being put in imminent danger.

"The Negotiator" was a modest hit in 1998, and I, alive at the time, recall it having many fans, as several of my peers ended up buying the film on home media. These days, though, it tends to be overlooked.

1998 was a good time for both lead actors in "The Negotiator." Samuel L. Jackson had caught everyone's attention in the early 1990s in films like "Jurassic Park" and, more importantly, was widely lauded for his performance in "Pulp Fiction," which netted him an Oscar nomination. This was in addition to piles of credits that he merrily racked up with expedience. Meanwhile, Kevin Spacey, many years before being ousted for a pattern of sexual assault, had gotten a lot of attention in 1995 for his performance in "Seven" and won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his turn in Bryan Singer's "The Usual Suspects." By 1998, when "The Negotiator" came along, they were both riding high.

On paper, "The Negotiator" sounds like a pretty rote police thriller. There's corruption in the Chicago PD, run by a network of unscrupulous cops, and only honest cops can find out the truth through extreme measures and rid the world of injustice. The screenplay, credited to Kevin Fox and James DeMonaco (the guy who would go on to create "The Purge"), is tight and efficient, but it's not Oscar-worthy or super-original. The film sings because it features some great performances from some notable actors. Jackson is great, as he always is, but one should also give credit to the ever-reliable J.T. Walsh for playing tightwads with such aplomb. (Walsh tragically died several months before "The Negotiator" was released.)

In addition, the movie's cast includes great character actors like David Morse, the reliable Ron Rifkin, a pre-"CSI" Paul Guilfoyle, John Spencer (who's better known for having played Leo McGarry, one of the best characters on "The West Wing"), and a just-then-kind-of-becoming-famous Paul Giamatti. That's a lot of character for a standard police thriller.

As noted, "The Negotiator" was a modest success, and it was liked well-enough by critics. Director F. Gary Gray, who had previously made "Friday" and "Set It Off," proved to be capable with the more "Hollywood" material and would go on to helm giant blockbusters like 2017's "The Fate of the Furious," which was most certainly a big-ol' "Hollywood" picture.

Roger Ebert gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four, declaring it a triumph of style over story and of acting over characters. He admitted that it wasn't until he sat to write his review that he realized how clichéd the movie actually was. That's how swept up he had become in the drama. Ebert added that he liked how the movie managed to be talky while skipping to the next plot point without being too obvious, writing:

"Yes, there are clichés all through the movie, including the obligatory role of Roman's new wife (Regina Taylor), who wants him to stop taking the dangerous assignments. Yes, the TV news crews supply the usual breathless bulletins and obnoxious questions. Yes, the action scenes are unlikely [...]. But 'The Negotiator' works because it takes its conventional story and jacks it up several levels with Gray's craft and style. And because [Samuel L.] Jackson and [Kevin] Spacey are very good."

"The Negotiator" is hardly a lost classic, and many might stay away from it because of Kevin Spacey's presence. Still, it should be reiterated that Samuel L. Jackson gives a very good performance in the film, which F. Gary Gray directed the heck out of.