Teaming for the first time Kevin Spacey and Samuel Jackson, arguably the two best actors of their generation, in perfectly fitting roles is a shrewd move and the best element of this fact-inspired but overwrought thriller

A hybrid action-drama featuring the choreographed pyrotechnics of director Gray and a battle of words between contrasting hostage negotiators Jackson and Spacey.

"The Negotiator" slogs on for two hours and 20 minutes, and there's hardly a real laugh or a genuine thrill in it.

When, in a weary moment, Danny says “you can’t beat the system,” Samuel L. Jackson underlines the underpinnings that still distinguish "The Negotiator" and that there could have been no more perfect project for Jackson’s leap into leading-man status.