Samuel L. Jackson Stars In This Shocking Thriller On Netflix That Will Keep You Guessing
When you think about Samuel L. Jackson, you likely think about some of his iconic roles in major films like Pulp Fiction or The Avengers. However, the prolific actor has been involved in so many films over the years that it’s easy for even his biggest fans to overlook some of his best work. One example of this is the awesome thriller The Negotiator, and if you’ve never checked this one out, you can stream it on Netflix right now.
One reason that we’re happy to see this Samuel L. Jackson film streaming on Netflix is that it can sometimes be confusing trying to rent a digital copy or secure a physical copy of this film.
The reason is simple: there are at least two other films of the same name, one that came from Japan and one that came from the U.K. But this is the only one starring Jackson, and once you watch the film, you’ll understand why it has such a strong fanbase.
The Negotiator stars Samuel L. Jackson alongside Kevin Spacey with each of them playing Chicago Police Department hostage negotiators.
In The Negotiator, Samuel L. Jackson stars alongside Kevin Spacey in a film where each of them plays expert hostage negotiators who are part of the Chicago Police Department. They are the best in the business at what they do, but it’s not enough to prepare them for an embezzlement scheme that seems to be unfolding right under their noses.
Interestingly, while the movie takes more than a few liberties with the narrative, some of this story is loosely based on a real pension fund scandal that rocked the St. Louis Police Department in the 1980s and 1990s.
Because this movie came out in 1998, it stars plenty of actors before they had some of their biggest roles, including Samuel L. Jackson before he played Nick Fury for Marvel and Kevin Spacey before he played in House of Cards.
The movie also stars Dean Norris before he ever won us over as Hank in Breaking Bad and Paul Giamatti before he starred in Sideways. The movie also stars veteran character actor J.T. Walsh, and after he died a few months before the release of The Negotiator, the film ended up being dedicated to him.
The Negotiator made only $88 million at the box office, something of a disappointment at the time.
Despite the star power of Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey, the movie ended up being something of a box-office disappointment. Against a budget of $43.5 million, the movie made $88 million, which sounds really good at first (certainly, movies like The Flash have shown us you can do worse than earning twice as much as the production cost).
However, once you factor in the costs of marketing and promotion, The Negotiator actually ended up losing Warner Bros. a cool $13 million, so we imagine some studio executives had regrets about greenlighting this film.
Fortunately, audiences who actually watched the movie had no regrets about grabbing a ticket: the movie currently has a 79 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, which indicates how much viewers dug it. It also has a 74 percent critical score, with professional movie critics noting that the awesome performance from Samuel L. Jackson as well as the immense skill of director F. Gary Gray makes this one film worth watching.
The movie was also nominated for six different major film awards and took home the Black Film Award for Best Film and Gray received the Black Film Award for Best Director at the American Black Film Festival.
The Negotiator has a 79 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, standing up well with that crowd over time.
Now that The Negotiator is streaming, modern audiences have a chance to see what had audiences and critics so excited back in 1998. The director is confident enough to let Samuel L. Jackson, Kevin Spacey, and other actors bring each scene to life without trying to micromanage their immense talent. The result is a movie that is simultaneously a great thriller, an unconventional buddy cop story, and a delicious throwback to an older style of storytelling.
If you watched Samuel L. Jackson kicking ass in this film when it came out in 1998, then it’s certainly worth giving it a rewatch. And if you’ve never seen it at all, you should definitely make the time to stream The Negotiator on Netflix for the first time. Afterward, you’ll only have one regret: that Hollywood simply doesn’t make films like this anymore.
