Hard Time: Hostage Hotel

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.

There is nothing better than seeing Burt Reynolds as an action star. This is the straight-to-video/straight-to-television film that premiered on and was made by TNT (Turner Network Television). The story is about a candidate for congress whose speech at a congressional convention is ruined because a Vietnam vet has set-off grenades inside the ritzy hotel in which it is all taking place. The villain kidnaps the congressman's wife and daughter, and holds them hostage inside, while Burt Reynolds long time partner tries to save them, but ends up a hostage himself. Now it is up to Logan McQueen (Reynolds) to come to the rescue and save everybody inside, including his partner (now it's personal). The story is okay, the acting is good, but it all ends up being the funniest movie of all time because not only does Jefferson from "Married With Children" make an appearance, but we get to sit for 90 minutes and watch Burt Reynolds make the funniest faces ever! This is a cool film and could rank as one of the most horriblist, most funniest, and most greatest film of all time!

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...

Well, this movie was okay but it was a dissapointment. As soon as I got the tape, I realized it was a tv movie. So, it didn't have a lot of violence or high action in it. It was still okay though. It's not one of his better movies.

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.