This movie is, in many ways, your average action-suspense thing. It's full of nice acting and good writing. Samuel L Jackson and Kevin Spacey play the two lead rolls very well (Sam is always great in this sort of thing, as far as I'm concerned) and the movie touches on a lot of the ins and outs of hostage negotiation, without going into too much boring detail.
A lot of the movie is basically Sam going "yeah, yeah" to all the usual hostage negotiating, which is fun, because it's kind of what we're all thinking (if you've already seen a few of these kinds of films)
The plot is full of twists, many of which are acceptably surprising, and the suspense is built nicely, and paid off fairly. The two central characters do not simply shoot themselves out of every situation, they use the skills of their trade. The other aspect I liked was the slow build up of trust between the hostage negotiator and the negotiator-turned-hostage taker. It was a reversal of the norm, as Sam was innocent, and the relationship was a positive one.
Another point: movies that take place mainly in one location are more often good. 'Die Hard' is a good example of this (the first one, not the up and down sequels). Another component of a good action movie is not too much action, and 'The Negotiator' gets the balance just about right.
Though the ending was a bit too happy for me, and it had the usual crying wife scenes, 'The Negotiator' certainly lived up to it's name.
The Negotiator: 39.3