Metro (1997)

A Hostage Negotiator teams up with a Sharpshooter to bring down a dangerous jewel thief.

Director:

Thomas Carter

Writer:

Randy Feldman

Stars:

Eddie Murphy, Michael Rapaport, Kim Miyori

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Eddie Murphy	...	Insp. Scott Roper
Kim Miyori	...	Detective Kimura
Art Evans	...	Lt. Sam Baffett
James Carpenter	...	Officer Forbes
Michael Rapaport	...	Kevin McCall
Donal Logue	...	Earl
Jeni Chua	...	Debbie, Earl's Hostage
Dick Bright	...	Bank Manager
David Michael Silverman	...	SWAT Officer Jennings
Denis Arndt	...	Capt. Frank Solis
Frank Somerville	...	Reporter
Malou Nubla	...	Reporter
Carmen Ejogo	...	Veronica 'Ronnie' Tate
Nino Degennaro	...	Repoman
Michael Wincott	...	Michael Korda

Storyline

Roper, a hostage negotiator catches a murderous bank robber after a blown heist. The bank robber escapes and immediately goes after the man who put him behind bars. The ending is played out with Roper and his partner McCall attempting to rescue Roper's kidnapped girlfriend. A major element in the plot is the relationship between Roper and his girlfriend.

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Plot Keywords:

hostage | hostage negotiator | chase | revenge | sniper | 

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Taglines:

San Francisco's top police hostage negotiator is about to get more than he ever bargained for.

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Genres:

Action | Comedy | Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong violence and language

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

17 January 1997 (USA)

Also Known As:

El negociador

Filming Locations:

San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, San Francisco Bay, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$55,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$18,734,917, 24 January 1997

Gross USA:

$31,987,563, 27 April 1997

Company Credits

Production Co:

Touchstone Pictures,Caravan Pictures,Roger Birnbaum Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

117 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This was Steve Porcaro's first major theatrical score as he had been a former percussionist of the rock band, Toto as well as a session musician in LA.

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Goofs

As the red Thunderbird is hit by the cable car and flips over another car you can see smoke under the center of the car; from the explosion (possible hydraulics?) that caused it to flip as it's going over.

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Quotes

Scott Roper: [Trying to open an impound car, talking about his ex-girlfriend] She's going out with some baseball player called Greg Barnett.
Lt. Sam Baffett: Damn that boy can hit... and throw... and run...
Scott Roper: [pissed off at Sam's comments] Damn... why don't you just get some pom poms and start yelling Greg... Greg... Greg. Fuck him!

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Connections

Referenced in Gen-X Cops (1999)

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Soundtracks

YOU DON'T HAVE TO WORRY
Performed by New Edition
Courtesy of MCA Records

User Reviews

In some ways average, other ways quite good.

For the first hour of this film all I could think of was how average it was, I even had an average review written in my head for it. However, there are certain scenes, thrills and aspects - e.g. the ending predicament that are actually pretty good and will throw you.

Eddie Murphy plays a 'wisecracking' hostage negotiator, although tbh he's very much the 'serious' Eddie Murphy for most of the film. I prefer the fun Beverly Hills Cop guy, but there we go. There is a scene where he's talking about being in a thong and being seen by his mother's friends that is hilarious though. Plot-wise he basically gets on the wrong side of some nutter and his cousin and they conspire to make life hell for him and his English girlfriend. The female lead is a tad weak in this, and I must admit I've never ever heard of her (although I was 7 when this film came out - maybe she was big then) but she looked good - Carmen Ejogo she is.

Michael Rapaport is in this as well, as an intelligent sniper who is paired up with Murphy. Now I thought, judging by the cover etc, this was gonna be a buddy cop movie but Rapaport (an actor I like) is underused really. Don't get me wrong he's in the film a fair bit but his character has next to no personality. All I learnt was he's polite, sharp, from the Swat team and is a sniper. That's it. The film could have been done without his character if they wanted to save whatever fee he commanded.

Whoever plays Eddie Murphy and Carme Ejogo's dog is good in this though. Stellar, powerhouse performance reminded me of Hanks in The Green Mile or Orson Welles in Citizen Kane.

So yeah, mixed bag really - there's hate for post-80s Murphy films sure, but this is one of the better ones. It's a solid watch (on netflix atm) and there's some good action and the bad guy is easy to hate, so there's a lot worse out there. I won't strongly recommend but I'll say it's worth a shot - you know what you're going to get.