iHostage

This is a faithful retelling of a real life hostage situation that occurred in Amsterdam. The filmmakers do a good job of exploring the events from many perspectives of those involved.

Some films, even when technically solid, just don’t leave a mark. iHostage is one of them. Based on a real case, it has moments of tension and does what it’s supposed to, but it fails to deliver on an emotional level. The direction is competent, the pacing holds up, and the atmosphere builds suspense fairly well. The issue is: there’s no emotional weight. The characters aren't well developed, you don’t connect with them, and as a result, you don’t really care what happens.Even though it tries to keep us on edge, you never truly worry about anyone. And if you don’t care what happens to the characters, it’s hard to feel invested in the story. The harsh reality behind the real events could’ve been used for something far more powerful, but here it just becomes a sequence of tense scenes that don’t quite ****’s not a bad movie—watchable, and some might enjoy it more than I did. But that buzz about it being “unmissable” is clearly overhyped. iHostage doesn’t offend, but it certainly doesn’t move you either.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

This film is based on a true incident in 2022, when a gunman entered an Apple Store in the heart of Amsterdam, took a hostage and threatened to blow them up. The focus is on the two of them paralleled with the ongoing police activity to avoid catastrophe (there happen to be other customers hidden in the building). There’s a constant low-grade tension that never ramps up, but keeps steady. It’s never riveting, but interesting, especially because it really happened. The most spectacular aspect is filming in the usually bustling location in Dam Square, which looks like it was shut down for hours (even though they did recreate the store in a studio).

This movie makes the Dutch police look bad. They look afraid to use their guns, but that isn't surprising from a country with no right to self defense. The framing of this event is also gross. The hostage taker is given the old "mental health" excuse, and the female hostage negotiator acts like a customer service lady. I know little about hostage negotiations, but that seems like a surefire way to piss off the man with a gun. BTW, the fact that they put a cop under four months investigation for running over a terrorist is messed up. Makes Dutch law enforcement look vindictive. Also, the dubbing is terrible and makes this more funny than tense.