"ROGUE HOSTAGE" (2021)

Rogue Hostage (2021)
Directed by John Keeyes
Written by Mickey Solis
Starring Tyrese Gibson, John Malkovich, Michael Jai White, Holly Taylor
Running time 87 minutes
Not Yet Rated (contains mixed messages about violence and maybe some gently adult language?)

By Hunter Bush

Rogue Hostage is a Redbox movie through and through: designed to grab you with a couple of recognizable actors, a vaguely exciting title and its sheer newness (remember after NBC branded their Thursday night lineup as Must See TV, when they went into reruns over the summer, their entire advertising perspective switched to "If you haven't seen it, it's new to you"?). Like a less popular kid approaching the playground where Netflix (and so many others) are playing a game, Redbox proudly proclaims "We can make original movies too!"

I won't belabor the point: Rogue Hostage isn't going to blow your mind. Nobody here is giving a career high performance but in fairness, no one is asking them to. That doesn't mean you can't have a good time with it. I love (and I say this with no disrespect) crap. A fun, junk food movie that isn't really asking too much of me mentally that I can toss on after a long day and unwind. Or maybe put on with some friends over and crack some beers to. Rogue Hostage is that kinda flick. It's anchored by Tyrese Gibson (lately of the Fast & Furious franchise) playing Kyle, an archetypal Tough But Sensitive Man Of Action With A Tragic Past. Kyle loves his daughter Angel (Zani Jones Mbayise) - who he's raising on his own - and has a difficult relationship with his stepfather Sam Nelson (John Malkovich) - a local chain department store founder and aspiring politician - and is good at his Child Protective Services job despite the fact that he's quietly falling apart due to PTSD from his time in the military.

That's all you need to know about Kyle. The movie itself gets almost all of that set up and out of the way within the first 15-20 minutes. The movie really wants to get all the players lined up ASAP so we can spend as much time as possible in the meat of the movie: a small group of local militia types, lead by a man called Eagan (Christopher Backus), invade a Nelson's department store while Sam Nelson is there to give some televised political speech. Claiming that they are prepared to die for their cause, and that the building is wired to explode should anyone try anything, the militia take everyone hostage and force Sam to read a prepared statement alluding to some questionably factual crimes in his past. But are they truly out for some kind of justice or are they after something more ...tangible?

Once the militia let half the hostages leave and Kyle sneaks back in to become the titular "Rogue Hostage" (though, surprisingly no one drops the titular line), the film becomes a Die Hard-alike with Kyle sneaking around intending to rescue everyone. Despite being outmanned and outgunned, the biggest obstacle for Kyle is his PTSD: how can he disable the three militia members - plus hilariously, one employee turncoat - if he can't bring himself to fire a gun? That becomes Kyle's big sticking point: as he manages to murder one dead-meat bad guy after another without actually resorting to firing a gun, it becomes clearer and clearer that he's gonna have to eventually.

What's wild to me is that Kyle only *kind of* has an issue with stabbing a man in the throat with a BBQ fork and even less of an issue lighting one guy on fire with a Molotov cocktail; each arguably a more brutal death!

Oh, also he sees a ghost! Sam Nelson's bodyguard Sparks (Michael Jai White) pulls his pistol early on in the siege and attempts to put Eagan down, only to be informed that Eagan is wearing a suicide vest & holding a dead man's switch so if literally anything happens to him, the entire building is coming down on all their heads. Sparks is then shot. A lot. And he dies, as you'd expect (but not before putting kind of a lot on Kyle's shoulders when his last words are "It's up to you now". The fuck, dude?). Later however, while Kyle is suffering an Act 3 crisis of confidence, he turns a corner and finds a much less bloody Sparks propped up, acting more tired than bullet-riddled and dead. Sparks talks him down, peppers in a few jokes ("You've only got one bullet left. They sell ammo here? Do you get a family discount?") and Kyle thanks him for the pep-talk and leaves with only one backward glance showing Sparks FULLY DEAD AGAIN! WHAT?

That's not the craziest thing for me personally however. For me, a thing which I spent entirely too much time thinking about was this: when Kyle, his CPS partner Clove (Brandi Bravo) and their new charge Manny (Carlos S. Sanchez) stop at the Nelson's store to grab some food, Manny is browsing through the movies department and we hear Kyle say the words "Serial Killers" then "Pirate Radio" and finally "Halloween." before another character says they saw that movie and it wasn't suitable for kids. BUT. Kyle is only holding one DVD. So either:

• It's a multi-film disc/pack containing two notably REAL movies (Halloween and Pirate Radio) and one generic nothing title (Serial Killers). How would that work? What's the connective tissue there?
  
  - OR -
  
  
• It's one amazing movie called Serial Killers' Pirate Radio Halloween which sounds like a Hanna-Barbera holiday special that I wish I grew up watching! Imagine little cartoon killers (probably spelled "Cereal") goofin' around with a haunted radio on Halloween night! And then maybe an actual pirate comes out of it!
  

I cannot guarantee that you'll have a similarly intellectually stimulating viewing experience with Rogue Hostage as I had. It's actually kind of stodgy, with too many characters, some inconsistent characterization and ultimately lacks a meaningful or impressive villain. In an attempt to give all the characters their own Moments, sequences tend to drag on a bit too long to allow for everyone to do A Thing or deliver A Line, etc., but at just about 90 minutes, Rogue Hostage isn't asking for a huge investment from you and it might be just enough of a movie to have some fun with.

Rogue Hostage is playing in select theaters and available on demand June 11th.

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This piece was written for Moviejawn where you can find tons of other excellent movie-centric writings, a shop where you can subscribe to the quarterly physical zine and also listen to me on the  Hate Watch / Great Watch  podcast!

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