Non Negotiable bugs me… not because it’s not much of a comedy and not because it’s only a barely decent thriller, but because it doesn’t have a hyphen in its title. But mainly because it’s not much of a comedy or thriller <insert Arnold’s clenched fists here>.

This is a Mexican flick available on Netflix in the US about a police hostage negotiator having trouble in his marriage. Ha ha says the dialog in the first act… a hostage negotiator going to marriage counseling. But the rest of the movie is about the kidnapping of the Mexican president and the team that needs to rescue him.

Despite its categorization, it’s barely a comedy. And I don’t mean the comedy isn’t funny so much as it barely has any jokes at all. In the first act, sure… maybe a little at the end. But most everything else is played seriously (with maybe a smattering of political satire). Mostly it has to rely on how good a hostage negotiation thriller it is… and it’s only barely ok at that too. It has moments that are pretty thriller-adjacent at least.

It also might have a whole bunch of political satire as the Mexican president is forced to take a lie detector test. But since I don’t know the state of politics in Mexico, I was mainly left in the dark. I’m not saying it should cater to Americans but that, if you are Mexican, you might get more out of it than me.

For a short moment of time in the second act, I thought I might be able to give the movie an extra score boost. But even that bit eventually lost me and I wound up really bored by this comedy/thriller.

Score: 68