George Clooney and Julia Roberts are very good as usual. The movie itself felt shallow to me or at least not as complex as I was expecting it to be. It's a very basic film with no real surprises and not much depth. The hostage taker is indeed the basic angry moron that the trailers make him out to be. As pure Hollywood norm, Wall Street and big money are the heartless bad guys and the Stock Market is rooted in evil. Yet despite the hypocrisy (as if Clooney and Roberts are diversified heavily in stocks) and the clichés, the events in the TV studio are captivating and intense. Place logic aside and it really is quite entertaining. The movie definitely loses steam when it breaks from the tension of the studio/live hostage situation setting.
Overall, it's entertaining enough to overlook all the flaws.
Overall, it's entertaining enough to overlook all the flaws.