The new thriller “Hostage” tries so hard to please, you’ll end up forgiving its many contrivances and general preposterousness. You can practically see the filmmakers sweating in every reel, hoping the ticket holder will be pleased. And, in the end, it is hard to dislike a movie that pulls out all the stops to tell the story of a former LAPD cop, fallen from grace, who battles hoodlums and a shadowy corporation/crime syndicate to save not one, but two, imperiled families.

A production of the embattled art house factory Miramax, “Hostage” markets itself as a big-dollar action event film, when it’s really the opposite: a moderately budgeted Bruce Willis vehicle. But Mr. Willis and first time director Florent Emilio Siri seemed determined to provide bang for the buck, adding ludicrous stunts to the ludicrous twists of plot typical of the form. “Hostage” is no “Die Hard,” but if you’re a fan of the domestic-drama/one-man-against-machinegun-wielding-ninja/bad-cop-redemption-action genre, this is your movie.

It begins with an overproduced title sequence that swings us back and forth above a computer-generated landscape cast in stark red and black – because, as we find out later in the movie, the color red is the color of conflict. This sequence resembles a video game, which makes sense since Mr. Siri’s only other directing credits are for the popular game “Splinter Cell.” Once the fancy graphics fade into reality, the first-time filmmaker proves his skill, wringing spectacle out of every scene and ably employing the tricks of A-list hack directors.

The plot of “Hostage” twists and turns, lunging from bursts of machinegun fire to tense dialogue standoffs to yuppie father redemption. Presumably credit for this is due to Robert Crais, whose best-selling page-turner was the source material for “Hostage.” So while the movie sometimes creaks, it never stops.

Mr. Willis brings a blockbuster attitude to a movie that’s a lot of interiors, close-ups, and average gunplay. He cuts a satisfactorily tragic figure as Jeff Talley, a cop who, having failed to stop an enraged hostage-taker from killing himself and his family, becomes disconsolate and estranged from his own family. He retreats to the mountains of California to be sheriff of a small town, and then it’s just another dull day for Talley – until things go horribly awry.

As is often the case with sleepy American towns in Hollywood films, there is a trio of trouble-making teens; two brothers (played by Jonathon Tucker and Marshall Allman) and a distinctly post-Columbine creation named Mars (Ben Foster) – the junior psychopath in leather. Their smalltime-crook envy finds its victim in a man named Smith (Kevin Pollack), his two children, and their luxury sports utility vehicle.

The miscreants stalk the family to their multimillion-dollar mansion, snuggled against a mountain, with the intention of stealing the SUV. But things get out of hand and a full-blown hostage situation develops, thanks in part to trigger-happy, dope-smoking Mars. Bad luck for them they took hostage a man who burns mysterious DVDs for a group of powerful men who might work for either Enron or the Pentagon. It is clandestine powerbrokers (we see them talk on the phone in perfect silhouettes) who, in turn, kidnap Talley’s family and hold them hostage as a way to force him into taking control of the situation and getting their DVD back.

Mr. Willis wears his age as well as any leading man in Hollywood, and he is all pained grimaces and water-filled eyeballs as he juggles the fates of his wife and daughter, the family trapped inside its own fortress like house, the teens from the wrong side of the tracks, and the crazy friend who slowly morphs into an unstoppable killing machine. Will anyone survive? Can Talley use all of his hostage negotiation skills to manipulate the scene to his favor?

This plot-thick setup is merely a slice of what “Hostage” serves up. But it made we me wonder: If a legendary hostage negotiator can’t even negotiate a conversation with his own teenage daughter, doesn’t that make him only so-so at his job? Or is that irony?