793 8-20-98
None of the tip sheets on the summer's hottest movies gambled on The Negotiator. Now, as the predicted victors -- Godzilla, Armageddon and The X-Files -- face a critical and box-office backlash, this little-hyped thriller emerges as a dark-horse winner by reminding us of how pleasurably exciting a popcorn movie can be when it's populated by actors who are in it for more than an exorbitant fee. The cast members mix it up with such relish, you get the feeling they'd even…