Dying of the Light: Jede Minute zählt (2014)

When a devastating illness threatens to end Evan Lake's career in the C.I.A., he goes rogue to hunt down a terrorist who tortured him during a mission gone awry years ago.

Director:

Paul Schrader

Writer:

Paul Schrader (screenplay)

Stars:

Nicolas Cage, Anton Yelchin, Alexander Karim

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Nicolas Cage	...	Evan Lake
Anton Yelchin	...	Milton Schultz
Alexander Karim	...	Muhammad Banir
Irène Jacob	...	Michelle Zubarain
Tomiwa Edun	...	Mbui
Aymen Hamdouchi	...	Aasim
Claudius Peters	...	Ghedi
Robert G. Slade	...	James Clifton
Geff Francis	...	Dr. Clayborne
Silas Carson	...	Dr. Sanjar
Serban Celea	...	Dr. Iulian Cornel
Derek Ezenagu	...	Dr. Wangari
Sharif Sharbek	...	Serban
Tim Silano	...	Mike Warner
David Lipper	...	Bob Deacon

Storyline

Veteran CIA agent Evan Lake has been ordered to retire. But when his protégé uncovers evidence that Lake's nemesis, the terrorist Banir, has resurfaced, Lake goes rogue, embarking on a perilous, intercontinental mission to eliminate his sworn enemy.

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Plot Keywords:

cia | mental illness | individualism | religion | revenge | 

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Genres:

Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence and language

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Japan]

Country:

Bahamas USA

Language:

English Arabic Romanian

Release Date:

5 December 2014 (USA)

Also Known As:

Dying of the Light: Jede Minute zählt

Filming Locations:

Bucharest, Romania

Box Office

Budget:

$5,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

TinRes Entertainment, Over Under Media

Technical Specs

Runtime:

94 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Dying of the Light: Jede Minute zählt (2014) had a $5 million budget of which $1 million was Nicolas Cage's salary. The shooting location was mostly Romania with some additional scenes shot in the USA and Australia (doubling for Kenya). The film's independent financier was David Grovic, a Bahamanian businessman whose few prior film credits include the critical failure The Bag Man (2014), which Grovic financed, directed, co-wrote and acted in.

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Goofs

When the terrorist has his throat cut in the fight scene, the second after his body is turned on the belly and the throat is shown totally bloodless.

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Quotes

Milton Schultz: [over the phone] Where are you? I'll come meeting you.
[no response]
Milton Schultz: Evan, where are you?
Evan Lake: Diamond Tuesdays.
Milton Schultz: You're at Ruby Tuesdays?
Evan Lake: Yes, I'm at Ruby Tuesdays. That's what I just said.

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Connections

References The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear: Baby It's Cold Outside (2004)

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Soundtracks

Warm Beer
Written by Steve Adamczyk
Performed by Steve Adamczyk

User Reviews

Mostly just underwhelming

The big story associated with this film is that its director, Paul Schrader, was locked out of the editing room and denied final cut. Subsequently, Schrader and the stars have disowned this version. However, despite their reaction out of principle, DYING OF THE LIGHT isn't that terrible. It's merely underwhelming. Nicolas Cage gives a decent performance as Evan Lake, a veteran CIA agent with recently diagnosed dementia. Upon receiving some intelligence which indicates that a former target may still be alive, he decides to go after them before his disease puts him out of commission permanently. At its core, this film has an interesting concept that is never fully realized to its full thematic potential: two nemeses have one final reckoning while each are battling a debilitating disease. From what I saw, Nicolas Cage put in some good character work, and even gets to "rage" a little bit, but he was still hampered by an editing job that seemed to be going for a more streamlined thriller. Due to this, it felt like there was a fair amount of character development missing, mostly from supporting players but also from Cage himself. His disease doesn't take as big of a role as you might think, given its severity. As far as the rest of the cast is concerned, everyone did a good job but they really weren't given a whole lot to work with. Anton Yelchin was the only other name actor I recognized, and his presence seemed rather perfunctory. Perhaps he would have had a larger role in Paul Schrader's cut, but we'll probably never know unless it gets released on Blu-ray/DVD. All of the technical aspects of the film were good, although it did have the rather depressing color palette associated with low-budget Eastern European thrillers. The editing in the fight scenes was a bit choppy, but the camera-work was OK for the most part otherwise. The score also wasn't too memorable, but it still fit the material to a degree. The only part of it I genuinely liked was the track that played over the closing credits. Overall, I wasn't expecting a masterpiece and of course I didn't get one. However, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be either, somewhat to its detriment. Scenes began and then ended without much incident and didn't contribute much to the overall story. A part of me wished that it was worse because at least then it would be memorable. What I got was purely middle-of-the-road and, dare I say it, a little dull. Those looking for a fired-up Nicolas Cage performance should look elsewhere. You'd be perfectly justified in skipping this.