Sixty Minutes

SIXTY MINUTES is a fun little low budget martial arts thriller from Germany. It's made on the cheap but don't hold that against it because this has far more suspense and excitement than many a big budget Hollywood movie, riddled as they are with needless CGI and explosions. This one has a straightforward plot about a top MMA fighter who abandons his latest match in favour of spending time with his daughter, but various match-fixing gangsters are determined to stop him. There are slow spots and overdone emotion amid the action, but the fights come thick and fast and the choreography is always satisfying.

Thought I'd try a new throw of review. Am halfway through and really enjoying it. Definitely elements of Old Boy and Victoria here, given the fighting and fk up missing his daughter's birthday premise, and real time unfolding of the story, albeit not one unbroken shot. But the lead guy is fantastic, he's really struggling here, physically and emotionally, and with ever increasing conflict his day is spinning out of control. And it's funny at times, without becoming facile or silly. And the journey through Berlin is accurate, he's just passing my flat now😾Will continue review when finished... It's great! The writers took SAVE THE CAT literally but in a very good way. They avoided most cliches and wrote something really quite lovely, and super entertaining, and you will not stop grimacing at the climax fight sequence, some lovely Korean cinema esque violence. But at its heart, and it has a big one, is the story of one man's mission to do the right thing for a change. And to put the confession scene in the mouth of the father was also clever. I loved this film and to redress one stupid 1 out of 10 review that seems based on racism I'm giving it 10. Bravo.

If there is one thing that is cool with streaming services despite being someone who still very well enjoy his physical movies format, its that little obscure movies like these would had probably never goes over my radar.

This popped on Netflix recently and i think its a German movie, well it happen in Berlin. I watched the movie dubbed in French, wich is another thing that would had been very unlikely to see during the "direct to dvd" era for a resident of Quebec like myself. A movie like this dubbed in french and released here. But i digress.

The general plot of the movie is one of the most simple ever. A father wich is about to fight in MMA against an opponent that is late has to throw everything off because he must reach his daughter in a certain ammount of time, otherwise her mom will try to remove his right to see her.

The issue is even tough the movie time itself fit with the 1h premise, you really have the impression the guy spend like 3h or more trying to get back to his daughter. There is no way he would had been able to do all of this in 1h. Unless the arena, his gym, and his ex house are basically at 10m of walk from each others.

So you look at it and think "why didn't he just fough the guy". Because there is no way the fight in the cage would had last longer than all that he goes trough. Basically the plot has more holes than a Swiss cheese.

BUT where the movie shine is with the action/fights. There is plenty of them, and they are pretty well done. Its solid choreography and good camera work. The movie never really slow its pace where you can start thinking about all the flaws of the plot. I only did after i was done with it and reading some other reviews.

So if you just want a cool martial arts flick while drinking a few beers, this movie is perfect for that, thus why i give it the score i did.

While there are a lot of familiar elements here, this movie feels different and fresher than a lot of the action movies getting released these days. You feel the main characters pain (both physical and mental) over the course of his journey to see his daughter.

The action is well choreographed and realistic, and the plot moves at a good pace, with some good emotional moments in between. It feels like a perfect run time that doesn't out stay it's welcome at less than 90 minutes. The ending is a little neat, but action movies aren't exactly known for their realism so it's somewhat forgivable. The final image put a smile on my face, just being a little different than the norm.

The lead actor does a great job, while the supporting cast manages well with the little time the movie devotes to them.

Worth a watch!

I'm almost surprised by how good this movie was. I had expected some action, and the premise wasn't new. It's a film in real-time, not unlike "Nick of Time" with Depp or the classic "Rope" from Hitchcock. Basically, the bulk of the movie is that the main character has sixty minutes to get somewhere and there are forces that don't want him to make it. The movie starts off, then the clock literally starts counting down and it's Go-Time.

Because the scenes have to move quickly it was almost surprising how much story unfolds through dialog and interactions. There is more going on in this movie than just a guy fighting his way across town.

The ticking clock adds an extra layer of tension and I found myself checking the time on my own clock, not just the run time of the movie. They really do line up pretty well, which is a huge credit to the editors. This isn't one of those movies where they have five minutes to defuse a bomb, but we cut to another scene that's ten minutes of dialogue.

It was stressing me out various points in the film. But, it's not a super involved plot, and yet it has some good character development. None of which I typically expect from films like this. Well worth a viewing.