Sixty Minutes (2024)
Desperate not to lose custody, a mixed martial arts fighter makes dangerous enemies when he ditches a matchup to race to his daughter's birthday party
Chase movies are always fun, but not always in cars. There’s something about a movie taking you on an entire trip across it’s span (even if it’s not trying to be a one cut thing) that has a charm. It’s enticing right? Is the person going to make it? What challenges will they face across the path? Well, tonight we’ll take a peak at how Germany does one thanks to our paid for friend Netflix - he’s in a race against time, and that time is Sixty Minutes.
Our main character is a fighter, and he’s got a big match coming up. Problem is, it’s been postponed a lot and now it’s on his daughter’s birthday. His plan was to get the fight done than swing to his daughters party with a cake and a cat - but that plan quick descends into chaos when his ex gives him an ultimatum. What kind of ultimatum you ask? If he doesn’t make it over there in one hour, she’s taking sole custody of the kid and he’s never going to see her again. How does that cause chaos you might ask? Well, it turns out that there’s more to this fight than he knew, and now he’s getting chased by a bunch of angry thugs across town as he tries to desperately make it in time to not loose his rights to be a father.
The story is there enough to have a good reason for our leads actions - maybe it won’t be enough for some folks, but in a day and age where the “Family!” centric antics have carried an entire franchise of once-car oriented Fast and Furious movies to the bank, I think this one probably has enough here to carry it’s characters.The characters are largely not the most elaborate things in turn. but you can see the main’s drive towards getting to his kid and it does make him a good deal endearing, even if his decision making might be crap to get into this situation in the first place. Our supporting cast in turn supports what’s going on in the screen with fights and the likes, but development is really reserved mainly for our lead - who really doesn’t go on much of a character journey as much as a physical one.
The actors do a good job - that and any stunt doubles going to town in there. The action is realistic, and pretty much entirely MMA oriented combat complete with take-downs and arm bars. People behave suitably to situations going on, with the minor exception perhaps of the police - but then again, maybe German police just have a bit of an attitude. It’s not like real people don’t act like jerks because they don’t like someone after all. You might not really think that anyone is blowing the acting department out of the park, but at the same time you never really have anything takes you out of the movie or really fails to get the feelings across. I mean, heck, the most unbelievable thing to me is the amount of exercise doesn’t kill the main character - but that’s because I’m horribly out of shape.
Fun split screen effect.
Costumes and settings are all pretty normal for a modern setting. Yeah, it’s not a stateside city - but that urban landscape still looks like an urban landscape regardless. People look suitably beat up as they get beat up, and that tends to hang around through the movie - but you won’t see anything really outlandish. We do get some variety in venue - the various streets might blend together, but we also get a neat little club and some train station stuff. It works within the confines of what it has, Most the costumes aren’t super fancy but do a wonderful job of fitting in and being believable as well - so it’s really nothing wrong in this department,
Of course, what sold me on this movie is probably what a lot of folks are going to be drawn to it for - action. The chasing bits and the time limit apply a constant pressure, but the fight segments are where the thrills come from. The fights are great, and the feeling of them being grounded in reality helps make them that much more intense. The breathers for our main are few and far between - so there’s always some sense of stress brought about by the constant timer ticking down. Even when he does get a bit of a breather, it’s usually robbed of it’s true relaxing purpose by the emotional plot going on between him, the ex wife and the kid. Does he perhaps have some anger issues at times that can make a bad situation worse? Sure? But with the amount of crap going on for the lead between the running and the fighting and the constant pressure of the countdown - who wouldn’t have a few rage issues when some one makes it go worse?
Yeah though, you might come for the fights and find the plot a bit simple, but at the same time it all works well together. It gives a surprising amount of things you can thing about in there, the most obvious of course being what would you do for your kid, but even within that you could track in things like feelings of betrayal and when is too late. More thoughtful people could most likely get more out of it by really looking hard, but in either of the two times I’ve watched this movie I’ve never really looked that far into it since it just works at it’s surface level really well. Now, audio is there, and largely forgettable in the music part for me - although there’s a bunch of hip hop and some nice electronic beats, and it does it’s normal movie role of helping add to the scenes. Audio is entirely in German (and a wee bit of apparently Serbian), so I really can’t speak to line deliveries, but subtitles do a fine job. That’s probably going to be the biggest turn off to most people, that they have to read, but it’s not that bad in my opinion and if you are expecting it it’s even less of an issue.
Brawl on the block
This is a nice little movie. It’s got some good action, it’s got some good tensions, and it’s put together well enough. It might not have a lot of cars in it, particularly in terms of chasing, but it’s a good solid chase movie regardless. A city of trouble awaiting a single man trying to do his best to do the right thing even if it’s probably way later than it should have been done. It’s solid enough to be enjoyable even on a rewatch, and well enough put together that you feel for the main even if he isn’t the best dad around. It has some rather potent moments considering you mostly expect a lot of action from the trailer. Maybe check it out if you get the chance.