96 Minutes

source: 96 Minutes

This movie follows four young people struggling in their own way with their education. The main male lead is a senior high school student (Evan Ross) who grew up in a terrible environment, and tries to escape his "fate" (or what people expect him to become) by studying hard and trying to get a good education. An excellent, excellent movie! The two leading actors (and most others) just did a great job! We saw the part of the movie crew at a premiere; they explained that beyond the heavy tension of the movie, they actually had a hard time not spending their time laughing with each other... This totally did not show up on the screen, the movie is tensed throughout and the acting (again) just excellent. The directing is just sublime as well, excellent shot decisions that gives the proper atmosphere to the movie with a lot of close up shots to focus on the characters.

Just because a movie is based on a true story doesn't mean that it's true. I could base a horror movie about the moon blowing up on the true story of the Apollo astronauts. Overall, the movie really isn't too bad. However, I'm just tired of the stereotypes. White male = arrogant, rich, privileged jerks. White and black women - either perfect or victims. Black male that commits a crime = misunderstood. My first clue is when the leading lady has a phone call with her father, whereby he informs her that he's too busy to go to her college graduation. At this juncture, the conversation lets us know that the father has never visited her at college for the entire four years. This struck a cord with me, because like the father I work hard and travel all over the world. However, it is my ex- wife (yes a mother, can you believe it) who has never bothered to visit our son even once while he was at college. Furthermore, on the day of his graduation, she flew in for brunch and then left before the graduation ceremony was over. Meanwhile, I would visit every couple of months and deal with each year's move-in and move-out days. I'm tired of the white males being the bad guys - especially in Hollywood. This movie is no different, it just keeps pushing the same Hollywood stereotype. We move on to the leading man. A black youth who is intelligent, about to graduate high school, and has a bright future. Of course, he later lines up the two women that he hijacks and threatens to shoot them in the backs of their heads - but hey, he's just in a bad situation and is also a victim. On top of everything else, we have policemen (white and black) shaking down black youths just because of the color of their skin. We also have policemen questioning the black male (who rescues the women at the end) as if he was the criminal. As far as the first incident, it just don't happen anymore. In fact, it stopped happening an long time ago - so Hollywood "just get over it." The second incident shows the cops being A-holes to the black hero, which they pretty much would be anyway regardless if the guy was black or white. When it comes to being an a- hole, it's just what policemen are (see I have a few stereotypes of my own). The bottom line is that there is good and bad and everyone knows the difference. I'm tired of hearing about circumstance and being in the wrong place at the wrong time. If you're bad and you're punished for it, then you're a criminal getting what you deserve. If you're good and punished for it, then you're a victim. Yes folks, it is just that black and white. When it comes to thugs there are no shades of grey.

I thought this movie was going to be a thriller, but I couldn't believe what a great drama it was! The story is really compelling and really draws you in. You think you know where the story is going because of all the flashbacks, but there were several twists and turns that I did not see coming, and by the end I was biting my nails trying to figure out how it would all play out. The acting in this movie was simply superb, really heart wrenching. I haven't seen a lot of Brittany Snow's other work (I saw Hairspray, and obviously this character was way different than her character in Hairspray) but I was really impressed by what a great job she did in this movie, she seemed very comfortable with her character and wasn't really "acting" at all. Of course the other actors were great as well, I was just especially impressed with Brittany. The other thing that really stuck out for me (in a good way) was the music in this movie. The score was beautiful and really helped underscore the drama that was happening on screen. And did you notice the way that songs subtly tie together two scenes (and two story lines)? Overall it's a great movie with a lot of heart, and I can't wait to see it again!

There is no doubt that director Aimee Lagos has talent and she may go on to bigger things. Some moments of this film are exciting and others are moving. The actors, though largely unknown, give capable performances. Based on a true story, this is a film about how four lives come together in a dangerous carjacking which spirals out of control, even for the perpetrators. The time sequence jumps back and forth and while it's easy enough to follow, it gets irritating. It's also filled with thoroughly unpleasant people and drops the f-bomb repeatedly, and although it's probably an accurate portrayal of the big city, it's hard to care too much even for the innocent victims. Besides the constant flashbacks and flash-forwards, the worst part of this film seems determined to wallow in squalor. There are also a lot of early scenes which contribute little to the central story and clutter the film. The last half hour of the film is the best, when the film no longer has flashbacks and flash-forwards. I was disappointed even though there were moments that were well-done and compelling.

I did not like this movie at all. The screenplay was horrible, and the acting was even worse. I am gonna tell everyone i know not to watch this movie. Whoever wrote and directed this movie must be fresh out of film school. It just plain sucked. From beginning to end. It was in the 5 worst movies of all time. The character Kevin was the worst. Dre was next. And Carly was third. Why did Dre listen to the little dumb white boy. Why didn't Carly tell the guy that found her about her friend? This was just poorly written and i hope Aimee Lagos doesn't do anymore movies anytime soon. Thank you very much for wasting my time. And what was the scene about when the uncle called the nephew on his cell phone? If he had a phone why didn't he call the cops? And what was the scene about in the jail cell at the end. It just showed a white screen outside the cell window. Direction was horrible as well.

I saw this at sxsw and it's been hard for me to decide if I really liked this movie. It was shot very well and the director obviously knew what she was doing but the exposition in the writing ruins the story for me. Everything is just made too obvious and is too cliché. The actors were okay, but they didn't really help this problem. It could have been much better and I really liked the idea of the story, but I think that it was just too poorly written. There was one scene where there's a black kid walking home from school with his backpack on and is randomly stopped and basically beaten and searched by cops who are yelling at him and being bad cops and drive off when they don't find anything on him. Then a black lady in a house shakes her head and closes the blinds. I hate cops too, but they don't actually do stuff like that in the middle of the day. Not since like the 1960's anyway. It's just bad writing and way too expositional and it really takes you out of the story and to me ruined it. It's like the writer wouldn't let you think for yourself about the movie, everything needs to be explained to the audience in very simple terms and I don't like that. But I think a lot of people will like this movie.

This is the movie obviously made in the vein of an Alejandro González Iñárritu movie or a movie like "Crash" if you will. Problem however is that it's clearly a less clever or well written version of a Alejandro González Iñárritu movie, made with far less talented people involved as well. There is plenty wrong with this movie and its story and way of storytelling, so I don't even know where to begin really. But I do believe that the biggest problem is not even necessarily with its story but lies more with its characters. There is not one likely enough character in this movie, that you could ever start to care for. It's also because none of them ever get developed properly enough but also because most of them simply don't do anything likable at all in this movie. You just don't feel any sympathy or involved with any of them, which makes this a very distant movie to watch already. And no, it clearly doesn't help that the characters aren't played by the most talented actors. It actually shows how these type of movies can really benefit from a strong, all-star cast and how terribly uninteresting these sort of movies can work out, without an impressive cast. But there is also clearly plenty wrong with the story itself. It's just not connected very well or cleverly all. It doesn't feel organic in any way, which is also partly due to some poor dialog. It's all too forced and unlikely and not everything comes together very well, which also results in a pretty abrupt and unsatisfying ending. Also the constant switching around between 'past' and 'present' events in the movie is not balanced out too well. With this storytelling technique the two things should strengthen each other and add to the movie its tension or mystery but in this case it only mostly works out as redundant and even somewhat annoying. It sometimes spend too much time in the 'present' while not showing enough the events that led up to the movie its 'conflict', which already is a pretty ridicules, unlikely and poorly handled conflict to begin with. Some of the choices that some of the characters make in this movie just aren't very likely at all, which makes you feel even less involved with all of it. And yes, I'm probably still being too kind about this movie with my rating. I don't completely trash it because it's a smaller movie, with a small budget and with all some very average people involved. Still it's not really worth seeing, though at the same time it's also far from the worst thing you'll ever see. 5/10 http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

This movie will keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. It's a story full of heart and soul, but so true to life it will make you squirm in your seat. It is essentially a story of four kids lost in a world of mixed messages and misdirection who all come face to face with themselves in the worst of all possible circumstances. It's a hard edged look at something a lot of people think is in this country's past - a serious race/class divide that plagues us still today. The familiar story lines are approached with a freshness that rings true to all of us who have been there, but doesn't over sentimentalize. I recommend this film to anyone who is willing to put themselves through a wild ride and wake up to the fact that a lot of the problems we thought we solved are more present than ever. This is truth.

Four kids all are linked together in the midst of a carjacking gone fubar, we move between this and flashbacks to the lives of the various people involved in a vain attempt to find reason. It can't all their fault, they must be a product of society. Or racist cops. Or whatever other P.C scapegoat we can point a finger at. We've all seen this type of movie a million times over and much better than first-timer Aimee Legos can seem to muster in her freshman offering. Spike Lee she is decidedly not. However the acting is serviceable enough even if the story is blatantly entrenched in a liberal whit guilt mindset. My Grade: D