60 Minuten

An action film with decent, noble and not so strange desire to offer more than impressive fights and some tension.

A MMA fighter decides , in special circumstances, to be with his daughter in the day of her birthday.

Many and not easy obstacles. His determination, sacrifices and phonecalls .

And, in the skin of cliches and familiar situations, a story with few just nice sentimental sparkles.

Easy to judge it not just polite, its story works little more than decent, the acting is reasonable and the sentimental side not bad crafted.

So, not a wrong idea to see it , including the reserves about action films. Because, far to be memorable, it proposes a sort of life lesson, indeed, with idealistic touch and a lot of unrealism, at the first sight who , in large lines, has the virtue to reflect situation of many fathers, consequences of life between work and family , the responsability, evoked by his father, in short, maybe not exactly as pretext.

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.

What I loved the most about this film was its homage to early race-against-time types of movies such as Taken and Kidnap, and its plot was centered around a likable protagonist that was relatable to watch. It held me by the neck even from the very start as it progresses into the action-filled chase scenes. These scenes were even tinged with emotional edges into it which made the film more than just an ordinary action flick. The way that the director centered the story around the protagonist and his dilemma (which ironically is a bit problematic because of his questionable abandonment of the fight) was smart because it emphasizes the greater conflict of the story.

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.

Genre films generally have a very difficult time in German-speaking cinema. And when it comes to action films in particular, German filmmaking lags far behind. I personally can only remember the humorous MMA hit PLAN B (2016) by Ufuk GENC with the superb stuntman Can AYDIN, which at least made people sit up and take notice that this genre is also possible in German-speaking countries. It's a good thing that the global streaming service NETFLIX definitely has a taste for unusual experiments. And lo and behold, successful director Oliver KIENLE (BAD BANKS) lets a remarkably well-trained Emilio SAKRAYA, like Franka POTENTE as Lola, run through Berlin against the merciless passage of time. Why this action occurs plays only a minor role. The only important thing is that Emilio SAKRAYA's Octavio is in a perceived emergency and therefore has to beat up half of the gangster world in the German capital. After all, why does he have his impressive MMA skills?

There's never a dull moment in this stylish, non-stop film, but you won't find any special flashes of inspiration in the script. But that's not a bad thing either. The film is a vehicle through which Emilio SAKRAYA can recommend himself for further roles in international action cinema. In addition to all the fighting, he can also play.

Dennis MOJEN and the internationally booked stunt people Marie MOUROUM and Bruno SALGUEIRO also appear in other roles. Otherwise, the other stunt people probably come mainly from Hungary. Oh yes, a very cute kitten named Onion steals the show from the hardened whipping boy.

Even if the film will certainly not become a classic of the genre, it is definitely good that German filmmakers are finally tackling such genres that are popular with global audiences. Keep it up!