9/11

9/11 is based on Patrick James Carson's play Elevator. It is a low budget film about five people trapped in an elevator in the north tower of the World Trade Center on 11 September 2001.

I still remember a work colleague in Britain telling me what happened during that day. The way he described it I was not sure whether he was joking or not or whether the whole thing was just incredulous. I tried to go on the BBC news website and it took ages for it to download the headline page because of the volume of the net traffic.

Charlie Sheen and Gina Gershon are a couple on the verge of divorce. He is a billionaire, the lift they use suddenly stops. Luis Guzman plays a worker in the lift who contacts Whoopie Goldberg who works in the maintenance room.

The five people in the elevator are initially unaware as to what has happened but slowly they become aware especially via Goldberg what is happening all around them and they need to get out of the elevator quickly.

The film does look a bit cheap and quickly shot but the actors give passionate and earnest performances, especially as it dawns on them as to the peril they are in and something very serious has taken place.

Even the audience would fear the worse for these five people and that they make not make it out alive.

The film does draw you in and rather captivates you as it goes along even though at times you also feel the film is manipulative. I can understand why the movie was accused of bad taste because of its release date near the date of the disaster.

There have been over 50 feature films made about the September 11th terrorist attacks on the U.S. – dramas and documentaries – about the attacks themselves and about their effects on the U.S. and on individuals. 2017 brings us the action drama "9/11" (R, 1:30), but that's not the first film to use that title. 2002's "9/11" is a television documentary from Bronx-born filmmaker James Hanlon and French documentarians Gédéon and Jules Naudet who were in New York filming a documentary about a rookie firefighter, but whose planned film was hijacked by real-life events, giving us rare footage from the epicenter of the attacks. In 2006, "World Trade Center" put Nicolas Cage and Michael Pena in that same spot, portraying real-life NYC Port Authority police officers trapped in the collapse of the Twin Towers.

Movies telling fictional stories of how the tragedy of September 11, 2001 affected ordinary people include "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" (a 2011 Best Picture Oscar nominee starring Sandra Bullock, Tom Hanks, Max von Sydow and featuring child actor Thomas Horn) and "Reign Over Me" (a 2007 drama starring Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle). Then there are movies like "Zero Dark Thirty" (a 2012 Best Picture nominee with an all-star cast led by Oscar-nominated Jessica Chastain and directed by Oscar winner Kathryn Bigelow) which represent the wider effects of the attacks. For my money, the best 9/11 film to date is 2006's "United 93" (as opposed to the TV movie "Flight 93" – same subject, same year), which earned Oscar nominations for its editing and for the directing of "Bourne" series helmer Paul Greengrass. All of these films are good and some are great. So, how does this "9/11" stack up?

2017's "9/11", based on the award-winning play "Elevator" by Patrick James Carson, tells the fictional story of five strangers stuck between floors in the North Tower of the World Trade Center after American Airlines Flight 11 crashes into it. Jeffrey Cage (Charlie Sheen) is a billionaire businessman who is being divorced by his wife, Eve (Gina Gershon). Jeffrey and Eve have a young son together, but Eve's one big complaint against Jeffrey is that he doesn't pay enough attention to her or their son and she's had enough. Tina (Olga Fonda) has also had enough of her guy. She's dating a rich older man and she appreciates the perks that come with that relationship, but she hates being controlled by him and she's heading up to his office to tell him that she's leaving him. Michael (Wood Harris) is a Manhattan bicycle messenger who has a chip on his shoulder, but he also has a loving wife and young daughter who is having a birthday today. Last, but certainly not least, is Eddie (Luis Guzmán), a WTC maintenance man who is on that elevator as part of a work call. Fortunately, Eddie is friendly with Metzie (Oscar winner Whoopi Goldberg), who works the day shift in the elevator control room in the WTC's North Tower.

Like many others in the towers, the attack causes confusion and fear in the five people in that elevator, but their isolation just exacerbates those feelings. They realize that the explosion they heard, the elevator's sudden stop and their lack of cell phone service are probably connected and they begin talking about the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center and the airplane that flew into the Empire State Building in 1945, increasingly convinced that this is something like one of those incidents (or both). After repeated failed attempts to raise Metzie on the elevator's intercom, Eddie finally gets a hold of her and she reluctantly confirms their fears, based on news reports that she is watching from the basement of the North Tower. With a combination of information provided by Metzie, the limited resources they have at their disposal inside that elevator and their teamwork, those five trapped individuals try everything they can think of to free themselves, in between bonding and sharing personal details of their lives and trying to keep each other's growing fears from turning into panic. We also witness one desperate phone call that eventually successfully connects from inside the elevator and the valiant efforts by NYC fire fighters to save as many lives as possible even as the building starts coming apart.

"9/11" is a pretty good dramatization of the experience of being inside the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11, 2001, but is far from perfect. Most film critics (and many Movie Fans) have accused this movie of being cheesy, unrealistic, overly melodramatic and even offensive, but those criticisms are unduly harsh. The dialog in the script (by James Carson, Steven James Golebiowski and Martin Guigui, who also directs) is simplistic, Guigui's direction is too tame (and his film's budget too small), while the acting lacks depth… but to simply focus on those things is to miss the big picture. This movie approaches the experience of being in those towers that day from a fresh perspective and showcases the humanity of that day's victims and survivors, alongside the heroism of the WTC's workers and the New York area's first responders. People who are overly critical of how believably such people are portrayed weren't in the Twin Towers on that horrible day and those who think such portrayals are manipulative or unnecessary have kept themselves from appreciating this interesting and sympathetic motion picture. "B"

9/11 (2017)

** (out of 4)

Jeffrey Cage (Charlie Sheen) and his wife (Gina Gershon) are in the North Tower of the World Trade Center where she is wanting him to sign some divorce papers. The two of them get on an elevator shared with Michael (Wood Harris), Tina (Olga Fonda) and Eddie (Luis Guzman) when they feel a violent shake and the elevator gets stuck. They soon learn from an elevator worker (Whoopi Goldberg) what is going on outside.

9/11 got released to some of the worst reviews that you're ever going to read. This was meant to be Sheen's big dramatic comeback picture but it barely got a release and what critics did see the picture really ripped it to pieces. Some called it a shameful piece of exploitation while others just called it a poorly made and acted film. This obviously wasn't the first film to take on that day and it wasn't even the first to use the 9/11 title. With that being said, the film certainly has some major flaws but at the same time it's not quite as bad as they made it out to be.

I think the biggest problem with the film is that the screenplay is based on fiction. There are so many stories of bravery that day and I'm not sure why the writer would elect to tell a fake story. Did they not want to pay someone for their story? I'm not sure what their reasons were but they picked a pretty poor story that would have been better suited for an Irwin Allen disaster picture. The entire subplot of the divorce leads to some very silly scenes and some even poorer dialogue. I won't ruin what happens to the people in the elevator but the ending is pretty bad on many levels.

With that said, I must say that I thought the performances were good for the most part and that includes the actors playing the people in the elevator. I thought Guzman was extremely good in his role as was Harris. Sheen also had some decent moments but I don't think the performance is what he would have hoped for. None of the actors were done any favors though because the dialogue is just pretty poor at times and the director never really builds up any tension throughout the time we're with these people in the elevator.

Another problem was that the film was shot 2.35:1, which really wasn't a wise move in a film like this where you're meant to feel claustrophobic in a tight space. It seems like I'm bashing most of the film but I will say that it held my attention throughout. The film was obviously working with a very small budget, which didn't help things and while the film isn't a success, I think it's bad reputation is a bit too harsh.

I just realized the movie came out on the weekend before 9/11's 16th anniversary, but first and foremost, this movie is about people. It's a compelling story about how strangers from all walks of life, can just so happen in an elevator, set to the background of 9/11. These people start to bond as they attempt to survive.

It's trilling, suspenseful and very dramatic, especially the performance of Charlie Sheen, proving he is still capable of playing a character that's just not himself in a way (Don't even know the last time he played someone who was not named Charlie)

The whole movie feels like a play, and then I find out in the end credits that that's exactly what it was adapted from, a play called Elevator, a title I must admit I'd prefer over 9/11.

Though I understand why they called in 9/11, what's good about this character driven piece is the fact that it's about the characters and the story happens to be set on 9/11. I just love the good life lessons the story tells as these strangers get to know each other past the stereotypes we put on people on our first impressions. Very human.

Overall, it's not the best movie but I am impressed by the adaption. It really touches on the right emotions.

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I saw this movie on 9/11 and there was no one else in the theater besides me. The movie felt very cheaply made and Charlie Sheen's performance was pretty laughable. Lots of monologues in this film that dragged on and characters I cared very little about, even if they were supposed to be victims of a real event. The whole concept of a movie about being trapped in an elevator is a bad idea for a movie, adding on top a real tragedy just makes it even more tasteless. Fictional characters don't belong in a movie about a tragedy so recent.