24 Hours to Live

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying this is a great movie. By all means no. It has a decent plot, couple of twists and well acted characters.

What i want to focus on is the primary goal of every action movie: delivering understandable action. Now since "John Wick" came out i've watched a lot of action movies and started to notice a change in the way action is filmed and edited. Of course there are a lot of quick cut/shaky madness action films from recent years, but for every "Sleepless" you get a movie like "Acts of Vengeance", for every "Kickboxer 2" you get "Boyka: Undisputed", for "The Hunter's Prayer" you get "Bushwick" and for "American Assassin" you get "24 Hours to Live". What i mean by this? These movies actually let us see what is going on in terms of action scenes.

In this particular movie when Ethan Hawke fights, we see all of it. No quick cuts. The camera moves in wide angle, giving us a clear view. Gun fights have clear sense of direction and geography. Even shootouts during car chase are done better, than in larger films. Now is it as good as "John Wick Chapter Two" or "Atomic Blonde"? No! But it's better than most.

So if you want to watch and enjoy an Action film, where you don't get lost in the action itself, i definitely recommend this movie.

I know Ethan Hawke used to starring in a lot of action movie but he never strike the lead action hero in my eyes until i saw 24 Hours to Live.His always sad and tired face intentional or unintentional make he fit the role perfectly that add a lot of emotional into the cliché dialogue.The movie is pure action from start to finish make it a good Saturday night flick when you lazy to go out.The ending is terrible btw

If Keanu Reeves's ceaselessly disappointing sequels are fatally getting on your Wick, why not spend a densely dangerous day with the hyper-vengeful assassin Hawke? This adequate, generously squib-shredded blood-spiller frequently makes for an amusingly noisome action-heavy, bad-guy blasting, blissfully brain-dead, Sci-fi singed time-killer!!!! If 'Taken' with substances considerably stronger than salt, '24 hours to Live' is a half-decent, knuckle-headed, audaciously adrenalized actioner from the talented director of no less violent, Cuba Gooding Jr-starring bullet-fest 'Hero Wanted'; NOT to be confused with '24 Hours to Kill' (1965) as that, er, was made in 1965, and is called '24 Hours to Kill', not '24 Hours to Live'! Better to be safe than scurvy as me old man used ta' say!

The story's nothing to write home about, think Crank crossed with any globe-trotting spy flick, crossed with John Wick-like action set-pieces. Ethan Hawke does well as a man running low on-time, literally, as he races to find the people responsible for putting him in a state that he is as well as protecting the target he was meant to assassinate as well as her key witness. There's the mystery behind the dead family subplot, there's an older, war vet step- father figure subplot, an old-friendship gone astray yet still bound by brotherly loyalty or some something, I don't know I'm just ticking the boxes of action movie clichés right now, just hold on a bit longer. Despite all the clichés however, the story does manage to pull you in on itself, due to Hawke's sheer screen presence honestly, at least enough to see all it's glorious action sequences and thanks to its brisk pace, once things pickup and Hawke starts running on the clock, again quite literally, it's an adrenaline-fueled non-stop thrill ride.

Some of the best action sequences include: an assault on a safe house with high-caliber sniper rifles that literally send bodies flying after being hit by what would seem like mini-rockets, gushing blood over walls and flinging bodies across the room as if a ghost from paranormal activity film got a hold of them. That assault escalates into a car chase, with some really slick cinematography and a level of ballistic destruction applied to cars and whatever the two cross-firing cars manage to hit between each other, is quite amazing to behold, it's as if the director, Brian Smrz looked at the car chase from "Army of Two The Devil's Cartel" and was like:" Yeah I like that ! do that in a movie". The few hand to hand combat sequences are handled equally well with long-takes and clearly presented fight choreography that seems like a more toned down version of John Wick's fight ordeal, but still entertaining to watch, the finale action showdown plays out like a sort of mini- The Raid film.

All in all, this is a smooth hour and a half package that is great to watch on a plane or a train, with a strong lead, passably average plot, fast pace and some good set-pieces 24 Hours to Live is a short, fun, occasionally flawed, but consistently watchable and at times thrilling good time. 80s action films and figures would be proud.

This film tells the story of an assassin, who is shot by the bodyguard of the target he has to assassinate. He is mysteriously revived and is given another mission that lasts for 24 hours.

I keep thinking there is something wrong with this film, but I can't pinpoint what it is. Maybe it's because of the absurdity of reviving someone for 24 hours. Why try and succeed in the mission, when you'll die in 24 hours regardless of success or failure? Another thing is that there seems to be a lot of movie logic present. Why use an office that is completely exposed to being shot, when you're interviewing a high value target? The story doesn't make much sense.