24 Hours to Midnight

The Film is a bit of a jumbled mess. The plot involving a wife seeking revenge for her murdered husband and Two cops who just seem to drive around is pretty uninvolving. The reason I would like to find it is I acted in it and would just like a copy. Vanity I guess

Let's not pull any punches: This was film-maker Leo Fong's first feature as a director, and it absolutely shows. '24 hours to midnight' has no intent of being anything but low-grade entertainment. But if it's enjoyable, it's mostly only as cheeky contrast with other films Cynthia Rothrock would go on to make, which even at their most silly, blunt, and over the top tend to be pretty darn fun. This is so direly lacking in authenticity of any shape or form, or even the most modest of storytelling intelligence, as to break suspension of disbelief within the first 15 minutes. Though Rothrock is given top billing and is supposedly the star, she's barely in the movie at all; the moment protagonist Devon first dons her ninja garb, at the 15-minute mark, one look at her eyes inform that Rothrock has already left the picture. Pacing of the narrative and even individual scenes, the timing of basic movements and character reactions, and most fight choreography are all so lethargic as to be all but sleep-inducing. Connective threads between scenes and story beats are as thin as split hairs, making the viewing experience feel disjointed and sloppy.

Acting, dubbing, characters, dialogue, costume design, props, weapons, set design and decoration, filming locations, direction, editing, and music all distinctly lack the faintest touch of passion, heart, or imagination. This is a poor effort at making an action/crime-thriller - if indeed much effort was made in the first place. A complete story is told, but it's so perplexingly threadbare that if we were discussing a throw rug, we'd be looking at more empty space then craft. That story is cohesive so long as we accept at face value what we are presented with, some of which makes no sense whatsoever, and is given no explanation - such as, chiefly, how Devon has such equipment as she does. A lot of footage that we glimpsed earlier in the runtime is recycled, repeatedly, to pad out the length. The ticking of the digital timer is agonizingly slow; the first half hour feels like at least twice that. The plot progresses with such a matter-of-fact sensibility that it is robbed of any possible excitement or thrills, and action sequences feel altogether disingenuous. Someone seemingly cared enough about the concept to see the movie come to fruition, but not enough to ensure that anyone else would want to watch it.

I can honestly, sadly say that I've seen worse features than this, but not very many. I'm truly stunned at how weak and insubstantial this picture is; there is absolutely nothing about it that manifests even a fleeting spark of joy. There is nothing about it that isn't deeply flawed. I do my best to find the worth in everything that I watch, but I just can't find any here. Even if you're a diehard fan of someone who made the mistake of being involved, or irrepressibly curious, I simply cannot recommend this. '24 hours to midnight' is a bizarre peculiarity of cinema for which "tepid" and "spiritless" seem like compliments next to what it represents, and it's something that no one needs to watch.

Cynthia Rothrock, whose first film this is, appears on the video cover and has a couple of fight scenes in the opening 5 minutes. Then her character is dressed up as a ninja for the rest of the running time, except that the woman inside the ninja suit is NOT Cynthia. It's easy to see that from the close-ups of her eyes, and the ending credits confirm it. But even if you ignore this fraud, "24 Hours to Midnight" is not a good movie. The script, full of irrelevant and recycled scenes, is strictly amateur hour, the direction is inept and the "action" scenes are uninspired. The criminal organization that "Cynthia" goes after is supposedly making billion dollar deals, yet its headquarters seem to be a small cheap room. The only bright spot in this movie is a sexy female cop (Myra) - without her I would have given it a "Zero" rating for sure.

OK, I needed a job in 1991 (or thereabouts, I really can't remember)...and I was friends with Leo Fong...a very nice guy and hopeful film-maker. He enlisted my help to resurrect a film that had been started a few years earlier, and then quickly abandoned, after a dispute between Cynthia and her boyfriend, and the producer(s) of the film. My job was to retrieve the printed work-print and sound rolls from a storage vault in Hollywood (during which I seriously injured by back, which I suffer from to this very day), and piece together the measly amount of actual footage shot with Rothrock during a two or three day period. Then I incorporated new footage that was shot, and helped suggest new scenes to make the "story" work...It was a complete mess, but I did the best I could...(at the same time I was cutting this at director's sound in Burbank, I ran into Charlie Napier who was there looping for "rocketman", and asked him to appear in Don Jackson's "Return to Frogtown"...another story all together...) Should I write an autobiography of my life in the low budget film world??? Would anybody read it??? I guess not...

I hadn't watched this infamously bad flick since I bought it way back when, and upon viewing it over 20 years later, can remember why!

24 Hours To Midnight is definitely one of those so-bad-its-good movies that just keeps you laughing the whole way through. I get that its an independent film (although with a budget), and very early on in the fantastic Rothrock's career - who incidently was dating the producer at this time. She had made her debut in HK the same year with the incredible Yes Madam (aka Police Assassins 2), but I'm not sure what came first. I'd like to say this one...

In fact, only because of her fame as an action star soon after, I firmly believe that she became the main lead on promotion for 24 Hours To Midnight to help sales. Cyndy gets a couple of brief scuffles in the early part of the film which hardly match her HK action standards but let us see that she can move. She goes on the run after her husband is killed and starts dressing as a ninja to exact revenge on the bad guys that did it! But only, the ninja assassin is very clearly not Cynthia Rothrock!!

With recognisably different eyes and voice, fake Cyndy ninja keeps thinking back to her (dreadful) crying scene in the car before picking a weapon off her bed and going out to kill. Once she (or the ninja) gets a bit of action going, she grows a couple of foot and turns into a man.

The film has two storylines going on that would make Godfrey Ho proud. One with Cyndy ninja getting her revenge, and another with two cops (who reminded me of an early Rothrock and Norton team-up) who dress bad and like kicking ass. They kind of pull themselves together at the end, but by that stage you don't care...

While the acting isn't terrible from everyone involved, at times you can see a tiny wee bit of potential trying to creep through - and a times, it plays like a poor mans China O'Brien due to its mid-west setting, ridiculously costumed gangs and dialogue, but honestly, there isn't much that could put this 80's flick down as a classic. I would quicker grab for Rothrock and Fong's second outing - Fight To Win - before going back to this.

Overall: For Rothrock completists only - or anyone who loves bad movies! (I'm still laughing)