23 Minutes to Sunrise

A diner plays hosts to a very different group of people, one of the couples however hold a very strange and dark secret.

Imagine a snapshot of a horror movie, that's what this film is, the build up, without the bite.

It's a story, and you the viewer are left to fill in the blanks, to imagine the blood bath for yourself, if you can use your imagination, you can ponder all sorts, from the plane crash to the ending, what would he have done when he got his hands on that waste of space?

Now, in not normally much of a fan of Eric Roberts, not sure if that's him, or the calibre of film they he usually appears in, but I quite liked him in this, he played the part well.

I wouldn't say it's brilliant, but it's worth seeing.

6/10.

I have absolutely no other reason for choosing to watch this little film other than it sounded interesting…I love talky films where you Know something is up but you just can't figure out what, and this film pulls that off perfectly.

The film starts off filling in a little back story of all the characters, how they end up being at the diner, and establishing just enough of their characters as we need to set the scene.

And onto the scene, set in a pretty standard diner in American, in the early hours of the morning, almost puts me in mind of that painting "Nighthawks" by Edward Hopper, put in the present day, maybe that's where writer/director Jay Kanzler picked up his core inspiration? So that's the scene set, now the players.

Working the night shift in the diner we have the chef (Eddie, a young War Vet played by Dingani Beza) and the waitress (Sheila, played Jilanne Klaus), the patrons include a middle aged couple trying to fix a struggling marriage, a young couple who are on the edge of a crime spree, and our mysterious couple, an older man, who has no regard for others (Played by Eric Roberts) and younger girl, who has a secret (Played by Nia Peeples) Now all these characters all have their own story lines through most of this film, they occasionally play off each other but they are essentially separate, and all the little stories are interesting to see play out, all the while establishing their characters. Then we have the the mysterious couple, I can't say much about them without giving the story away but it's clear from early on that there is something more than normal happening within their little story.

Now this is a short film, only 1 hour and 18 minutes long, but I'm thankful for that, I really think writer/director Kanzler got the length of this movie perfect for all the different characters to develop and their stories to fill out and eventually converge in what I felt was a really powerful and intense ending.

A very well written, stylish, and for the most part, well acted film, why I say "for the most part" is because there were a few scenes that I felt either the acting talent was wavering, or they were struggling with a line that could be seen by some folks as being a little bit corny. Now don't let this put you off the film, as I said, it was well acted for the most part, and having one or two cringes for the occasional corny line is worth it to see how the full story plays out.

Well worth a watch by the talky fans out there.

Don't waste your time. This is one of the most boring pieces of crap that I have seen in quite some time. It makes absolutely no sense. It goes nowhere. It's not scary, it's not suspenseful, it's just flat out dull. A couple of the characters were interesting but nothing interesting happens and the end totally leaves you hanging. In fact, two of the characters seemed to just simply disappear. I read a review on here that said this could be a Horror movie. Are you kidding me? I don't know what movie he/she was watching. But if you are curious and have an hour and about 18 minutes of your life to waste, then have at it. But don't say you weren't warned.

Worst acting, terrible plot, completely uninteresting, did I mention bad acting? I would rather be punched in the throat than ever have to sit through that movie again. I've seen better performances by drunk homeless people on the subway. I had to actually fast forward through most of it because I couldn't handle how embarrassed I was for the actors. Whoever plays the main character Eddie seriously needs to find another line of work because acting is just not in the cards for him. I was expecting a horror movie but it never gets scary, there is no character development, just shallow characters often repeating their lines over and over as if that is all it takes for you to understand their characters.

This is a movie that keeps you frightening from the start to the end! Rarely there has been a movie with such a good dark and chilling atmosphere. I even see this movie more as an horror movie than as a thriller because of that.

23 Minutes is unique in many ways. The movies mood is already set right from the beginning on. The movie starts dark, intense, chilling and mysterious, a mood that is present throughout the entire movie. It's very depressing to watch and I mean that in a positive way of the meaning of the word. The mood is set by good camera work and lighting, or better said, the lack of it.