The stage curtains open ...
"24 Hours To Live" is not at all what I was expecting it to be - and that's not necessarily a good thing. It's part politics, part military, part sci-fi, and all action. Travis Conrad (Ethan Hawke), an assassin by trade, finds himself under a 24 hour deadline - emphasis on the word "dead".
Conrad is brought out of retirement for a very high paying job in which he is contracted to kill a man about to give a deposition at a secret location, exposing the activities of a covert operation called Red Mountain. To get to him, he comes into contact with Lin, an Interpol agent who kills him for his efforts. Movie over, right? Not so fast. This is where the story takes a very strange twist. Conrad regains consciousness to discover that he has literally been brought back from the dead through a classified experimental process to live for another 24 hours, in order to give them the location of the informant. Knowing they are going to kill him and that he is going to die regardless, he escapes the facility and instead helps Lin in protecting the informant.
I really don't know what to think of this film. The whole premise behind it is quite preposterous, and yet the action sequences were enticing enough to still be somewhat enjoyable. The chemistry that winds up developing between Conrad and Lin was also worth mentioning, and yet I just couldn't bring myself to buy into it all. And why they felt the need to surgically put a digital timer just under the skin of his arm I still don't understand. He's going to be dead in 24 hours anyway, why even bother with that?
This is not a recommend. It is serviceable and entertaining, but as a whole, it falls flat and fails to completely engage and interest you. It's worth a watch if you have nothing better to do - but that's about it.
"24 Hours To Live" is not at all what I was expecting it to be - and that's not necessarily a good thing. It's part politics, part military, part sci-fi, and all action. Travis Conrad (Ethan Hawke), an assassin by trade, finds himself under a 24 hour deadline - emphasis on the word "dead".
Conrad is brought out of retirement for a very high paying job in which he is contracted to kill a man about to give a deposition at a secret location, exposing the activities of a covert operation called Red Mountain. To get to him, he comes into contact with Lin, an Interpol agent who kills him for his efforts. Movie over, right? Not so fast. This is where the story takes a very strange twist. Conrad regains consciousness to discover that he has literally been brought back from the dead through a classified experimental process to live for another 24 hours, in order to give them the location of the informant. Knowing they are going to kill him and that he is going to die regardless, he escapes the facility and instead helps Lin in protecting the informant.
I really don't know what to think of this film. The whole premise behind it is quite preposterous, and yet the action sequences were enticing enough to still be somewhat enjoyable. The chemistry that winds up developing between Conrad and Lin was also worth mentioning, and yet I just couldn't bring myself to buy into it all. And why they felt the need to surgically put a digital timer just under the skin of his arm I still don't understand. He's going to be dead in 24 hours anyway, why even bother with that?
This is not a recommend. It is serviceable and entertaining, but as a whole, it falls flat and fails to completely engage and interest you. It's worth a watch if you have nothing better to do - but that's about it.