Now don’t expect to see Andy Rooney in the Netflix movie 60 minutes. It’s a German mix of John Wick and Snatch. But does that mean it’s any good?
MMA fighter Octavio finds himself with just 60 Minutes to make it to the birthday party of his daughter, otherwise he risks losing custody forever. But when he ditches a fight to get there, he finds himself on the run from dangerous criminals, and it’s a Race Against Time across the city.
This is just a quick watch at 89 minutes, and the pacing is such that it’s just about non-stop excitement. We follow OCTA, an MMA fighter who’s got both a fight and a birthday party that are conflicting priorities for his younger daughter, and if he doesn’t make it there, he could lose all custody of her. But on the fight front, some sketchy people have a lot of money riding on the outcome, and they don’t like that OCTA chose the party over their bets.
What we get is a Chase through the city streets, in and out of buildings and vehicles, with a lot of exciting and gnarly fights. Now, this is pretty much exactly what you’d expect when you pit an MMA fighter against all sorts of Ruffians; I mean, his skills are almost unmatched, and while that may make for a somewhat predictable story arc, it also makes for excellent fight choreography and violence.
The fights are balanced between quick edits and longer takes that allow us to see all the moves, the blows, and the kicks. Some of the most exciting are when OCTA’s friends who train with him get involved in the chaos. They’re equally skilled, but the thugs they’re tough too, so we end up getting this room filled with just incredible stunt work.
And the camera work is also awesome, as it just swings around characters and obstacles to capture maneuvers from various angles with uncut motion. This has a way of increasing the energy in a scene, which in turn then amps up the fervor and intensity.
Surprisingly, even though the plot is very predictable, OCTA is still charismatic enough, and his journey is sympathetic, which then makes this narrative compelling. While it’s not some deep or involved story, it’s a very linear progression without twists, but the story doesn’t need them. The continuous conflicts that OCTA finds himself in further complicate his attempt to get to his daughter’s birthday party on time.
Sure, the urgency may feel a little bit artificially created, but again, OCTA is endearing and sympathetic, and he’s easily the hero of the story. I like that because the movie is only an hour and a half, and then Octavio needs to get to his daughter in an hour, this is very close to a real-time presentation. We’re continually shown Octavio’s watch just counting down the minutes to his deadline, which then is a constant reminder of the threat of his daughter slipping away from him as each minute passes.
Read More- Argylle Movie 2024 Review
Not only does Octavio make this an engaging story, but the color palettes that are used help to create both energy and grittiness. Some sequences utilize bright neons in very dark places so that facial features are alternately obscured by shadows and then lit in these hot pinks and magentas. There are also colder blue tones that become prominent once the sun sets. It makes for a for boing and dangerous setting.
In some senses, this feels a little bit like a western. Our protagonist is being pursued by baddies who never seem to give up, and there’s a large sense of lawlessness within the region. All along the way, our hero is just singularly focused on reaching his destination within the story, focusing on Redemption and survival.
Now, of course, there aren’t horses or sprawling landscapes, but what we do have is a good guy with white hair instead of a white hat, and he keeps going to his destination just regardless of injuries that he sustains along the way. I read something recently that said something of the effect that heroes in Western genres could and do reinvent themselves over and over. In this movie, while we don’t watch a repeated cycle of reinvention by OCTA, we do watch him make a life-changing decision that reinvents himself from fighter and unreliable dad to then a man who placed all of his priorities on being with his daughter. And in this case, for the storytelling, it’s a great way to Showcase character growth simply and quickly. This transition also doesn’t feel unearned because we don’t have a lot of background baggage to define or Cloud our impression of OCTA before the Story begins.
Alright, so the reasons to not like this movie are the story is very generic, the villains are run-of-the-mill, and they’re very one-dimensional, and almost everybody has zero character background. But then to counteract those negatives, the movie features a Charming protagonist, awesome hand-to-hand battles and fight choreography, a character arc that demonstrates growth, and pacing that’s not slow or dull. And while this is predictable and obvious at just about every turn, it’s filmed well and not a bad way to kill an hour and a half with brutal fights.
Conclusion:
So overall, 60 Minutes doesn’t introduce anything new in the form of storytelling or presentation, but still manages to create a scenario filled with exciting action and a charismatic hero. If you watch this looking for Intrigue or suspense, you won’t find it, but if you want well-crafted fight choreography up close and immersive hand-to-hand fights, and a story with a very quick pace, this will be enjoyable. There’s no sex or nudity, a lot of profanity, and then almost non-stop violence. I give 60 Minutes three out of five couches.
So have you seen any fun action movies lately? They don’t even have to be good. Let me know about you watched in the comments below. If you enjoyed this review, please give it a rating to this post.
