ma-cortes
Thrilling and entertaining disaster movie but full clichés and stereotypes with enjoyable performances from Charlton Heston and John Cassavetes . This catastrophe movie blends action , intrigue , disaster spectacle, suspense and emotional byplay . ¨Two-minute warning¨ was a successful film that grossed at box office . A psychotic sniper wielding a rifle with telescopic sight plans a massacre during a major championship game . The two protagonists , the police Captain Peter Holly (Charlton Heston) and SWAT commander Sergeant Button (John Cassavetes), learn of the plot and spend most of their time devising various ways for avoid to psychopath sniper carries out his aims : a massive killing spree in Los Angeles football stadium filled to capacity . As our heroes get stuck in the stadium before it blows up and when slaughter takes place they go into action ; as they pay tribute to policemen . There takes place a struggle between two forces , the cops and the sinister assassin and ultimately erupts when the crowd turns almost effortlessly and devours itself in a climax of panic . Exciting film that contains noisy action , unsettling scenes , thrills , emotion and turns out to be pretty entertaining . This formula suspense movie belongs to catastrophe genre of the 70s , being the undisputed king , ¨The towering inferno¨ along with ¨Earthquake¨ , ¨Roller coaster¨ and many others ; this formula disaster movie was widely developed by Irwin Allen , previously winner of numerous Oscars for ¨Poseidon¨ until the failures as ¨Beyond Poseidon¨, ¨Swarm¨ and ¨When the time ran out¨ . ¨Two-minute warning¨ results to be an intriguing and suspenseful film , there was a later version released that had footage not shown in theaters , in the original theatrical version, the sniper's motives were not known. In the later television version, it was revealed that the attack was done to cover an art robbery next door . Filmed at the height of the disaster genre from the 7os , this entry in the spectacular series profits of a strong acting by starring trio Charlton Heston , John Cassavetes and Martin Balsam . Succeeds in combining various talented actors , an all star cast came together that tie for film's top casting honors ; furthermore a top-notch secondary casting such as Gina Rowlands, Beau Bridges , Jack Klugman , Marilyn Hasset , Pamela Bellwood , Mitch Ryan , Brock Peters, David Janssen and Walter Pidgeon as a pickpocket who formerly co-starred in 'Harry in Your Pocket' , a film about pickpocket s. This edgy , paranoid film was deemed too violent to show intact on broadcast television, so they re-wrote the story and added a heist element , the re-written material minimized both the main storyline and the subplots . Colorful and gripping photography in Panavision by Gerard Hirschfeld , including persistent high-angle shots , subjective camera-work and use of long lenses . Intriguing and atmospheric score by Charles Fox . This big-budgeted disaster movie was professionally though coldly directed by Larry Peerce , an usual TV movies director . Rating : Good and entertaining , it's a fairly watchable disaster movie.
stevejod
A tightly plotted group jeopardy picture featuring a mad sniper at a packed Los Angeles football stadium. This features Charlton Heston as the cop in charge and a fantastic supporting cameo from John Cassavetes as Sergeant Chris Button who leads the S.W.A.T team tasked with taking down the gunman. Also notable for use of grainy TV footage imagery of the gunman being transmitted from the Blimp covering the football game which was eerily reminiscent at the time (76) of the infamous TV coverage of the Munich Olympics hostage situation. Fantastic climax and the scenes of crowd panic at the end are brilliantly and believably executed - reminding the viewer that mass casualties in such a situation would just as likely be caused by the crowd's panicked reaction to being attacked rather than the attack itself. An overlooked gem.
GUENOT PHILIPPE
What could I add more to this classic disaster movie from the seventies? Other users have already said everything, except one thing. That made me startle, when I saw it again yesterday, for the tenth time...since my childhood.Walter Pidgeon who plays here a pickpocket among the crowd in the stadium. When I saw that, it reminded me another film starring the great elder actor, a film I discovered only last year: HARRY IN YOUR POCKET, in which he also plays a pickpocket, as a member of a team lead by James Coburn. And I am surprised that no user has noticed this. It is really obvious!!!Well that's all I wanted to say folks.
ty5663
Saw this really late last night on one of the Cinemax channels. I'm a sucker for 1970's films plus it had John Cassavettes so I needed to see it. I thought it was suspenseful, probably resonated more today due to the recent execution of the Beltway Sniper.Anyway, comments I wanted to make was a couple of items made me chuckle. For one, the QB for the Los Angeles team, am I remembering right and it was Lloyd Braun? Same name as the character from Seinfeld. If it was, could it really be a coincidence.Plus the scene where the loan shark thugs hang Klugman out the window...classic.
