Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Bereamic Awesome Movie

KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Brendon Jones It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

blanche-2 After a fashion, I really enjoyed this miniseries from 2004, "Five Days to Midnight," starring Timothy Hutton, Randy Quaid, Kari Matchett, Hamish Linklater, Angus Macfayden, and Gage Golightly.Hutton plays physics professor J.T. Neumeyer who, while visiting his wife's grave on the anniversary of her death, finds a briefcase with his name on it. Inside are news clippings that talk about his death five days from now. At first, he thinks it's a joke but ultimately believes it was sent by his brilliant but eccentric student Carl (Linklater) and perhaps is not a joke. With an 11-year-old daughter to care for, Neumeyer isn't about to go down without a fight.Complications abound, including a secret his girlfriend (Matchett) has been keeping, and his brother-in-law's financial difficulties. Then there's the implication of actually changing the future - which Carl warns him can't happen.Quantum physics is extremely interesting to me -- parallel universes and the like, time travel - unfortunately, there was not as much emphasis on this in the plot; instead, the focus seemed to be on making it into a detective story. Less interesting.My big problem was the way the discs were set up. I watched the first disc, returned it to Netflix, got the second, and immediately realized I hadn't seen one episode. I found out I wasn't the only one this happened to - the discs separate the episodes, one hour each, rather than one episode, two hours.Timothy Huttton was excellent, and all the acting was good - Hamish Linklater is always wonderful -- and all of the acting is good. Because of Hutton, you really get involved in the story and in this man's plight.If you watch this, you'll have questions - there is an excellent post on the message board that explains it all.Can we change the future, and if we do, what are the implications? Are the past, the present, and the future occurring at the same time? If we try to change it, are we doomed to the same fate even if the circumstances change? Movies have been asking these questions for years. "Five Days to Midnight" also deals with the future sending us messages. It's all fascinating -- I just wish there had been more of it.

Robert W. Sometimes not having the parameters of a Hollywood film can make Television the best outlet for a brilliant film. Sure it might not have the special effects, stunts, even big names but you can see some really unique talent, and a strong story that is enthralling. Five Days Till Midnight is an edge of your seat murder mystery that combines some truly great performances with a even better storyline. Clocking in at 3 1/2 hours (another thing a Hollywood film could never accomplish) you would never know it. The film is over in a blink and you want more because it was so good. It's non-stop and so incredibly written by Robert Zappia (Halloween H20), David Aaron Cohen (The Devil's Own), Anthony Peckham (Don't Say A Word), and Cindy Myers.Academy Award winner Timothy Hutton leads the cast as Professor JT Neumeyer. Devastated by the loss of his wife, and deeply protective and loving of his beautiful daughter Jesse, he seems to finally be putting the pieces of his life back together including a new woman in his life. Hutton is intense, emotional, strong, a great leading man for this role. He also portrays brilliance and devotion to his daughter and you really feel for his character. He absolutely should have at least gotten an Emmy nod out of this. Randy Quaid is equally as brilliant as tough as nails Homicide detective Irwin Sikorski. Quaid's character seems a little dark, sinister and yet dedicated to his job and the people he serves. This is one of Quaid's best roles and certainly one of his most dramatic. He plays the role to the fullest. Kari Matchett plays Hutton's new love interest with a mysterious past Claudia Whitney. TV Fans will recognize Matchett from the sadly canceled Invasion. Matchett and Hutton make a good couple and I don't think Matchett is quite likable enough for the role but she does alright. Hamish Linklater plays the slightly disturbed but incredibly brilliant Carl Axelrod. His unbalanced performance is small but effective and he's great at it. Angus Macfadyen is the brutal mobster Roy Bremmer. I think Bremmer's role could have been bigger but the scenes he was in were very effective. He comes across as adequately evil and is the perfect bad guy but also the perfect scape goat for the murder mystery at hand. And last but certainly not least is the incredible performance by young Gage Golightly as Hutton's daughter Jesse. First of all Golightly has a striking resemblance to a young Drew Barrymore and equally charismatic on screen. Her role as Jesse is NOT a typical "kid" role and instead she is utilized to the fullest in the role. She's smart, and important to the story and she does such an incredible job. This should have been her claim to fame and rocketed her into bigger and better things and I'm sure she'll surface again in the future.Veteran TV director Michael W. Watkins does an incredible job setting up suspense and clues and an intriguing time travel type storyline without complicating things. Some would say it's almost too simplistic. For instance why doesn't any of the evidence change as J.T. changes the time-line?? Still it doesn't matter because everything fits together so perfectly and it's simplicity makes it so watchable. The characters are all so real and you just get brought into this twisted world of this seemingly normal, rather boring professor's life. Even when the film is over you'll have questions in your mind, and plenty to discuss, it's the ultimate water cooler film. This is a real treat and a hidden gem for sure. I think it's one of my favorites. 9/10

jennifer13denise I loved this show. I never knew it existed until my friend brought it home from the video store. We just finished it and I had to share what I thought. THIS DOES INCLUDE SPOILERS!!First of all, yes, the slow motion scenes sucked. Who needs to see a tree that many times and I didn't get why we had to watch the leaf blow into the door window at 'Mandy's' house.Second, I loved the ending. Sure, it didn't explain how the folder changed to 'J.T.' living, but if you can't figure it out that he changed his future, so the file changed, get a clue.Third, during the whole movie, I was thinking..Did he do it? Did she do it? Wait, maybe he did it. I love movies like that.Fourth, Did anyone notice the dog before the movie explained it? It was the dog he almost hit, that belonged to Mandy. Coincidence? Of course not.Fifth, Jesse from the future sent the file. That would make sense. She knew they would be there, and knew her father would figure it out.I would recommend this movie to anyone who likes mystery until the end. Just fast forward through the slow motion shots, lol.If I had to choose one thing I really didn't like, it would be that the DVD didn't explain things about the movie, like the dog. Or the many clocks.Feel free to e-mail me if you wish. I love a good debate.

Terminal Madness Timothy hutton plays physics professor JT Neumeyer who while visiting his wife's grave discovers a thin silver brief case.He opens it and discovers a group of files showing pictures of his death and newspapers clippings.First declaring this as a practical joke, the events in the files play out slowly and now convinced that he'll die in five days, tries to find a way to prevent himself from dying and must change his destiny.The concept is great despite being a bit derivative, and there's plenty of room for tension, suspense, and great bits on philosophy, but the screenwriters miss their chances.The cast is comprised mostly of second rate actors with the exception of Hutton who tries his best at the lead role but ultimately fails towards the end of the film as he manages to go way over the top with his emotional scenes.There's also Randy quaid who is quite bland and one-dimensional, and Angus McFayden who is the worst of the characters as the over the top mob boss Roy Bremmer. Watch for his really bad scenes as he attempts to inflict depth into his character but comes off as laughable.Meanwhile the story has the ability to inject tension and sense of immediacy but all of it is loss in the bogged down story. Rambling and droning at some points it's difficult to understand why this couldn't have been a two hour film instead of a four parter.There's also plenty of room for philosophy and the concept of destiny and fate towards death, but there's nothing here as the story is mostly comprised of uneventful occurances, slim character development, and so much dialogue.While the film is engrossing at the beginning, it's ultimately lost halfway through as the plot is segued into the benign plot featuring McFayden which takes away from the actual reason why we're watching."Stay tuned for the shocking last minutes to 5 Days to Midnight" the Sci-Fi channel boasts which never usually works on me but I was rather interested to see where this was developing. But, unfortunately it was all just hype. I was expecting that Neumeyer's daughter would accidentally shoot him causing his death, and that we never got to see who sent the briefcase, but it's all pretty much explained in the end and nothing of the sort happens.I wanted an ironic, witty, and shocking ending beneath the muddled plot and droning dialogue, but alas we're not given anything but an obligatory and rather disappointing happy ending.Decent performances, a great concept but falls apart halfway through becoming routine and cliche. The writers never give this story and concept a chance to spread its wings and just keep it down to mediocre level.** out of **** stars.