# 7 Minutes - Blu-ray Review



## Mike Edwards (Mar 10, 2011)

[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=52937[/img] 
*Title: 7 Minutes* 

*Movie:* :2stars:
*Video:* :4stars:
*Audio:* :4stars: 
*Extras:* :1.5stars: 

*HTS Overall Score:*67




[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=52945[/img]*Summary*
Heist movies have been a well-loved genre for many years, and we have been privy to some really great ones. “Pulp Fiction”, “Heat”, “Ocean’s 11”, “Snatch”, the list goes on and on. Unfortunately “7 Minutes” is nowhere the quality of those films, even though it tries desperately to imitate them. Gritty, grim, mirthless, and completely devoid of any intelligence or style of its own, other than the of the style used trying to imitate Tarantino and Guy Ritchie, “7 Minutes” barely manages to hold your attention for the brief 84 minutes of runtime that it has in the gas tank. It’s not so horribly bad that you get angry, but it suffers from just being bland and forgettable, so that the majority of that brisk 84 minutes are spent staring at your smartphone playing angry birds. 

Life has been rough for Sam (Luke Mitchell). He had the world at his fingertips, and a gorgeous wife beside him (Leven Rambin) Breaking an ankle in college ruined his football scholarship dreams, and now he’s stuck in his Podunk home town barely making ends meet. His wife, Kate, is pregnant and working her tale off at the local diner, and even between the two of them they can barely pay the bills every month. After being laid off from his only means of income, Sam decides that he’s hit rock bottom and ends up taking a job as a drug dealer with his brother Mike (Jason Ritter) and best friend Owen (Zane Holtz). After things get messed up with their supplier and $62,000 worth of drugs get flushed down the drain, the boys are in a real pickle. That is until Mike clues the boys in to a stash of $500,000 from a local crime lord. With the bright idea to rob said stash of cash, the boys decide that it’s time to up their game from simple drug peddlers.

Things are supposed to be easy. It’s a smash and grab. In and out in 7 minutes. However, things don’t go exactly as planned. Owen forgets to lock the front door, letting in local cop Jerome (Brandon Hardesty), as well as another hardened criminal named Tuckey (Kevin Gage) who happened to hear the boys plans the day before. What started as a 7 minute job ends up being a blood bath or accidents and murder as Tuckey starts taking control of the operation. 

[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=52953[/img]“7 Minutes” TRIES to be a gritty little heist movie in the vein of Guy Ritchie or Quinton Tarantino, but in the end just feels sloppy and dull. The entire movie takes place for about 7 minutes (thus the name of the movie) in the present, with the rest being told with flashbacks for each one of the main characters, as well as a few minutes of back story. Each section of the film that is focusing on one individual character starts with huge block letters of the person’s name like it’s supposed to be meaningful. Then we see about 10-15 minutes of that person’s life as they explain a little bit about each part of the story, then it shifts back to real time as the boys rob the place. Then there’s the slow motion. Oh my GOODNESS, the slow motion. I think the movie was actually about 45 minutes worth of material, but because of the constant use of slow motion it got drug out to the 84 minutes we have on the disc. Every shot is filled with slow motion walking, slow motion diving from gunfire, slow motion driving, and slow motion turning of the head. It’s like the director saw how “cool” slow motion could be in a Tarantino film and just used that technique for the WHOLE movie! 

To make matters worse, the film ends with this sort of hollow feeling in your stomach. Things happen, bullets fly, and our main hero gets away happy, but there is NO sort of closure in any way shape or form. It almost felt as if there was 15 minutes of the movie that was left on the cutting room floor that helped wrap things up. Acting wise all the boys do a decent enough job. There’s never a moment where I rolled my eyes at their actions, just usually the inanely complicated (or pseudo complicated) direction to the film. Jason Ritter does well as sleaze balls I’ve noticed, and Leven Rambin is DEFINITELY easy on the eyes. While Kris Kristofferson is in the film, he’s really only a cameo. The only person who really stands out from the crowd is Kevin Gage as Tuckey. The giant of a man is imposing and menacing enough to actually play a decent bad guy. Other than that, I couldn’t tell you who else was in the film unless I was looking at the IMDB list, as everyone else just sort of blended together. 



*Rating:* 

Not Rated by the MPAA



*Video* :4stars:
[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=52961[/img]The 2.40:1 AVC encoded Blu-ray disc looks really nice, with a strong digital transfer, which leaves a very pretty picture to stare at. The detail is more than satisfactory for the low budget film that it is, with strong facial detail as well as some great looking shots of the scenery. I did notice some very light banding during some scenes, mainly the darker ones, but other than that, I didn’t see any digital artifacting. Black levels are strong, with a bit of black crush, rendering shadow detail well and good delineation. Colors are bright and saturated, with a very natural looking color palate. Contrast is good and skin tones look accurate. If anything, the video transfer is one of the best parts of the movie. 






*Audio* :4stars:
[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=52969[/img]“7 Minutes” 5.1 Dolby TrueHD track is quite an aggressive little track, with a nice balance of action and dialog. Vocals are clean and clear, locked in that center channel, while the surrounds get some nice activity during the heist sequences. The rest of the time the mix is a bit front heavy, due to their really not being much action other than the heist. Still, there is enough ambient noises to satisfy the needs of a good 5.1 mix, and the LFE channel gets some good use during the movie. The sounds of punches hitting a face, a shotgun blast going off, or the roar of a car engine all sound appropriately weighty and full of depth. 






*Extras* :1.5stars:
[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=52977[/img]• Maximum Fury: Filming Fury Road
• Linear Heist
• Storyboards to Scene







*Overall:* :3.5stars:

“7 Minutes” manages to be a semi decent little heist flick, but it unfortunately doesn’t really bring anything new or interesting to the table either. Bland performances, mixed with hyper stylized direction (and an extreme overuse of the slow motion effect) barely kept me interested in the film enough to finish. It tried it’s best to be the new “Heat” or “Pulp Fiction”, but instead just gets lost amongst the myriad of B films out there. The disc specs themselves are actually quite good, with an aggressive audio track and a very good video encode, but I really wouldn’t recommend this to anyone unless they’re bored and it’s on Netflix. Skip It. 



*Additional Information:*

Starring: Levin Rambin, Jason Ritter, Luke Mitchell
Directed by: Jay Miller
Written by: Jay Miller
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1 AVC
Audio: English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1
Studio: Starz/Anchor Bay
Rated: NR
Runtime: 92 minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: September 1st 2015




*Buy 7 Minutes On Blu-ray at Amazon*



*Recommendation: Skip It​*








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