24 Hours To Live is a 2017 American-South African science fiction action thriller film that was directed by Brian Smrz. The film features stars like Paul Anderson, Ethan Hawke, Rutger Hauer and Liam Cunningham.
The film follows a career assign that is played by Hawke who sacrifices everything for his employers, including his family and, ultimately, his own life. No sooner as he shuffled off his mortal coil, he finds himself to be resurrected for one last mission to seek revenge and redemption that’s time to last exactly 24 hours after being killed on the job. Once the countdown clock that’s embedded into his arm reaches zero, he’ll fall asleep into an enteral slumber if he hasn’t completed his task successfully.
The film made its US premiere at the Austin Film Festival on October 26, 2017, and was released on VOD and in select theaters on December 1 2017. Having received generally negative reviews from film critics, 24 Hours To Live is quoted to be scripted in a similar manner as the films of the Crank franchise and is said to be similar in style and execution.
The Film Itself (2.5/5):
Going into 24 Hours To Live, I was completely blind and ultimately had hoped for the best because I really do enjoy Ethan Hawke and his performances. With this film, we’re given a movie that takes a similar concept as the films of the Crank series and integrates a similar concept to In Time. There’s a significant amount of action sequences that offer some seat-gripping experiences; however, I feel that this movie could have been executed a lot better. The storyline feels almost as it was written by a teenager and that there a lot of holes that really deterred from the plot line.
Picture Quality (5/5):
Overall, 24 Hours To Live looked really great as my wife and I watched it last night. Giving audiences a bright and vivid color palette, audiences are able to explore and experience the nerve-wrecking life of a trained CIA assassin with absolutely no distortion whatsoever. The scenic views of the city really shined on my living room television, and the really fast moving camera movements during the more hectic parts did an absolutely fantastic job at keeping my attention throughout.
Audio Quality (4/5):
Packaged with an English DTS-HD Master Audio track, 24 Hours To Live tries really, really hard to offer an all out immersive experience for its viewers. Absolutely ripping through the front and rear speaker channels, audiences are able to really grasp the impact of what’s unfolding. Dialogue is clean and clear and everything is easily understandable throughout. A movie that features this much action should have been packaged with a 7.1 audio track at a minimum to add a more immersive experience, but despite that small piece, the included audio track was beautifully done.
The Packaging (2.5/5):
24 Hours To Live comes packaged in your standard single disc Blu-ray amaray case. Within that case is the standard Blu-ray copy of the film, the disc featuring a piece of artwork that matches that of the case art. There are no DVD copies of the film included with this release; however, there is a digital copy redemption pamphlet included. There is also a slipcover that’s been made available during the initial print run of this release that features the same piece of artwork that’s featured on the case art.
Special Features:
Unfortunately, there are no special features included on the Blu-ray release of 24 Hours To Live. There is a section for them; however, the only features that are listed are the ones that replay the track of movie trailers that kick off when you first put the disc in as well as a bookmark browser for this release. As a result, there is no rating in this section.
Technical Specs:
Video
Codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Resolution: 1080p
Original Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Audio
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Subtitles
English SDH, Spanish
Runtime
Original Film: 94 minutes
Final Thoughts:
Overall, 24 Hours To Live wasn’t a completely terrible experience. I mean, it’s definitely a care free explosive movie that features all sorts of badassery laid out by Haweke. Unfortunately, the story of the movie really falls short and has a significant amount of holes that really deters from the overall experience. The visuals, particularly the explosions and more faster paced sequences looked really great as they played out on my living room television. The included audio track, while not as immersive as it could have been, was clean and clear and does a decent job at placing its viewers right in the middle of all of the action. Unfortunately, there really aren’t any special features included on this release, despite there being a section for them and the only options in there are to replay the movie trailers that start up when you first put the disc in as well as a bookmark browser should you ultimately use the bookmark feature. Generally speaking, this is a great popcorn flick that you can sit down to without a care and casually watch. If you’re considering picking this film up for your collection, I’d only recommend picking it up when this release goes on sale. 24 Hours To Live will be available on Blu-ray and DVD beginning on Tuesday, February 6, 2018.
Note: This Blu-ray was sent to us for review. This has not affected our judgement or editorial process in any way. Please contact us if you have any questions regarding this process.