Sixty Minutes (2024)

 

 

Streaming Service: Netflix

Movie Name/Year: Sixty Minutes (2024) 

Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama 

Length:  1h 28min 

Rating: TV-MA

Director: Oliver Kienle 

Writers: Philip Koch, Oliver Kienle 

Actors: Emilio Sakraya, Dennis Mojen, Marie Mouroum, Paul Wollin, Florian Schmidtke, Aristo Luis, José Barros, Vassilis Koukalani, Janna Striebeck, Morik Heydo, Livia Matthes, Mehmet Atesci, Eniko Fulop, Bruno Salgueiro, Tatjana Sojic, Georg Blumreiter 

 

IMDb Blurb: Desperate not to lose custody, a mixed martial arts fighter makes dangerous enemies when he ditches a matchup to race to his daughter's birthday party. 

 

 

Selina’s Point of View: 

Sixty Minutes was so much better than it had any right to be.

 

The trailer for the film was fine. It looked like Sixty Minutes would be a solid action flick. Something along the lines of Run Lola Run (1998). Not bad footsteps to follow in, but usually those movies tend to be basic. They’re a dime a dozen and rarely have anything setting them apart from the others.

 

For that reason, I stuck Sixty Minutes in the 15th position of my Top 20. Not high, but respectable. 

 

In the interest of transparency, my ADHD was acting up, so I had to default to a dubbed version. Due to that, I won’t be talking about the script acting. I will say that there was nothing in the dubbing that interrupted my immersion. I was zoned into my screen the whole time, without fail.

 

 

Despite my personal issues, I found myself feeling everything I was meant to during the runtime. Instead of the cookie cutter, semi-solid action flick I was expecting – I got a pulse-pounding, character-driven, well-choreographed film.

 

When I say ‘well-choreographed’ I’m not talking about the John Wick (2014) style. Weapons, and creative use of the setting, is not really a factor. Nor am I talking about the Extraction (2020) method, where the cinematography becomes a character of its own in the battle. Instead, Sixty Minutes utilized a more realistic choreography. Everything that any character does is something a well-trained fighter could do. There was a touch of acrobatics, but it was mostly boxing/MMA. Fans of watching real fights would get a kick out of it.

 

I think realism is something that sets Sixty Minutes apart from its contemporaries. It allows for deeper immersion because nothing really comes out of left field. It’s all perfectly reasonable. The main character never seems invulnerable.

 

Sixty Minutes was amazing. It smashed through every single expectation I had for it and then some.

 

 

Cat’s Point of View: 

I remember being intrigued by Sixty Minutes when I saw its trailer last month. I am a big fan of action thrillers and this movie seemed to tick all those boxes on paper. I was initially a little concerned whether or not I would become invested in it enough that keeping up with subtitles and the action at the same time would mesh well, as the production was filmed in German. I was thrilled to discover this was one of the foreign films coming to Netflix that they had an English dub for, so that became a non-issue.

 

While I don’t generally follow MMA fighting, such as UFC, I do have a love of watching martial arts combat on the screen and a deep respect for the sport. That being said, the entire story of Sixty Minutes stems from the fact that the main character doesn’t make it into the ring for the scheduled fight. The structure of MMA matches and the octagon they take part in aren’t even a factor as the action flows organically through the whole city of Berlin. 

 

The stunt work here was crazy good and the fight choreography was on point. Sixty Minutes was an excellent vehicle for lead Emilio Sakraya (Warrior Nun, Tribes of Europa, One Night Off) to lean into his background of martial arts and parkour and really shine. Even the supporting cast in his proverbial corner were kicking serious ass. A stand-out for me was one Octa’s head trainers, Cosima, played by Marie Mouroum (Berlin Station, Black Panther, Tribes of Europa). She has an extensive background in cinema stunts and has worked on many heavy-hitting action pieces from Marvel Cinematic Universe to Bond films. She had a meatier role here where she got to show off her fighting chops and had a meaningful part to play as well.

 

The premise of this story didn’t have a lot of bells and whistles to it, but it didn’t need to. I was emotionally invested from the get-go and I could feel Octa’s pain and frustration as he embarked on this roller-coaster of MMA madness. I was right there with him feeling his emotional exhaustion as it seemed the whole world just wanted to get in the way of him achieving his all-important goal of saving his relationship with his daughter. I also appreciated that Sixty Minutes leaned into the realistic toll that the journey’s events took on his body and mental state -- keeping him human rather than the seemingly invincible hero trope that Hollywood often banks on.

 

If you’re looking for a fast-paced adrenaline ride with a lot of heart behind it, Sixty Minutes wouldn’t be a bad choice and I would encourage fans of the genre to check it out.

 

 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 60% 

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 78% 

Metascore – None 

Metacritic User Score – None

IMDB Score – 5.7/10 

 

Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 4.5/5 

Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 4.5/5 

 

Movie Trailer: