7 Minutes Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		2.5

7 Minutes Blu-ray Movie Review

Since a review has to be longer than 140 characters...

Reviewed by Martin Liebman September 3, 2015

7 Minutes is another entry into the growing subgroup of nonlinear Crime films in which characters are introduced mid-action by way of freeze frame and their name splashed across the screen, at which point the film hits the rewind button to establish them after they've appeared at some critical juncture in the action. Combine that with a terribly cliché backstory populated by recycled characters who engage in a robbery that looks no different than any other cheaply made movie robbery and it's easy to see why 7 Minutes probably should have only been seven minutes long. Make no mistake, it's a competently made film, acted to satisfaction and hardly an embarrassment to anyone involved, but it's just so darn uninspired, unoriginal, unsatisfying. At least it's better than the similarly titled Wesley Snipes' DTV dud 7 Seconds.

This is a robbery!

Sam (Luke Mitchell) is a former football star whose injuries took him off the field and into the drug business in an effort to provide for his pregnant wife Kate (Leven Rambin). She doesn't approve, but her waitressing job isn't getting the family ahead. Sam decides it's time for he and his partners, Mike (Jason Ritter) and Owen (Zane Holtz), to move up from weed and sell something a little more potent, something that can put a little more money in their pockets. That gets them mixed up with a drug kingpin named Doug (Chris Soldevilla). But when Owen panics and flushes the drugs when he believes there's a cop on on their trail, the group is out the merchandise and unable to repay Doug, never mind earn their cut. So they do what they must, robbing a bank by way of what they believe to be a foolproof plan that's really anything but.

Ugh. What a difficult movie to review, at least with any kind of depth or even just word count. It exists in that wasteland between "awful" and "good" in which the most forgettable films exist. It's a movie that's so absent creativity that there's nothing to say beyond "it's uncreative" that won't feel like a writer fruitlessly stretching things out to fill a space. But, that's what's required, so here's Mr. Armstrong himself taking a shot at sharing a few additional thoughts on the movie:

"The back-and-forth structure between robbery and character construction doesn't necessarily hurt or interrupt pace, but neither does it intensify the action or create a tighter connection between the audience and the characters, even with the gift of foresight in hindsight, watching their story unfold and knowing where it's going to go. The movie seems constructed in such a way only to bank on previously established styles, further eroding whatever smidgen of personal identity this movie might enjoy. The movie feels like it's been pieced together from several others, several of the most creatively devoid movies on the market of the same style. '7 Minutes' produces nothing of interest, nor does it introduce anything new. About the only character of some value is the jittery portly policeman who gets mixed up in the robbery, if only because he exists somewhere between comedy relief and sympathetic would-be hero who's more likely to pee his pants than save the day. Otherwise, the characters are all the usual sorts that include the fallen-from-glory football player, the guy who doesn't want to serve any more time but who cannot stay on the right side of the law, the big guy who throws a big wrench in the plans, and Kris Kristofferson cashing probably the biggest check in the movie for playing one of its least demanding roles."

Thanks, 80s toy icon turned guest reviewer! That stretching ability really saved the day! 👍

7 Minutes Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

7 Minutes features a good all-around 1080p transfer. The HD video source is sharp and nicely defined with only hints of the natural flatness the format often produces. Details are consistently crisp and intimately nuanced, with faces revealing pores, bumps, moles, stubble, makeup, everything and everything one could ever want to see on the actors' faces. Clothing details are nearly equally intricate, as are various backgrounds seen throughout the movie, including small environmental details inside a bank and a diner. Colors are lively and accurate. The palette is healthy and presents every shade with commendably lifelike attention to detail, whether clothes, outdoor greens, or neon signs. Black levels are impressively deep and balanced, noticeable predominately at a nighttime football game where the brightly lit foreground blends nicely with the inky-deep night sky background. Flesh tones appear natural to the actors' complexions and makeup. The image shows only trace amounts of banding, noise, and aliasing. This is a rock-solid effort from Anchor Bay.

7 Minutes Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

7 Minutes ticks off the time on Blu-ray with a good all-around Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack. There's a nice spread of elements throughout, all of which are handled with care and attention to detail. Music is rich and pleasing, a bit front heavy but spreading out and hefting up nicely at a party in chapter three. The track places plenty of little atmospheric details throughout the film that play with effortlessly immersive placement, including light country ambience, rumbly vehicles, party and bar din, and cheering football fans. Gunshots are sufficiently weighty and authoritative. Dialogue delivery is center focused and nicely defined, no matter who happens to be speaking.

7 Minutes Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

7 Minutes contains two brief extras.

• Linear Heist (1080p, 17:44): The film's heist edited together without interruption.
• Storyboards to Scene (1080p, 8:44): Hand-drawn storyboards matched up with the final film version of the scene.

7 Minutes Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Occasionally, it would be nice to write a review in the form of a tweet, saying everything that needs to be said in 140 characters or less. Most don't fit that limitation for one reason or another, be that nuanced plot or character details, awesome special effects, a film's place in history or contemporary society, great performances, and so on and so forth. There are hundreds of avenues to explore around the cinema landscape, but sometimes a movie really can be summed up with the utmost of brevity, particularly when it gives the reviewer almost nothing with which to work. 7 Minutes is one such film. Here's a shot, typed straight in the old Twitter tweeter: "Dull characters who deal drugs decide to rob a bank. It goes predictably haywire. Nonlinear storytelling introduces them in flashback. End." Counting spaces and punctuation, voila, 140 characters and, also voila, no need to watch the movie. It's not that it's horrible, it's that it's completely unnecessary, the definition of filler moviemaking that brings absolutely nothing -- zero, zip, nada -- new to the cinema landscape. There's literally nothing here outside of faces and names that audiences haven't seen before. Anchor Bay's Blu-ray is equally unremarkable, if not technically proficient. Video and audio are fine and the supplements don't offer much other than the heist, uninterrupted, which lasts 17 minutes rather than seven. Whatever. Rent it if all other movie watching options are exhausted.