5ive Days to Midnight (2004)

I'll start with the impresion I've been left after seeing the movie in the today's entry. Or better said the impression the impression I've had and the movie made stronger. It's about the fact that if you try to do an average of the value of the mini-series and TV series in the last 10 years you'll get definitely something better than the same for the big screen movies (talking about production of a certain level of box office, not every unknown indie out there). Unfortunately I don't have time for series lately so I limit myself to mini-series, where "5ive Days to Midnight" also belongs.

With the risk of a double introduction, I'll extend a bit what's above with the idea that what applies to mini-series/series unfortunately doesn't also for TV movies. And a perfect example for that, especially since it relates to my current blog entry, are the productions signed SciFi channel, or Syfy after rebranding. I can't give the title of a certain movie right now, but there are a lot of them produced that can be considered probably C, D ... or up to Z-movies (probably if you search enough you'll hardly find a B one among them :) ). Low budget, cheap effect, thin story ... I think I've seen a couple of those during the years and I never couldn't explain myself why somebody could even put that small amount of money into such productions. With the mini-series there's a completely different story. I don't remember seeing something bad from SciFi (maybe "Earthsea" but that was close to average still). Pretty much all of them varied from ok to exceptional. Unfortunately these don't come out very often, from what I've seen during the years what would deserve your time being probably "Dune", "Children of Dune", "Taken" and the masterpiece which is "The Lost Room". Oh .. and of course :) the latest watched (although quite old now) "5ive Days to Midnight".

Now, since I've finished the double introduction :) and bored 90% of the people who managed to get to this line, I can finally get to the subject. So, what we have is a miniseries in 5 parts of 40 minutes each, describing 5 days from the life of J.T. Neumeyer - physics professor somewhere in a faculty from U.S. The story begins on a day of Monday, the anniversary of his daughter and also of his late wife's death. Due to the last part the professor makes a visit to the cemetery where ... surprise, close to the tomb stone he finds something that seems to be a briefcase from the future protected with a ciphered electronic lock. After getting home, our main character manages quite easily to guess the correct combination and opens the case being presented with the 2nd surprise ... The content is a file, apparently 50 years old considering the paper state but ... 5 days newer than the current day. More exactly it contains an investigation documentation about the death of the guy who's looking at it = the same J.T. Neumeyer, death that is supposed to take place on 3:55 AM on Friday, the same week. And that's only the start :) ...

Further, the miniseries carries us through the five days, along which ... :) I'm gonna stop with the details here. The only thing I'm saying more is that from the initial phase when Neumeyer is convinced that all of it is a bad prank of one of his not so right in the head students (probably having also some hidden Photoshop talents), he gradually starts to believe more and more that the found file is accurate due to the things that are happening. Why and what's going on from that ... see the movie :) Anyway, what's above (the start) it's probably less than 5% of the subject, so you have enough to see. I wouldn't say that you'll find out something extremely spectacular to give serious thinking, like how it was for "Sucker Punch" last time, but what you'll get in the ~200 minutes of movie you have, it'll probably keep you stuck to the screen. Every day comes with something new, making the story unravel itself in very "catchy" way let's say.

The movie has a bit of the 90's air, starting from the cinematography and going on to the sound, acting, etc .. Well, it might just an impression (but fast scenes shot in slow motion by lowering the frame rate, that's for sure not very popular after 2000). Anyway, I won't be very long with this part and I'll add more just the fact that I liked the soundtrack, especially the intro, which seems it was composed by a pretty unknown guy - John Nordstrom.

If it was for me to make a comparative evaluation among all the titles I've mentioned in the beginning, I could place "5ive Days to Midnight" along the rest, but probably a bit behind them. I can't say that it reaches to the "Dune" level due to the story which is incomparably complex and also because of the budget. About "The Lost Room" it doesn't even feel fit to compare. I really doubt that Syfi channel will ever manage to top what they achieved with that production. Besides, "5ive Days to Midnight" has also some flaws in the script, but as a recommendation don't even try to bother thinking too much with trying to explain yourself what doesn't fit where it should, or having questions like "why so .. and not so ..". It's really not the case :) so don't do it. You'll ruin the whole movie feeling. Just enjoy it as it is ;)

Rating: 4 out of 5