11:14 (DVD)

Starring: No one really. Sure, some famous people turn up but they only get a handful of scenes each to work with.

Featuring: Patrick Swayze, Barbara Hershey, Hilary Swank and Rachael Leigh Cook. (That's more like it).

Rated: 15

Story: A number of individuals in a small American town make some bad choices and suffer the worst case scenario consequences on the dot of 11:14 PM. At first, their lives appear unconnected but all their stories are tied up together. Events are retold from five different perspectives, time rewinding at the end of each.

Comments: This is one of those films like Memento and Lucky Number Slevin which makes a fairly basic or unlikely story more interesting by presenting it in a confusing order. The story of 11:14 is both basic and unlikely but revealing most of the details backwards does, indeed, make it much more interesting. Each of the stories starts a few minutes earlier in the evening than the one before and they only make full sense when considered together. It never feels like information is being purposefully withheld just to add drama, however. The format is excellent.

The content is more of a problem.

11:14 doesn't really have anything to say with its flashy story-telling, except maybe that being a callous, law-breaking imbecile can go badly on occasion. But anyone who hasn't worked that out already will probably have their head explode from having to concentrate too hard before the end of the movie anyway. On top of that, the motivation of some of the characters seems hugely unconvincing at times. The film is full of people doing stupid things. You may well find yourself shouting at the TV. Warn your neighbours to ignore phrases along the lines of:

'Fool! That's a loaded gun!'
'For crying out loud, just tell the truth!'
'Look at the road, you idiot!'
'Don't stick that there, that's just asking for... Ewwwwww!'

There are some bits that aren't for the squeamish.

11:14 is diverting while it lasts but it's the unpleasant and improbable scenes which stick in the memory. What I really want to see is the episode of CSI where they try to work out what happened. Now that would be amusing.

Conclusion: An average tale superbly told.

Explosions: None.
Unpleasant injuries: Two.
Really unpleasant injuries: One.
Lies: Several.
Crimes: Dozens.
Subsequent police investigation: Almost certainly confused...

Rating: 3/5.