57 Seconds (2023)
57 Seconds is a fairly average but also fairly entertaining sci-fi time travel movie that tries to sell us on the idea how much you can do with a limited amount of time.
Its main star is Josh Hutcherson, who first became famous through The Hunger Games and recently starred in the smash hit Five Nights At Freddy’s. The other big name on the poster is Morgan Freeman, who has been in so many great movies it’s impossible to pick one. (Okay, I choose Seven… no, The Shawshank Redemption… no, The Dark Knight…).
Hutcherson plays Franklin Fox, a blogger with an axe to grind against Big Pharma, especially the evil CEO Sig Thorensen (Greg German), who he blames for the untimely death of his sister due to highly addictive pain killers.
Franklin also wants to interview his hero, Anton Burrell (Freeman), a tech mogul who wants to use his brilliant inventions for the good of humanity.
By chance, Franklin comes into the possession of a special ring that belongs to Burrell, which has the ability to turn back time for 57 seconds - perhaps one minute was too predictable, I don’t know, but as the movie shows there’s a lot of things you can do in 57 seconds, especially if you can turn back time more than once.
It doesn’t take long for Franklin to realize that he could this magic ring in his quest to bring Thorensen down.
Without giving away too much, I can say that there is enough going on to make sure that 57 is at the very least surface level enjoyable.
This sci-fi thriller is ably directed by veteran director Rusty Cundieff (Tales From The Hood), who based his and Macon Blair’s screenplay on a story by E.C. Tubb.
The characterizations, however, aren’t always that effective. Franklin is obviously traumatized by the death of his sister, and he can get away with being a flawed hero, but when he uses the power of the one ring to seduce female co-worker Jala (Lovie Simone), it just comes across as creepy. And while Anton Burrell is meant to be enigmatic - a role Freeman could probably play in his sleep - he seems too much of a control freak to trust him as a force for good.
Thorensen, on the other hand, is portrayed as a one-note villain, which makes his character not very interesting, to say the least.
Still, the movie has a lot of zip and pizzaz, the actors are mostly fine and even though 57 Seconds will probably remind you of other, better sci-fi thrillers, for most of its 100 min. running time it’s entertaining enough to warrant a watch.
Note: 57 Seconds is getting a hybrid release. In some countries, like the United States, South Africa and South Korea, it is released in theaters, in others it’s getting a digital or streaming-release.