24 Hours in London (2000) Reviews

• A movie which is so charmingly awful, it nearly works

  Bulletta2006-06-07

  When I was staying on holiday in Wales this year, I had the misfortune of being stuck in a house with a VCR player and a video of the cheapo movie 24 Hours In London. After watching the first ten minutes or so, the acting seemed okay, the plot seemed to have potential, and the cutting on the titles section was first rate. Then the film plummeted like a goose with no wings. Without giving too much away (The film does enough of that itself with heavily signposted plot elements), 24 Hours In London swings unsteadily between what appears to be an attempt at a cockney gangster flick and outright slapstick comedy. The latter half of the film is particularly bizarre, with plot holes so large that the entire film seems to be progressing at random. So why did I bother watching it to the end? Well, I keep asking myself that. Is it because, despite all the shockingly-bad acting, there were a few actors who could actually convey emotion? Is it because the lumbering comedy moments were actually pretty funny, in an oafish way? Or is it that maybe, despite all its glaring errors and hilariously wooden acting, the film's shoestring charm manages to shine through? I honestly couldn't say.

• Wow this is bad!

  jawa0992005-05-28

  I was at my local blockbuster and was turned on to this movie. Also I heard that it was Tarantinoesque. Me being a big Tarantino fan, was excited to see it. Let's put it this way, I put it in and wasted two hours of my life. The writing in this film is for lack of a better word, appalling. I wrote better stuff when I was a freshman in high school. The script was full of cliché and all around bad dialog. Another beef I had with it was the action. It was like they watched an 8 year old play with action figures and based the action in the movie on this. The plot is stupid as well, there is a twist at the end (which I will not disclose) that made me feel embarrassed for the writer. I also couldn't get a feel for what time they were in, it seemed simi future based on the police garb, but then the cars and everything else seemed modern...Weird. In retrospect, had they thought everything out a little more and took the thousands of clichés out of the script, this movie has potential for good, but just turned out a stinky crap fest. See it if you must, but don't say I didn't warn you.

• Utter Rubbish

  petehazell2006-01-19

  I was forced to endure this film a while ago, and can honestly say that it is one of the worst films I have ever seen. The plot (such as it was) was completely derivative, nicking ideas from just about every gangster film since "Brighton Rock." The characters make cardboard seem fully rounded, mostly being off-cuts from the Quentin Tarantino "chirpy-arrogant-violent-criminal-with-no-regard-for-anyone-else" block, while the script was abysmal. The lack of anything good about this film is particularly disappointing, as it was the last film Gary Olsen made. It's a great shame that his last appearance should be as a barely thought-out criminal weirdo with pseudo-mystical characteristics forced upon him in a vain attempt to make the character seem interesting. This is a heap of rubbish with no redeeming features whatsoever, and should be avoided at all costs.

• Worst film of the year

  grimis9112002-08-24

  I can't believe how many positive comments have been listed for this film. There was nothing original in the entire movie. The dialouge was awful. The acting was horrible and the action was so unbelievable that it took away from it's enjoyment (i.e. 2 people take on entire police force and police miss with every bullet). I wasn't sure who the main character was throughout the film and I still couldn't tell you now. The characters are all paper thin and can be summed up each in less then one line. Don't rent this or buy this. We need to send the message that we're tired of second rate lock stock imitations.

• The Screenplay Has So Many Holes That Looks Like a Swiss Cheese

  claudio_carvalho2005-03-14

  In London, the powerful gangster Christian (Gary Olsen) decides to eliminate the competition, killing all the rival gangs. In a park, after a slaughter, a black woman survives and becomes the main witness against Christian. The police force keeps her under protection, but a squealer informs Christian every step taken by the detectives in charge of protecting the witness. "24 Hours in London" has a screenplay with so many holes that looks like a Swiss cheese. Indeed, it is a cheesy movie, with situation so ridiculous that becomes funny. The problem is that it is not a comedy. There are many inconsistent plot points and the situations are amazingly absurd. I noted there are many votes, most of them from England, giving ten stars to this film and misleading readers like me. I believe these users were hired by the production to promote this flick, since all of them coincidentally have only one short review in IMDb eulogizing "24 Hours in London". Otherwise, they are from the same asylum. My vote is four. Title (Brazil): "Testemunha Chave" ("Key Witness")