7 Minutes (Blu-ray) (2014)

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General		Extras
Category	Crime	Trailer-x 3 for other films Reversible Cover
Rating
Year Of Production	2014
Running Time	83:55
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Jay Martin
Studio Distributor	Eagle Entertainment	Starring	Luke Mitchell Jason Ritter Zane Holtz Leven Rambin Brandon Hardesty Kevin Gage Mariel Neto Chris Soldevilla Kris Kristofferson
Case	Standard Blu-ray
RPI	?	Music	Tomandandy

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.40:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     7 Minutes is a film that, before the credits, starts with three armed men in white masks storming in to rob a bank. The film then continually flashes back to fill in details about the three men, their families, their acquaintances and their plans, intercut frequently with the robbery in progress. The plan was to be in and out with the money in 7 minutes without violence but, as the flashbacks reveal, that was never going to happen.

     Three years before these events Sam (Luke Mitchell) had a promising college and football career before him, but now he has been put off from his dead end job and lives with his pregnant girlfriend Kate (Leven Rambin) who works as a waitress in a café. His older brother Mike (Jason Ritter) is married with a baby; Mike has contacts with drug dealer Doug (Chris Soldevilla) and persuades Sam they can make money suppling marijuana to the college kids. They are joined by Sam’s childhood friend Owen (Zane Holtz), who has just been released from prison. Initially things go well and when some of their clients request Ecstasy, the three see an opportunity for greater profits and obtain $62,000 worth of tablets from Doug on credit. But when they are followed by a police car, Owen panics and flushes the Ecstasy tablets down a toilet. Now they owe Doug the money; he is not a forgiving man and they have 48 hours to find the cash, or else.

     First time writer / director Jay Martin has story board artist credits, such as The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013). As screenwriter he draws on a wide range of heist films so 7 Minutes is mostly predictable although Martin has chosen to tell his story in an interesting, non-chronological way with scenes which loop and repeat and frequent flashbacks to not only the three robbers but to others who become involved in the robbery attempt, such as overweight policeman Jerome (Brandon Hardesty). For in their small town everyone knows everyone and everything is interconnected; thus the timing of the robbery quickly goes awry when the manager of the bank recognises Sam despite the mask and refuses to hand over the safe keys. Too many people in the town also know something is about to happen, including Jerome who has the hots for beautiful Brandi (Mariel Neto) who in turn is having an affair with Mike. More deadly, however, is the violent Tuckey (Kevin Gage), an associate of Owen’s father (a brief cameo by Kris Kristofferson), who wants a piece of the action and is not above abducting Sam’s wife Kate to get it. All these strands come together during the climax of those seven fateful minutes.

     Heist films are not uncommon and 7 Minutes adds little that is new to the genre. However the main characters are likeable young men in way over their heads, there are a couple of surprises, the tension builds nicely towards the climax and the non-linear storytelling keeps things interesting throughout the short, 84 minute running time.

Video

     7 Minutes is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.40:1, close to the original ratio, in 1080p using the MPEG-4 AVC code.

     The print has very strong detail and good, natural colours in the daylight exterior sequences. In the night scenes, blacks are inky and shadow detail very good. The interiors colours are glossier and the skin tones under lights have that digital yellowish tinge but are otherwise fine. I saw a slight amount of edge enhancement but otherwise artefacts were not present. Brightness and contrast were consistent except in a couple of scenes, including the opening, where the light source behind the actor resulted in some glare.

     There are no subtitles available.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
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Audio

     Audio is an English DTS-HD MA 5.1 track.

     Dialogue is clear and understandable. This is not a particularly active audio mix, and with a number of dialogue scenes it did not need to be. However there were some appropriate effects in the rears, and the gunshots were loud and with decent resonance. I only noticed the original score by Tomandandy on a few occasions; however the soundtrack was dominated by frequent pop and rock music by people I am not familiar with, including Black Nite Crash, The Saturday Knights, Kathy Heideman, Bill Patton and The Moondoggies. This music was mainly from the front speakers and was effective.

     There are no lip synchronisation problems.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
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Trailers

     Trailers for Super Fast! (2:05), The Key Man (1:41) and Haunt (1:33) play on start-up. They cannot be selected from the menu.

Reversible Cover

     The Region A US release of 7 Minutes has Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio and adds English SDH and Spanish subtitles plus two minor extras: Linear Heist (17:44), a compilation in linear order of the actual bank heist scenes, and Storyboards to Scene (8:44), four scenes with basic storyboards in a window below. While neither seems essential they would give the edge to the US release.

     Some critics have been unkind to 7 Minutes calling it tedious and contrived. I don't agree and while the heist film and the flashback storytelling are staples, first time writer / director Jay Martin has tried to do something interesting with the genre. I like convoluted storytelling and I found the naïve, young characters interesting.

     The video and audio are fine. A couple of trailers for other films are the only extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall