d.rust So, there I was, dozing off in bed, about to turn off the TV when this movie starts up, Michael Madsen's eyes on the screen, giving the first monologue about how 90% of cops wind up never shooting their weapon. I was hooked right there.The first act gives us a summary of a normal week-day's early morning preparation, getting ready for a day on the job, putting on your work clothes, making sure your name tag is straight, revising your weapon: all the things that define you.The second act is the violence. While the robbers sit in their car outside of a Bank of America waiting for their initial target, the other primary actors are doing their jobs of law enforcement. When the target arrives, it doesn't go where the heavily-armed thieves have thought it would: confused, they decide to rob the bank. Everyday people see them enter and call in the emergency. Chaos ensues. When the duo emerges from the bank, they are met by dozens of police officers. The shootout begins with bullets flying everywhere from AK47 machine guns. The police figure out the two men are wearing body armour as they seem impervious to the return fire. Endless volleys and blood spattering moments as projectiles rip through vehicles, buildings, making targets of anyone and anything. Eventually, the bank robbers are stopped by sheer determination on the part of the LAPD.The third act is the aftermath: destruction of public property, picking up the used brass casings, a review of the injuries, recognition of the heroism under extreme fire. And a denouément that shows how life just goes back to "normal" afterwards: the bank reopens the day after, life affirmation and dedication. We see in the final scenes a close up again of Michael Madsen describing the events and his reaction, and the camera pulls out to reveal that it is part of a sequence being worked on in an editing bay of one of the television stations that covered the shootout.This made-for-TV production is absolutely gripping. It is almost a documentary re-enactment, but for small embellishments that hold interest by making the participants human and are dramatization. You may find yourself unable to take your eyes off the screen as it plays out. Madsen, Livingston and van Peebles give us good performances.

zaenkney Every morning of the 28th of February my daughter and her family call me to wish me a very happy birthday, except, of course, when she calls on my actual birthday, the 29th which is leap year. Unfortunately, my mother, died entirely too young of brain cancer on that leap year day in 1992. What are the odds? I have asked all five of my children, and pleaded with my well meaning daughter, not to bring attention to that date, but to Mother's Day, instead. Well, the phone rang on the morning of February 28 1997 and I picked it up ready to hear "Happy Birthday!" which recalls those very sad memories. Instead my daughter instructed me to switch on the TV. and quickly informed me of what was going on in LA. It's funny how self pity flies out the window in view of a highly visible, thanks to the media, potentially large scale massacre of citizens and LAPD officers. Still, memories were recalled.Nightmares! The boogie-man! The frightening vision of Michael Rennie's character as he marched down the ramp from his spaceship in "The Day the Earth Stood Still". The director of '44 Minutes', Yves Simmoneau, does not allow us but a short amount of time to see the antagonists without their layers of armor. Barely humanized, instead, they appear like pit bulls bred for one thing only. Cops pitted against such animals cannot earn enough money for what they do. In fact, just knowing the potential of such a situation garners consistent hazard pay, in my opinion. According to everything I've read and heard, not one policeman left his post during this incident in 1997 LA.Simmoneau truly outdoes himself, considering this is just a made for TV movie. In fact, he apparently sticks very close to the facts and spirit of the event, as written by Tim Metcalfe. While Michael Madsen, a solid actor, received more airtime and recognition than other actors for his role in '44 Minutes', I believe it turned out to be an excellent ensemble project. This was an inspired cast performing a docudrama that kept me on the edge of my seat as if I were a witness to the event in real time. In fact, viewing this again took me back, in a way, to September 11, 2001 at about 9 am when I turned on the television and saw what was happening in New York. I was glued to the tube, horrified, shaken, and just barely beginning to realize that life would never be the same. Of course I knew '44 Minutes' was a movie as I watched, but I was still sucked into the emotion, especially knowing it was based on fact. This is very well done and still worth seeing all these years later. '44 Minutes' is an Emmy winning movie worth having in your collection and sharing with friends and family over the years.

lizziebeth-1 Fabulously edited together from dramatised story "highlights" and direct-to-camera "debfriefings" played by actors, 44Mins(2003) is a very effective retelling of this infamous robbery.The chief protagonist is Frank McGregor(Michael Madsen), the filmic representation of the actual LAPD Robbery and Homicide Division(RHD) detective who led the real 1995 task force for the so-called High Incident Bandits. The real bandits first became known to police during their anomalous career of deadly high-powered bank-and-armored-car robberies during 1993; by 2nd May 1996 they netted $2mill in one bankjob alone, and disappeared to waste their fortune.Michael Mann's Heat(1995) was based on this same crime gang, as is the opening prologue of the new Batman--Dark Knight(2008). At the time, the LAPD thought the gang had 6 members; by 1997 there were only 2 left. Obviously these two wound down to few friends or safe-houses, or goals other than fantasizing about Corvettes, Mustangs and "Mexican b!tches". The other driver of this true story is a young SWAT Team leader, "Donnie" Anderson (Ron Livingston, "Sex and the City" favorite and older brother of actor John Livingston). Curiously, the characters are are only referred to by their first names in this docudrama, so the "Donnie" character is composited as one of the three SWAT officers who finally brought down the second gunman.The beauty of 44Mins's storytelling is its emphasis on how people, even the LAPD, rise to the occasion during extraordinary events. It really is an ennobling tale.This one day, the 28th February 1997, has gone down in the annals of Hollywood history for its real-life police heroism, in ways that no Batman movie can equal. Despite frequent high profile accusations of racism (eg the Rodney King bashing in part due to police overreactions to LA violence during the early 1990s), some actual LAPD bravery trumped the criminal assault on them that day.Incredibly, the real HIB criminals were jailed years before over AK47 possession, but were (almost certainly corruptly) allowed to keep their rifles and sell them to pay for their legal costs! Another gun-related incident that outraged the real LAPD was the easy availability at the time of assault rifles through gun shops--let alone bullets at K-Mart.There are NO DEER in Los Angeles. Even Al-Qaeda only use jet fuel and possibly dirty nukes; so if we can't trust the LAPD with 9mm Barettas, why should we have to "wrest" AK47s from Chuck Heston's "cold, dead hands"?Indeed, watching the real events recreated, the scene of ignorant Laurel Canyon drivers actually driving up to and around the getaway car still looks heartstopping. "It was a SERIES of miracles that no civilians or police were actually killed", observed one of the policemen on the day.Eagle-eyed viewers will catch in Donnie's on screen family photos the actual much older Don Anderson being awarded the Medal of Valour in 1997, who has since died at age 62 in his squad-car, still training young LAPD officers. Much of the credit for 44Minutes' achievement has to go to the Casting Directors (Kim Williams of Reuben Cannon &Associates) and the Director/Co-Producer of this high quality made-for-TV docudrama, Canadian Yves Simoneau("The 4400" (pilot), Void Moon(2009)). These people have put together not only an enormously credible team of actors who each have the requisite gravitas, but this police procedural's tone of cinema vérité is always sensitive, and frank. Simoneau pulls few punches with some minimal human gore: his caked-on blood realism, for instance, is incredibly effective, as the police finally peel off one gunman's blood-soaked mask sticking to his lips and eyes. The bloodied eye and mashed face look far more satisfying--and authentic--than Two-Face's CGI hatchet-job in the new Batman(2008).Very subtly, Simoneau also reveals the shallowness of the LA civilians who quickly flooded the LAPD with gifts, cakes and "I (heart) LAPD" signs the day after the shootout, when just days before they'd been completely hostile. Granted, Simoneau might deny any intention to achieve this, but the juxtaposition is obvious to anyone who knows how fickle LA is.Simoneau's cast is faultless; I can well accept Office Space(1999) "slacker" Ron Livingston as a SWAT team leader, Michael Madsen(Kill Bills 1&2, L.A.P.D.: To Protect and to Serve(2001)) as the seasoned lead detective, and even Col.Dale Dye(Ret.) as the SWAT Chief. But the film also boasts a most impressive Latino actor, Jullian Dulce Vida, as the Assistant Manager of the Bank of America branch. Dulce Vida capably repeats the real man's personal heroism in the face of terrifying assault, as he saves the lives of all the civilians within the bank, including that of his somewhat haughty Anglo boss. The boss is forgettable; Dulce Vida is a standout. His pitch-perfect characterisation has him frequently looking askance at his largely useless boss, a sign of the actor's wonderful commitment. Just excellent casting by the director.This un-hyped but shocking story plays like the 9/11 collapse footage shot in situ by the French Naudet brothers. Simoneau's dramatisation depicts similar professionals on the job so that there is only hindsight "distance" for the viewer between watching 44Minutes, and having survived it.Brilliant.10/10.

snake77 I watched this on cable the other night and was very pleasantly surprised. It's well done, with solid acting from old pros Madsen and Van Peebles and very tight directing. The documentary style works well, and unlike most cops vs. robbers movies it shows the motivation and thoughts of the bad guys without glorifying them. It's obviously a bit of a PR piece for the LAPD, but it also makes some really good points about the availability of assault weapons and the failings of the justice and political system in keeping crooks from getting them. The locations used in the movie were the actual locations where the shootout took place, and this added immeasurably to the realism of the story. This film is a real cut above most cable fare and is really worth watching.