SYNOPSICS
Running Time (1997) is a English movie. Josh Becker has directed this movie. Bruce Campbell,Jeremy Roberts,Anita Barone,William Stanford Davis are the starring of this movie. It was released in 1997. Running Time (1997) is considered one of the best Crime,Thriller movie in India and around the world.
Running Time was filmed in black and white, in real time, and seemingly takes place in one continuous, fluid shot. It's a little like Hitchcock's "Rope," but it's on location! Carl, an ex-con who sets out to rob the prison laundry system where he worked for 5 years (while in the pen), has spent ten years in prison planning the ultimate heist. Upon his release, he meets up with a high school buddy, who's made all the arrangements for the job, and rented him a hooker for his first encounter in a decade with a real girl. After picking up the safecracker and their getaway driver, they've got twenty minutes to pull off the perfect heist...but soon everything falls apart before Carl's eyes. He might still get the girl, though!
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Running Time (1997) Reviews
Find it! Watch it! Now!
Josh Becker's "Running Time" is a remarkably effective and economical heist flick shot in black and white with the illusion of being a single take. These stylistic anomalies may draw your attention at first, but "Running Time" is more than its experimental hook. It's a good, taut thriller with a sharp comic edge. It also has a refreshingly brisk pace (clocking in at about 70 minutes long). Bruce Campbell is excellent in the lead role as Carl, an ex-con whose plan for the perfect heist is undone by the incompetence of his partner Patrick (Jeremy Roberts) and a general case of Murphy's law. Anita Barone also gives a winning performance as Carl's former high school squeeze, Janie. "Running Time" is a fine film that deserves a wider audience. Help start the trend.
Not enough time but I liked it
This movie is a must see for aspiring film makers. It's goal was to make a diverse film while trying to show movies are an art form within their own right. I didn't appreciate this movie until about 70% of the way in though. The story was original but at the same time a rehash of a dozen bank robbery scenarios we've all seen. Everything that could go wrong does, our two main bad guys fight a lot and people start dying. But that was only on the surface. The robbery storyline needs to be overlooked and the three main characters given our focus. Towards the end of the movie we begin to see they are much more dynamic than assumed. It's at this point where the story takes second stage and the dynamics of Carl, Patrick and Janie truly come forward. I liked the artistic sense this film had a lot and being made to feel as if it was one continuous camera shot beginning to end was very cool. Some scenes had that old black and white feel and line delivery of the classics. It did leave something to be desired though. For a low budget indi film it was great and I really feel the plot and characters had a lot more to offer. This would be an excellent movie to make a larger budget version of such as which was done with Desperado. I think the biggest problem was trying to capture elements of much older movies and everything being done in one take. The supporting characters should have been developed more which would of allowed for a longer movie. A little work on the script here and there plus more willingness to do more than one take for scenes could have made it the success the low budget B&W film Clerks was....honestly the genres weren't too far off. As a true film lover, indi film maker or simply a Bruce Campbell fan it's well worth seeing but best without expectations.
The best real time movie I've seen
This is an amazing movie. I popped the DVD into my player expecting a typical Bruce Campbell b-movie, but "Running Time" turned out to be much more than that. It succeeds on every level. Bruce Campbell shines in the leading role. I just love this man. This has got to be one of his best movies, right up there with the "Evil Dead" trilogy and "Bubba Ho-Tep". Actually, the whole cast is great. I especially fell for Anita Barone who I'd like to see in a lot more movies in the future. I won't spoil it for you, but watch out for her first meeting with Bruce Campbell's character in the movie. It's hilarious. "Running Time" is shot in beautiful black and white, which gives the movie a film noir feeling. The script is written very cleverly with some witty dialog and tight pacing. From the beginning we are drawn into the story. The old real time formula works here for a change, although the concept does sometimes lead to a few lengths here and there. Still, the movie is far from ever getting boring and at 70 minutes running time "Running Time" (haha) is maybe even a bit too short. Doesn't matter. For me this one is an overlooked sleeper. If you get a chance, watch it!
An ambitious, and hugely successful experiment!
It's an idea with the potential to go wrong, but Hitchcock made it work with Rope, and now Josh Becker has done the same with Running Time; a film with the word 'cult' written all over it! The fact that this film is shot in black and white makes it stand out somewhat from the crowd of nineties films, but it's the way that it's filmed that is Running Time's claim to fame. Becker shoots the film in one continuous shot that follows around lead character Carl through one day. This idea worked brilliantly for Hitchcock, but I was worried that it might not work so well for a movie about a heist - but it really couldn't have worked better! As mentioned, the plot follows Carl Metushka - a man newly released from prison. He meets up with his buddy, and it soon becomes apparent that Carl hasn't decided to stay away from the life of crime. No, he and his friend have a heist planned and we watch as they pick up a couple of people needed for the heist, and proceed to do the actual robbery...but you can't expect a plan like this to go off without a hitch. The fact that Running Time is filmed in one continuous shot means that it's very easy to get into. This is complimented by the running time, which is extremely short at just sixty five minutes, and means that the film really doesn't have time to get boring. Becker keeps things interesting with a constant flow of action, and some rather amusing dialogue, which ensures that the film constantly makes for fun viewing. One of my major reasons for seeing this film was because of the presence of B-movie maestro Bruce Campbell. Campbell has a lot of charisma, and this shines through excellently in this film. Campbell is a very handsome man, and Becker makes good use of that fact with his role here. The rest of the cast are secondary to Campbell, but good use is made of all of them, and they all give realistic performances. The film is a little preposterous as certain things, the ending especially, are a little silly -but it really doesn't matter as Josh Becker's experiment is a huge success and overall, I can't not recommend that everyone takes the time to track Running Time down!
Tight, well-made indy deserves more recognition
Made in the same all-in-one-take method that Hitchcock (who is thanked in the end credits) created for ROPE, RUNNING TIME is actually more inventive on some levels. Hitchcock shot his film on a stage at Warner Bros., but Becker's is made out in the streets of Los Angeles. Granted, Hitchcock didn't have the highly mobile, lightweight camera equipment available to Becker, but it couldn't have been easy shooting RUNNING TIME (amusing, punning title) from moving cars and on Los Angeles streets. The script is taut and well-written, and occasionally quite amusing as the hold-up men squabble amongst themselves during the robbery. The movie is also unexpectedly romantic in a tough, ultra-film-noir manner (the hero and heroine have sex before they recognize each other from high school). Becker also varies the style impressively at times, from a rock-steady, documentary-style approach at the beginning, to a more surrealistic sequence during the robbery, as the camera shifts wildly from one perspective to another. The film didn't have much theatrical distribution, and is evidently available on video only from the director, but video stores should stock it. This is one of those movies whose reputation will increase in the years to come.