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What Would You Do If You Knew You Only Had One Minute To Live?

This past February, Adam Sandler and his crew released a film called Just Go With It [review]. Two months later another movie came out that should have had the same title. Instead, they opted for Source Code.
Did you ever watch Quantum Leap?
No? You damn kids. You know nothing.
Actually, if there's a movie that is actually similar to this one, it's the Bill Murray comedy, Groundhog Day. What that means is we are going to find ourselves, along with the main character, reliving the same scene over and over. Murray had to get an entire day right, where our guy Jake Gyllenhaal only has to handle eight minutes.

If you've seen the preview, a lot of the surprises are revealed. In fact, the INFO button on my remote contained a decent-sized spoiler, too. C'mon, maaaan! I wasn't too upset honestly, but you might enjoy the film more if you can manage to go in completely blind (I guess it's too late for that, huh?). Oh well.

What I did flat-out enjoy was the performance of Jake Gyllenhaal. He's so damn earnest. I got a kick out of his relentless pursuit. He may have his doubts, but he simply won't let that derail the mission. And as things progress and his confidence grows, his arrogance/determination jump off the screen. Imagine knowing everything that's going to happen in the next 8 minutes and you could be pretty badass. So much so that you might land yourself a very beautiful lady-friend.

I took your advice. It was good advice, thank you.
And that, friends, brings us to the super-lovely, Michelle Monaghan. She has the unenviable task of not only saying the same lines over and over, but wearing the same clothes, too. Her character is revealed to us in 8 minute chunks, but each time she is sweet and endearing. I've pretty much been in love with her since Mission: Impossible III. 100% Fact: We both appeared in the same quickly-cancelled CBS drama. Though I'd bet you a dollar that she got more screen time than I did.

Awkward pathetic crushes aside, I really don't know what to make of this movie. Overall, I would say there are more positives than negatives, it just didn't kick my ass like I thought it would. The ending is incredibly crucial and I felt like it left me with more questions than answers. It didn't warp my fragile little mind like some flicks (Inception, anyone?), but at least it made sense in a muddled sort of way. Jeffrey Wright (who was the f**king man in Shaft) plays the architect of the whole thing and I swear every word he said was intentionally confusing. At the end of his speech I wanted to say: At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul. 

It's about to get hot in here.
What I will award points for, however... 
  • It's like a videogame. You screw up. You start over. You have infinite lives. Game on!
  • Our man Colter, is quick. His second time in, dude found what he was looking for. I would've wasted that turn trying to make out with Monaghan. At least touch a boob.
  • Jumping out of a moving train is glorious. Yep.
  • Vera Farmiga. You sexy bitch.
  • Punching someone in the face is always a good time. Unprovoked? Oh, that's a great time.  
Bottom Line: At 93 minutes, I say risk it. Come back and explain the ending to me (please). Personally, I preferred the director's other film, Moon, much more. Great ending + Multiple Sam Rockwells = Good stuff.

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