Product Description

When college professor j.T. Neumeyer discovers a police file that outlines the details of his murder - which is to take place five days in the future - he wastes no time trying to save his own life. Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 08/30/2005 Starring: Timothy Hutton Kari Matchett Run time: 210 minutes Rating: Nr

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15516 in DVD
• Brand: Lions Gate
• Released on: 2004-10-12
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 255 minutes

Customer Reviews

Suspenseful, Action-Packed Science Fiction Thriller
This thrilling mini-series takes off like a rocket from the very beginning, as physics professor J.T. Neumeyer wonders how and why he received a police file apparently from the future that contains gruesome details of his own demise. According to this strange file locked inside a futuristic briefcase made of myserious materials, he has just five days before his murder to figure out what's going on. The suspense increases as little by little, Neumeyer discovers that this may not be a clever hoax, but that his very life may depend on solving and somehow preventing his murder in a very short amount of time. And with such an unusual situation, it's a challenge to know who will believe him, and who to trust. Timothy Hutton and Randy Quaid and the rest of the case are excellent in this suspenseful science fiction thriller that keeps us on the edge of our seats through all 255 minutes.

Fascinating time travel story
We all know we're going to die. It's just that J. T. Neumeyer (Timothy Hutton) knows exactly the time and place of his death. Neumeyer teaches college physics. When he and his daughter Jessie visit the grave of J.T.'s wife and Jessie's mom, a strange thing happens; a futuristic brief case with J.T.'s name on it appears out of nowhere. Inside J.T. finds a case file that appears to be quite old. It's about an unsolved murder. J.T.'s murder and he has five days to find out who wants to kill him and why.

This Sci-Fi Channel original mini-series has a lot going for it; Hutton, Randy Quaid both give solid performances as does Kari Matchett. The only actors truly wasted are Giancarlo Esposito and Nicole de Boer. This TV mini-series seemed to stretch things out a bit too long. It would have worked much better as a two hour or two and a half hour TV movie. Director Michael W. Watkins uses a number of annoyingly over used techinques to create additional suspense (such as slow motion and shooting scenes at a higher speed or eliminating frames to make the motion appear choppy).

A solid TV mini-series that would have worked better if it was cut down to two hours vs. nearly four, "5ive Days to Midnight" is still worthwhile. Although there were some fairly large plot holes, they weren't as noticeable until the pacing slowed down around the third hour. Worth a rental at least.

Great movie but watch out for some details
This movie is good, but I sort of agree with the former review. It lasts too long. You'd better watch it by parts as it was meant originally. You might not like this one if you're from the ones who need many explanations in the movies (as I do very often). However, those missing explanations will not keep you from understanding the movie's plot. I started a discussion forum so that people can guess how they would've filled those holes.
Finally, the movie's start is nothing great by itself. Anyone who likes fantasy and thrillers might have watched similar starings as in this movie. So the filmmakers added a lot of sci-fi effects, cheap but funny ones. The moved the camera in slow motion in some scenes, in others they show a lot of weird (or artistic) scenes behind the characters like mathematical symbols, nothing really creative but pretty. But the movie continues it gets more and more interesting.....otherwise I wouldn't have stayed for 4 or 5 hours!